SDC CAPITAL PARTNERS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate at SDC
Aaron Kirsch is a Senior Associate at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Aaron was an Analyst in the Technology group at Barclays. During his tenure as an investment banker, Aaron executed a variety of M&A, debt and equity transactions, with a focus on the Software, Semiconductors, and Communications Technology verticals.
Aaron holds a M.S. and B.S. in Accounting from the University of Missouri.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate at SDC
Akwugo Nnama is a Senior Associate at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Akwugo was an Associate in the Energy Group at J.P. Morgan. During her tenure as an investment banker, she executed a variety of M&A, debt and equity transactions. Prior to J.P. Morgan, she worked at Guidehouse as a Senior Consultant in the Energy Technology Management, and Policy Group.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Senior Advisor at SDC
Alexander is a Senior Advisor at SDC. Alexander most recently served as Global Joint Head of the Media, Communications & Information Services investment banking group at Jefferies. Alexander spent 14 years as an investment banker at Jefferies focused on the telecom and technology sectors, with a particular focus on IT and communications infrastructure. He sourced and executed over $20 billion of M&A, debt and equity transactions globally within the last six years.
Prior to Jefferies, Alexander spent four years with Booz Allen Hamilton advising telecom and technology companies globally on strategic and operational issues, as well as conducting due diligence on behalf of Innovate@, a joint venture between Lehman Brothers and Booz Allen Hamilton. Prior to Booz Allen Hamilton, Alexander spent two years at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting where he designed, implemented and managed all aspects of various data centers and networks for U.S. federal government and military clients. Previously, Alexander held a Top Secret SSBI security clearance.
Alexander has an MBA from INSEAD, an MS in IT / Telecommunications from Johns Hopkins University and a BBA from James Madison University.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate at SDC
Andrew Gallagher is a Senior Associate at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Andrew was an Analyst in the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) group at Guggenheim Securities. During his tenure as an investment banker, Andrew executed a variety of M&A, debt and equity transactions in the TMT sector, with a focus on the Technology and Telecommunications Infrastructure space.
Andrew holds a B.S. in Commerce from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia with concentrations in Finance and Accounting.
Job Titles:
- Head of Capital Markets at SDC
Christine Shin is Head of Capital Markets at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Christine spent most of her career in real estate investment banking, including nearly a decade at Wells Fargo, where she most recently served as Head of Balance Sheet Screening in Multifamily Capital and prior to that, focused on CMBS and balance sheet originations in Real Estate Capital Markets. Christine started her finance career as a consultant at Townhouse Partners and worked at J.P. Morgan and Barclays.
Christine graduated from University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Biological Basis of Behavior and Health Care Management and subsequently pursued a neuroimaging fellowship at Yale and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Clinton Karcher is a Partner at SDC. He has over 16 years of experience investing in and advising companies in the internet infrastructure and communications sectors. Clinton led numerous SDC portfolio company investments, add-on acquisitions and financings with an emphasis on the fiber and broadband sectors. Clinton currently serves on the board of Allo Communications, IQ Fiber and Smartaira and previously served on the board of Fatbeam. Previously, Clinton was an investment banker with RBC Capital Markets, Stifel Nicolaus and Signal Hill Capital Group where he executed over $20 billion of mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financing transactions for data center, fiber and technology service clients.
Clinton earned a B.S. in Commerce from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant
- Administrative Assistant at SDC
Damiana Caban is an Administrative Assistant at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Damiana was an Office Manager at Inspirica, a one-on-one tutoring and test preparation firm. Prior to Inspirica, Damiana spent 5 years working at Olivier Cheng Catering where she managed office operations.
Damiana holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Manhattan College.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate at SDC
Danny Kim is a Senior Associate at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Danny was an Associate in the Generalist Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Centerview Partners. Prior to Centerview Partners, Danny was an Analyst in the Communications, Media and Entertainment group at RBC Capital Markets. During his tenure as an investment banker, Danny executed M&A, debt and equity transactions across a variety of sectors.
Danny holds a B.A. in Economics-Mathematics from Columbia University.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Principal at SDC
David Fiedler is a Principal at SDC. David most recently served as Head of Physical Infrastructure at Dropbox where he was responsible for the acquisition, design, and operation of the company's datacenter portfolio.
