A-STREET - Key Persons
Ali Nuger - COO, Managing Director
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Managing Director
- Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director at a - Street
Ali Nuger is the Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director at A-Street. Ali oversees all of A-Street's operations, finances, talent, recruiting, and long-term business strategy. Ali spent her career working in the consulting industry. Before beginning her work with A-Street, Ali served as the COO of the Boston Office of Bain & Company, where she also spent seven years in client-facing roles serving clients in the private equity and retail industries. Ali also worked as a Manager at The Bridgespan Group, a management consulting firm that works exclusively with nonprofits, NGOs, philanthropic donors, and impact investors.
Ali received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, and her MBA from Harvard Business School where she graduated with distinction. Outside of work, Ali serves on the Board and Chairs the Development Committee of Boston Collegiate Charter School, a leading charter school based in Boston. Ali also is a Trustee of Horizons Greater Boston. Ali lives outside of Boston with her husband and two young children.
Job Titles:
- Investment Committee
- Senior Family Advisor
Buddy Philpot is Senior Family Advisor on the Walton Enterprises team, where he transitioned to in 2016 after serving as Executive Director of the Walton Family Foundation for over 15 years. He joined the Foundation in 2001 after working for 20 years in commercial banking, the last 13 years with the Walton Family owned Arvest Bank Group where he was on the founding team and served as President of Arvest Bank Springdale. He continues to serve the bank as a member of the Board of Directors and on the Executive Loan Committee.
Buddy has a BSBA in Finance and Banking from the University of Arkansas and a Graduate Degree in Banking from the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at SMU. He has been very active in national and community non-profit leadership currently serving as a Director of Heartland Forward, a Director of the Equitable Facilities Fund, a Director of the Building Charters Fund, a member of the Northwest Arkansas Council and on the Finance Council at St. Joseph's Catholic Church. Buddy has been active in many other Northwest Arkansas organizations, including being a founding Board Member of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Camp War Eagle, Endeavor Foundation and The Jones Center for Families.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Investment Committee
Chad partners with A-Street. In 2006 Chad and Eleanor founded SimpliSafe, a DIY home security company which has grown into one of the country's largest. Today the company proudly protects millions of Americans and employs a thousand team members. After a growth equity investment from Sequoia Capital in 2014, Hellman & Friedman acquired a majority stake in the company in 2018.
Chad served as the CEO until 2020, overseeing all facets of the company's growth, including engineering, product development, supply chain management, contract manufacturing, direct marketing, brand building, operations, and finance. An electrical engineer by training, he also personally developed significant portions of the SimpliSafe product and backend systems. Chad currently serves as Chairman of the Board.
Chris is a longtime venture capital / growth equity investor. He currently sits on the board of directors of Vinyl Me Please and Voxy. He is a co-founder and former COO/CFO at Galvanize where he raised over $85 million of capital and grew the business to $50 mm in annual revenue. Galvanize was acquired for $200 mm by K12 Education (NYSE:LRN)
Chris also co-founded and managed the Galvanize Venture Fund where he led seed investments in 50+ companies (Self Financial, Billie, Genies, Stream, Jumpcloud, Testlio, RxRevu, Rachio, etc.). Recent personal investments include PlayerLync, Artifact Uprising, Elevation Connect and Meazure / ProctorU (subsequent majority recap led by Gryphon Investors.
Prior to co-founding Galvanize, Chris was a partner with Appian Ventures where he worked with Ping Identity (acquired for $650 mm by Vista Equity Partners), mPay Gateway (acquired by Payspan), T3 Media, Uplight (acquired by Rubicon for $1 bb+), and Auctionpay (acquired by Global Payments). Earlier in his career, he had the privilege of working with Broadbus Technologies (acquired by Motorola) and Datalogix (acquired by Oracle for $1.2 billion.) Chris is also an investor in Bullet Time Ventures (Uber, Sendgrid, Twilio, Simply Measured). He served on the board of directors of Spex and led the company through its sale / majority investment from J.S. Held.
Chris spent four years with LEK Consulting, an international strategy consulting boutique, before relocating to Colorado. Chris speaks often about entrepreneurial finance at both Denver University's Daniels College of Business and the Leeds College of Business at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is past Chairman of the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association, and a co-founder of the Associates Board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado. Chris holds a B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University, Phi Beta Kappa.
