ALTURUS - Key Persons


Alexander Ip

Job Titles:
  • Operating Partner
  • Operating Partner / Consumer Products / Services
  • Vice President of Finance at MasterClass, Inc
Alex is the Vice President of Finance at MasterClass, Inc., a venture-backed startup transforming online education through video content. In his role, Alex oversees all aspects of Finance, Accounting, Treasury, Corporate Development, and IT.

Brian Hodge

Job Titles:
  • Associate
Brian Hodge is an Associate at Alturus Capital and is responsible for evaluating and executing new investment opportunities as well as supporting the firm's portfolio companies across a number of strategic initiatives. Throughout his career, Mr. Hodge has played an integral part in 7 M&A transactions involving in excess of $1.2bn in transaction value. Prior to joining Alturus, Mr. Hodge served as an Investment Banking Associate at Stephens Inc. where he worked on mergers and acquisitions across a variety of industries. Mr. Hodge received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, magna cum laude, from Baylor University.

Chad D. Hufsey - Founder, President

Job Titles:
  • Co - Founder
  • President
  • Co - Founder and President of Alturus Capital and Manages All Aspects
Chad D. Hufsey is the Co-Founder and President of Alturus Capital and manages all aspects of the firm's investment, operational and fundraising activity. Throughout his career, Mr. Hufsey has played an integral part in over 30 M&A transactions involving in excess of $6.0bn in transaction value. Mr. Hufsey currently serves on the Board and is actively involved with the firm's investments in Dialexa, Reliance Aircraft International, Imagine Solutions, Baseline Energy Services, Timberline Gas, and 1-800-Medigap. Prior to co-founding Alturus, Mr. Hufsey was a senior member of the investment team at Brazos Private Equity Partners, a middle market private equity firm with $1.4 billion of capital under management, focused on the industrial, consumer, healthcare, and business services industries. At Brazos, he was responsible for sourcing, evaluating, structuring and executing investment opportunities; portfolio company monitoring; and transaction exits and monetizations. Additionally, Mr. Hufsey worked closely with Brazos' portfolio companies on such activities as financings, strategy development, and evaluating and executing merger, acquisition and divestiture opportunities.

Dennis Dunn

Job Titles:
  • Operating Partner
Dennis previously served as Managing Director of Carlisle Enterprises, LLC, a San Diego-based private equity firm comprised primarily of former Fortune 500 operating executives. During his 21-year tenure at Carlisle, the firm acquired or invested in over 75 companies with aggregate revenues of over $5.0 billion. Dennis was actively involved in all phases of Carlisle's acquisition program, which primarily targeted industrial middle and lower middle-market companies, including several aerospace sector companies. Mr. Dunn also served as an Associate with McKinsey & Company, and holds a B.S. in Administrative Science from Yale and a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford Business School.

Don Fitzgibbons

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board
  • Principal
Don Fitzgibbons is principal and board member at Alturus as well as the chief financial officer of The Albany Group, and a certified public accountant. Mr. Fitzgibbons has served as chief financial officer for Jones Company, Ltd. and Van Operating Ltd. in addition to serving roles in risk management, human resources and tax/accounting advising. Mr. Fitzgibbons has over 25 years of experience in evaluating, negotiating, and initiating investments, and previously served as chairman on investment committees for foundations and endowments, in addition to serving on Limited Partner Advisory Committees for multiple private equity funds. Mr. Fitzgibbons holds a BBA in accounting from Abilene Christian University.