Prior to joining Dropbox, David was the Director of Technology at Modular Power Solutions, where he was responsible for leading research and development in the application of modular power distribution for the datacenter industry. Prior to Modular Power Solutions, David was a Senior Consultant at Hewlett-Packard, where he counseled clients on planning their business growth and corresponding IT expansions in both domestic and international markets. David started his career as an Electrical Engineer at Page Southerland Page designing and commissioning datacenters.
David received his BSE from Duke University in Biomedical Engineering and is a licensed professional engineer.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Associate at SDC
David Fleischer is an Associate at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, David was an Analyst in the Global Energy Group at Moelis & Co. During his tenure as an investment banker, David executed a variety of M&A, debt and equity transactions with a focus on the traditional and alternative energy sectors.
David holds a M.P.A. and B.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin.
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner
- Managing Partner of SDC
Doug Kaden is a Managing Partner of SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Doug co-founded Varagon Capital Partners, a middle market credit platform. From launch in 2014 to a strategic sale at the end of 2019, Varagon invested $15 billion in 180 companies with no credit losses or material impairments. From 1997 to 1999 and 2001 to 2019, Doug was with Oak Hill Capital Partners. As his career progressed from the most junior investment position, he led or co-led at various times Oak Hill's Technology, Financial Services and Aerospace sectors. He was a Partner, a member of the Executive Committee, a member of the Investment Committee and a founding member of the ESG Committee. Doug served on the board of many public and private Oak Hill portfolio companies. He transitioned to a senior advisor role in 2016. Prior to joining Oak Hill, Doug worked for James D. Wolfensohn, Inc., a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm.
Doug earned an A.B. degree from Harvard University, an M. Phil from Cambridge University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Doug serves as a director and chair of the nominating and strategic planning committees of Youth INC, a non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of New York City children.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate at SDC
Griffin Small is a Senior Associate at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Griffin was an Associate in the Communications, Media and Technology Group at TD Securities where he began his career as an Analyst. During his tenure as an investment banker Griffin executed a variety of M&A, debt and equity transactions with a focus on the digital infrastructure sectors.
Griffin holds a B.A. in Government and Economics from Hamilton College.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Controller
- Assistant Controller at SDC
Iris Kuo is an Assistant Controller at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Iris was a Senior Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Asset and Wealth Management practice focusing on the audits of alternative investment clients.
Iris earned her M.S. and B.S. in Accounting from SUNY Binghamton, and is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the State of New York.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Associate at SDC
Jack Miller is an Associate at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Jack was an Associate in the Financial Sponsors Group at Barclays. During his tenure at Barclays, Jack executed a variety of M&A, debt and equity transactions across a variety of sectors.
Jack holds a B.A. in Economics from Vanderbilt University.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Design and Development, EMEA for SDC
Jameel is a Vice President of Design and Development, EMEA for SDC and brings over 16 years of extensive experience in engineering and technical project management in the data center industry. Jameel spent the last three and a half years at Yondr Group where he led site selection technical & environmental due diligence, master planning and design delivery. He was also involved in development of Yondr's standard design product and end-to-end project delivery process and governance. Before Yondr, he spent eight years with Equinix as the EMEA Senior Engineering Manager, leading numerous engineering projects from inception to handover as well as energy efficiency initiatives for live sites. Earlier in his career, Jameel worked for RED Engineering Design, HP Critical Facilities Services, and EYP Mission Critical Facilities developing a deep understanding of infrastructure and design delivery in data centers.
Jameel graduated with a BEng Hons in Mechanical Engineering from Kingston University.
Job Titles:
- Associate General Counsel
- Associate General Counsel at SDC
Jessica Batlle Welling is Associate General Counsel at SDC. Prior to joining the company, Jessica was an Associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where she was a member of the firm's M&A and Latin America groups and supported a variety of clients in a range of transactions and investments, including acquisitions, divestitures, corporate finance, general governance issues and other corporate matters.
Jessica holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and received her J.D. from Columbia Law School. Jessica is a member of the New York State Bar.