Job Titles:
- Associate General Counsel & WIT General Counsel
- Associate General Counsel for Walton Enterprises
Dele Butler is Associate General Counsel for Walton Enterprises and WIT General Counsel with over 11 years of experience optimizing multi-billion dollar business investments and performance across diverse industries. Effectively leads with intelligence, interpersonal awareness, and the innate ability to create long-term solutions for the most complex business needs. Applies mastery of private equity, venture capital, real estate funds, and nonprofit organizations to acquire measurable achievement and optimum success for every client. An exceptional writer specializing in high-level policy creation and contract drafting. Creatively negotiates contracts securing mutually beneficial bottom lines for all involved parties.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Investment Committee
Eleanor partners with A-Street and sits on the board of Coursello. In 2006 Chad and Eleanor founded SimpliSafe, a DIY home security company which has grown into one of the country's largest. Today the company proudly protects millions of Americans and employs a thousand team members. After a growth equity investment from Sequoia Capital in 2014, Hellman & Friedman acquired a majority stake in the company in 2018.
Eleanor led strategy for the company for its first 13 years and continues to serve on its board. In addition, Eleanor has worked extensively in education, most recently as the CFO for the Boston Public Schools, where she oversaw the district's $1.4B budget. She also spent eight years in the education practice of the Parthenon Group, working with districts, foundations, investors, and institutions of higher education. Eleanor is currently a member of the faculty at Harvard Business School where she teaches strategy to first year students.
Job Titles:
- Investor
- Managing Director
- Investment Committee
Eliza Erikson is a veteran impact investor with 20 years of experience across a range of financing instruments - debt, venture capital, and private equity - and industries - education and edtech, financial services and fintech, housing, renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. She has worked across the U.S. and emerging markets in both investment and operating roles, including co-founding a global financial services company, MfX Solutions, whose board she chaired for 5 years. MfX Solutions is one of the first global platforms enabling the management of emerging market currency risk, which has facilitated more than $4 billion in financing across more than 45 currencies.
Eliza Erikson is currently a managing director on the Walton Investment Team at Walton Enterprises, Inc., a family office, where she focuses on impact investing and leads a team and platform operating across asset classes, strategies and portfolios. Previously, Eliza was an investment partner at Omidyar Network, where she led the firm's global strategy and investments in education technology, in addition to some global investments in financial inclusion and technology. She served on the firm's investment committee and boards of portfolio companies LearnZillion, Geekie, VidaTec, and Blended.
Before joining Omidyar Network in fall 2011, Eliza was the chief lending and investment officer at Calvert Impact Capital, where she was responsible for the management and growth of the fund and its subsidiaries' more than $500 million in assets under management.
Earlier in her career, Eliza worked with the Corporation for Enterprise Development and the U.S. Agency for International Development, providing management consulting and investment services to development finance institutions in the United States, Latin America, South Asia, and North Africa.
Eliza holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton University, where she graduated magna cum laude, and a masters' degree in public policy, with concentrations in finance and program evaluation, from Harvard University.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Managing Director of a - Street
Emily McGinty is a Managing Director of A-Street. Prior to A-Street, Emily was a Director at TA Associates where she spent more than a decade investing in and working with private growth companies. Previously, she was an investment banking analyst at J.P. Morgan. Emily currently sits on the boards of Behavioral Health Works, Healix and Navia Benefit Solutions and formerly served on the Head's Council for Hathaway Brown School.
Emily received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Boston College, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude, and her MBA from Stanford Business School. Emily lives in Menlo Park.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Investment Committee
- Advisor at a - Street
- Co - Founder and CEO of Coursello
Eric Westendorf is the co-founder and CEO of Coursello, an edtech company that provides high-quality online courses to schools and districts. Eric is the former co-founder and CEO of LearnZillion, a curriculum company that provides the highest quality curriculum in a digital-first format. Eric sold LearnZillion to Weld North Education (now Imagine Learning) in December of 2019.
Coursello and LearnZillion grew out of Eric's lifelong interest in the design of learning experiences. That focus animated his work as principal and Chief Academic Officer at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., as Assistant Principal of St. Joseph's School in Harlem, and as a teacher in North Carolina, New York, and Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Eric is an advisor at A-Street, a Pahara-Aspen fellow and board member of E.L. Haynes Public Charter School and Kindred. He holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton University, a Master's degree in Teaching from Brown University, and a master's degree in Business Administration from Stanford University.
Hannah Clark joined A-Street in October 2021, where she currently supports the managing partners and leadership team. Prior to A-Street, Hannah worked for Procter & Gamble as an executive assistant to the Vice President of the Sam's Club business for North America and played an integral role in team building and sitewide culture in Northwest Arkansas. Prior to P&G, Hannah worked in retail merchandising and banking, for companies including Walmart Inc., Gap Inc. & Arvest Bank.
Hannah holds a B.S. in International Business from the University of Arkansas Walton College of Business, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Hannah resides in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with her husband, Will, and their three children, Charlie, Mary Elizabeth, and Ruth, and enjoys being active in her community and local schools.