Jacob B. Jones - Founder, Managing Director

Job Titles:
  • Co - Founder
  • Managing Director
Jacob B. Jones is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Alturus Capital and is actively involved in all aspects of the firm's investment, operational and fundraising activity. Throughout his career, Mr. Jones has played an integral part in over 30 M&A and capital markets transactions involving in excess of $5.5bn in transaction value. Mr. Jones currently serves on the Board and is actively involved with the firm's investments in Dialexa, Hargett Hunter, Baseline Energy Services, Timberline Gas, and TerraNavigator. In addition to his active role at Alturus, Mr. Jones co-manages the assets and operations of The Albany Group focused on oil and gas partnerships, direct private equity investments, and a diversified portfolio of public and private managed accounts. Mr. Jones is responsible for sourcing new investment opportunities, due diligence, and monitoring existing investments. Prior to joining The Albany Group, Mr. Jones was at Quantum Energy Partners, a leading energy-focused private equity firm with over $6.5 billion of capital under management. Mr. Jones began his career as a financial analyst in the investment banking division at Deutsche Bank where he focused on structured products. Mr. Jones received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Georgetown University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.

Jonathan Grzyb

Job Titles:
  • Operating Partner
  • Chief Executive Officer of Conrex
  • Operating Partner / Financial Services
Mr. Grzyb is the Chief Executive Officer of Conrex. Previously, as President of Multifamily Investments at Corigin Real Estate Group, Mr. Grzyb led the firms property management, student housing, and multifamily operations. Prior to Corigin, Mr. Grzyb was an officer in the United States Coast Guard where he served in operational and staff positions based out of Miami, FL and Washington, DC. Mr. Grzyb holds a Bachelor in Science with high honors from the United States Coast Guard Academy and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Neal S. Robinson

Job Titles:
  • Principal
Neal S. Robinson is the Principal at Alturus Capital and is responsible for originating, evaluating, and executing new investment opportunities as well as supporting the firm's portfolio companies across a number of strategic initiatives. Throughout his career, Mr. Robinson has been on deal teams that completed over 20 M&A and capital transactions involving in excess of $20.0bn in transaction value. Prior to joining Alturus, Mr. Robinson served as an investment professional with Ardenton Capital where he focused on new investments in middle market businesses and helped start the firm's Dallas office. Before Ardenton, Mr. Robinson was an investment professional with The Stagwell Group, a $250 million fund focused on marketing and business services companies, and The Carlyle Group, where he focused on buyout and growth equity investments in technology businesses out of the firm's flagship $13.0 billion US Buyout fund. Mr. Robinson began his career as an analyst at McColl Partners (nka Deloitte Corporate Finance), an investment bank providing M&A and capital markets advisory services to middle-market business across a variety of industries. Mr. Robinson received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, magna cum laude, from Baylor University where he was a member of the Men's Golf team.

Scott Harper

Job Titles:
  • Operating Partner
  • Chairman of Vinli
Scott Harper is a technology entrepreneur with an engineering and finance background and extensive experience in sales, product strategy, product development, operations and marketing. He has been a founder of several companies and worked in several early stage companies ranging from banking to consumer web to enterprise software. Scott has the unique ability to bridge the gap between business and engineering in product development. Scott and Mark Haidar founded Dialexa in 2010, a global product-focused technology consultancy firm upon recognizing a huge market demand for innovative and scalable technology solutions. As the CEO of Dialexa, Scott spearheads operations, corporate strategy and partnerships, and local and international growth, as well as overseeing operations for Dialexa Labs - Dialexa's internal innovation and development engine. Dialexa offerings research, design, and engineering offerings create integrated solutions that enable strategic capabilities in our client's value chain. Examples include intelligence & insights, pricing optimization/revenue management, prospect to cash, subscription management, online marketplace, telematics. Dialexa's clients range from entrepreneurs looking to reduce technical risk and time to market, to publicly traded companies looking to bring in a team that can quickly execute products that may be beyond the abilities of their internal teams. Under Scott's leadership Dialexa has continued to achieve year on year revenue and employee growth, doubling its office footprint in Dallas' East Quarterin early 2019. In 2016 Scott was recognized by Ernst & Young with the EY Emerging Technology Entrepreneurs Of The Year® award. This awards program identifies those who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance, and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Dialexa has also been recognized by Entrepreneur.com as one of the top entrepreneurial companies in America for multiple years in a row. More recently, Scott has been recognized by Dallas Business Journal's 40 Under 40 2018 awards, and Dialexa as one of the top Digital Experience Service Providers in North America by independent analyst firm Forrester. Along with running Dialexa, Scott is the Chairman of Vinli, a founding investor and board member of Rosy Wellness, and sat on the board of Robin Technologies - all companies born out of Dialexa's incubator, Dialexa Labs. Scott is very involved in the technology community in Dallas. Currently, Scott serves on the board of the Dallas chapter of YPO (Young Presidents Organization). He previously served on the Mayor's Connect Council for Developing a Digital Strategy for the City of Dallas, as a two term board member and marketing chair of the DFW Chapter of TeXchange, a founding organizer of Digital Dallas, a founding organizer of Dallas Idea Week surrounding TEDx SMU, and an organizer of the Dallas Facebook Developers Garage. Prior to founding Dialexa, Scott joined 2GO Software Solutions Inc., a software-as-a-service enterprise mobile software platform for companies with field operations and logistics applications, as their Chief Operating Officer. As COO, Scott spearheaded 2GO's internal operational efforts including inter-departmental communication, sales process development, marketing, process optimization and account management. In addition, Scott worked hand-in-hand with engineering in product development to manage the progression of the products in order to exceed customer expectations. He was instrumental in the turnaround of 2GO's product lines and operations from a fragile to a successfully funded company that was chosen as the 2010 Honeywell Scanning and Mobility ISV partner of the Year. Scott has a Mechanical Engineering Degree with a Biomedical Specialization from Southern Methodist University. He is also a level 2 CFA candidate.

Tim Berry

Job Titles:
  • Operating Partner
  • Founder, President and CEO of Pennybacker Capital
  • Operating Partner / Real Estate Services
Mr. Berry is the Founder, President and CEO of Pennybacker Capital, LLC, a real estate private equity firm he founded in 2006. Pennybacker has sponsored four discretionary real estate private equity funds within its value strategy, as well as joint ventures and syndicated investments within its credit and income and growth strategies. Mr. Berry is the Chairman of the investment committee for each strategy. The firm has offices in Austin, TX, Denver, CO and New York, NY. Mr. Berry holds dual MBAs from Columbia Business School and London Business School. He completed his undergraduate studies in Accounting at the University of Houston and earned a Master's degree in Professional Accounting from McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. Mr. Berry is a member of the Pension Real Estate Association, Columbia Business School Real Estate Circle, Young Presidents' Organization, Forbes Real Estate Council, and is the Chair of the Executive Council of the Real Estate Finance and Investment Center at the University of Texas at Austin. He also previously served on the Small Scale Development Council of the Urban Land Institute.

Will Robinson

Job Titles:
  • Operating Partner
Prior to joining Alturus, Mr. Robinson held several executive management positions at Research Now, the largest market research data company with over 3,000 clients in 40+ countries. While at Research Now, Mr. Robinson led the company's global product development teams and pioneered the use of automated research and integrated data within the industry. Research Now was acquired by Court Square Capital Partners in 2015. Prior to Research Now, Mr. Robinson was an investment professional at The Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest and most successful investment firms. Mr. Robinson helped source, diligence, and manage technology and business services investments on behalf of the firm's $14 billion US buyout fund. He also worked closely with Carlyle's portfolio companies to execute various financial and strategic initiatives. Mr. Robinson began his career in the investment banking division of J.P. Morgan. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Baylor University, where he was a Carr P. Collins Scholar.

Will Tucker

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board
  • Principal
Will Tucker is a principal and board member at Alturus, co-manages the assets of The Albany Group, president of Tucker Resources, chairmen of Scott Tucker Construction, a certified geologist, and a Texas certified classroom teacher. Mr. Tucker holds a BS in Geology from Hardin-Simmons University, is a graduate of the Teacher Certification Program at Midwestern State University and is a current candidate for a Masters of Environmental Management degree at Western Colorado University.