Jamie supports A-Street as an operations consultant. Prior to this role, Jamie worked on the Education team at the Walton Family Foundation as the K12 Manager of Planning, Talent and Operations.
Jamie began her career as a middle school English Language Arts teacher in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn as a Teach For America corps member. Through this experience, Jamie saw that instilling a love of reading and achievement in her students was only one piece of a complex puzzle. She began to crowdsource funding for trips and resources for her students so that they could see opportunities outside of the pages they read. This led to a passion for operations, and she worked her way from an operations associate to the founding director of operations at an independent charter school in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Jamie holds a B.A. in Journalism and a B.A. with honors in History from The George Washington University and a M.S.T. in Adolescent Education from Pace University.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Investment Committee
- Independent Consultant
Joanne Weiss is an independent consultant to organizations on education policies, programs, and technologies, with a focus on driving systems-level education change through high-impact policymaking, grantmaking, and investing. Her current work centers on improving the academic core in K-12 schools through standards, curriculum, assessment, professional learning, and equity. She works primarily with state policymakers, national nonprofit service providers, foundations, curriculum developers, and school systems.
From 2009-2013, she served in the Obama Administration as chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and director of the federal Race to the Top program. Prior to that, Joanne was the Chief Operating Officer and Managing Partner at NewSchools Venture Fund. She began her career in ed tech - first leading curriculum R&D, then leading companies that pioneered technology-based approaches to solving teaching and learning challenges in K-12 and higher education. Joanne is an Expert-in-Residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab; a Fellow for Georgetown University's FutureEd; a Senior Distinguished Fellow for the Education Commission of the States; a Trustee for the National Council on Education and the Economy; a Director of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools; a former visiting professor in education policy at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School; and a fellow in the inaugural cohort of the Aspen/Pahara Education Leadership Fellowship. She holds a degree in biochemistry from Princeton University and lives with her husband in Washington, D.C. For more information, see www.weissassociates.net.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Investment Committee
John serves as a strategic advisor to entrepreneurs, policymakers, and philanthropists, including the Walton Family Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. John served as a domestic policy advisor in the White House where he coordinated the federal response to provide liquidity and stability for nearly $200 billion of student loans during the credit crisis. As the director of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology he oversaw more than $1 billion in federal grants and research projects. John served as Deputy Policy Director to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce where he worked on policies related to technology, immigration, and innovation. He also participated in the development of the nation's first pandemic preparedness strategy. John previously served as Pennsylvania's first Director of Educational Technology, co-founded the strategic advisory firm Whiteboard Advisors, was a senior program officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and served as the VP of Policy for the Foundation for Excellence in Education.
John serves on advisory boards for the Aspen Institute's Future of Work, Pope Francis' Scholas Initiative, the Tech Talent Project, COVID Collaborative, the Bush Institute, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and TechStars. He is on the board of directors for Zearn Math.
Marc Sternberg - Founder, Managing Director
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Managing Director
- Co - Founder and Managing Director of a - Street
Marc Sternberg is Co-Founder and Managing Director of A-Street. Marc currently serves on the board of Great Minds. Prior to launching A-Street, Marc served as K-12 Program Director at the Walton Family Foundation where he led the foundation's initiatives to improve elementary and secondary education for all of our nation's children by empowering parents with quality options. Marc previously served as Senior Deputy Chancellor at the New York City Department of Education and education advisor on policy and strategy to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
Meredith Sagara joined A-Street in July 2022 and provides support to the Managing Directors and leadership team. Prior to joining, Meredith worked for the City and County of Denver where she supported outreach and assistance to the city's underserved neighborhoods by providing funding and resources to its residents and businesses. After graduating college, she was an English language teacher both abroad and locally for students of all ages and has a strong background in interpersonal and cross-cultural communication.
As a Colorado native, Meredith is an avid hiker, camper, and snowboarder. In her free time, she volunteers to help build and maintain the iconic trails in her home state.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Managing Director at a - Street
Mora is a Managing Director at A-Street. She is also the co-founder of Leading Now, an initiative to help school superintendents navigate politically-charged environments in order to serve all of their students. Mora is a board member of the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, Open Up Resources, and America Achieves; and is the advisory board chair of the Eli and Phyllis Segal Citizen Leadership Program.
Previously, Mora was the CEO of Achievement Network (ANet), an organization dedicated to ensuring students in marginalized communities have access to meaningful, high quality instruction. Over the course of her ten years leading the organization, ANet supported thousands of K-12 schools and systems nationwide with data-driven instruction, instructional leadership coaching, and the implementation of curriculum, assessment and professional learning systems. Mora led the organization's growth from a budget of $9M serving 60,000 students in 5 states to $32M reaching 350,000 students in 29 states, while deepening its impact for students. Her organization was recognized multiple times by the Nonprofit Times as one of the best places to work.
Prior to ANet, Mora held leadership roles at College Summit (now PeerForward) and SchoolSports (which became ESPN-Rise). She is a proud AmeriCorps alumna, and served as a Coro Foundation Fellow and a Pahara-Aspen Fellow. Mora received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BA from Yale University. She resides in Newton, MA with her husband and two daughters.
Job Titles:
- Senior Investment Analyst at a - Street
Niklas is a Senior Investment Analyst at A-Street where he works on diligence and research and supports portfolio companies. Prior to joining A-Street, Niklas worked in early-stage venture at BMNT where he focused on market research, sourcing, and diligence for enterprise software startups. He began his career at StartX working with student founders.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Former CEO
- Managing Director
Paymon Rouhanifard is a Managing Director at A-Street. He was a co-founder and former CEO of Propel America, a nonprofit that helps young adults get a good job in healthcare that leads to career mobility.
Previously, he served as the superintendent of Camden, New Jersey from 2013 to 2018 where he helped lead improvements in student outcomes, reductions in out-of-school suspensions, stronger family engagement, and critical capital investments in school facilities.
Rouhanifard started his career in New York City as a 6th grade teacher in West Harlem and went on to work in the central office of the New York City Department of Education. Prior to that, Rouhanifard worked as an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs and a private equity associate at AEA Investors.
He serves as an appointed member of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and a guest lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School. Paymon holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Investment Committee
- Chief Technology Officer ( CTO ) at Accela
Renato Mascardo brings more than 20+ years of experience leading technology organizations and has extensive experience taking enterprise, consumer and government products to market, including widely used cloud platforms, commerce and mobile products.
Renato is currently the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Accela responsible for overseeing the company's engineering, cloud, and IT operations. Accela is an industry leader in designing and delivering government software to improve efficiency, increase citizen engagement and enable the development of thriving communities. Prior to joining the team at Accela, he served as CTO at Recurly, a SaaS FinTech market leader in subscription billing management, where he was responsible for all technical aspects of the business and contributed to significant growth of the organization, sales, total payment volume and platform foundation.
He has had proven success leading technology teams for iconic Silicon Valley companies including Rosetta Stone, Atari, Digital Globe, Hewlett-Packard, Mercury Interactive and Borland Software. Renato holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Richmond.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Senior Investment Analyst at a - Street
Richard Fordwor is a Senior Investment Analyst at A-Street and supports the team in its research, analysis and deal sourcing efforts. Before A-Street, Richard worked as an Investment Banking Associate at Ferghana Partners, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, licensing, and private placement deals for companies in the healthcare sector.
Outside of A-Street, Richard is the Co-Founder of a medical services non-profit organization based in his home country of Ghana. The organization, Generational Health Foundation, aims to improve access to surgical care in Ghana's rural and most vulnerable communities.
Richard holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Job Titles:
- Senior Investment Analyst at a - Street
Sebastian Gonzalez is a Senior Investment Analyst at A-Street supporting the team in its research, analysis, due diligence and deal sourcing efforts. Before A-Street, Sebastian worked as a Consultant at The Bridgespan Group, where he worked with impact investors, philanthropists and non-profits on strategy projects. Sebastian also previously worked at Acumen as a Portfolio Associate, where he conducted due diligence on investments in the healthcare, financial inclusion and workforce sectors. Sebastian has worked with many impact investors helping them articulate their impact and make deals.
Outside of A-Street, Sebastian has served on the Associate Board of the Enjoyable Pain of Growth Academy, a non-profit focused on delivering professional coaching services to 8th and 9th graders, and as a Grant Evaluator for the Catalyze Challenge, a grant competition for innovative ideas in the education to workforce space.
Sebastian graduated from Rice University with a double major Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Sport Management.
Tom Kuo - Founder, Managing Director
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Managing Director
- Co - Founder and Managing Director at a - Street
Tom is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at A-Street. Prior to A-Street, Tom was a Managing Director at Berkshire Partners and an investor at General Atlantic and Goldman Sachs. Tom serves on the board of Great Minds. Tom chairs the boards of Teach for America Massachusetts and Mighty Earth, a leading environmental advocacy group. He is an Advisor to Gratitude Railroad, an impact investment community and Climate Finance Action, an advocacy effort focused on state treasury decision makers. Tom is also a Trustee of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and serves on the board of the Community Music Center of Boston. Tom is passionate about companies and platforms that help to achieve a more equitable, just society and a sustainable future.