Joe Livsey is a Senior Associate at SDC Capital Partners and is responsible for supporting the development and engineering of critical infrastructure assets within the SDC portfolio. Joe most recently served as a Systems Engineer at Schneider Electric where he was responsible for supporting critical equipment solutions for the cloud and colocation data center and telecom segments.
Prior to Schneider Electric, Joe was a Senior Project Engineer at WeWork where he was responsible for supporting infrastructure designs for Fortune 100 clients within the company portfolio. Prior to WeWork, Joe was a Design Engineer and Project Manager at Syska Hennessy Group, focusing on data center assets ranging from small equipment upgrades to large greenfield multinational deployments.
Joe holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Binghamton University and is a Licensed Professional Engineer.
Jonna Duff is an Executive Assistant at SDC Capital Partners. Prior to joining SDC, she was a Senior Executive Assistant at Emerson Electric, a Fortune 500 manufacturing and solutions company. Jonna also has more than 20 years of experience supporting C-Suite executives in Private Equity (Apax Partners LLP and American Securities, LLC).
Jonna holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Connecticut.
Josh Barenbaum joined SDC as a Partner and is responsible for capital formation and investor relations activities at the firm. Prior to joining SDC, Josh was a Partner at Eaton Partners, where he co-managed Eaton's private equity fundraising activities across North America. Prior to joining Eaton Partners, Josh worked at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors and Versa Capital Management executing direct investments. Prior to Versa Capital, Josh worked in investment banking at Merrill Lynch.
Joshua Kurtz - CFO, Chief Compliance Officer
Job Titles:
- Chief Compliance Officer
- Chief Financial Officer
Joshua is the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer of SDC. Prior to joining the company, Joshua was the Controller at Healthcare Royalty Partners ("HCR") where his primary responsibilities included accounting, tax and financial reporting for multiple investment funds. Prior to joining HCR, Joshua was a Fund Accounting Manager at Chilton Investment Company, where he was a team leader within the group and managed all aspects of the fund accounting functions. Before joining Chilton, Joshua worked at Cowen Investment Management (formerly Ramius), where he served as a Vice President within the accounting group. Prior to Ramius, Joshua was a Senior Accountant in the Audit & Assurance - Investment Management Services division of Deloitte, where he specialized in the audits of private equity and hedge funds.
Joshua holds a B.B.A. from Baruch College and is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the State of New York.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate at SDC
Justin Yeh is a Senior Associate at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Justin was an Analyst in the Firm Strategy & Execution group at Morgan Stanley. During his time at Morgan Stanley, Justin executed a variety of principal M&A transactions and strategic initiatives.
Justin holds a B.A. in Economics from Yale University.
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant
- Executive Assistant at SDC
Kate Higgins is an Executive Assistant at SDC. Prior to joining the SDC team, Kate was the Executive Assistant at Hall Management Group, a nationally known high-end restaurant group based in Charleston, South Carolina. Prior to that, Kate was a conference services administrative assistant at Kiawah Island Golf Resort.
Kate holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication studies and public relations from the University of Northern Iowa.
Lindsay Drabczyk is an HR Generalist at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Lindsay was a Senior People Operations Manager at DriveWealth, where she managed all facets of the human resources department.
Lindsay holds B.S. in Hospitality & Tourism Management from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Lucy Zhang is a Paralegal at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Lucy was a Paralegal at Fross Zelnick Lehrman and Zissu, P.C. During her time at Fross Zelnick, Lucy worked closely with legal counsel to manage a variety of U.S. trademark portfolios for major national and international companies, with a focus in trademark prosecution.
Lucy holds a B.A. in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Principal at SDC
Matt Baker is a Principal at SDC responsible for day to day operational excellence and engineering best practices across the SDC portfolio. Matt's mission critical experience includes Director of Engineering for the CBRE DCS Platform where he was responsible for 20+ enterprise class colo data centers in the US and Director of Site Operations for Sentinel Data Centers. Matt also spent 5 years as a mission critical operations Division Officer and nuclear engineer aboard the USS Tennessee, a ballistic missile submarine.
Matt holds a BS in Physics from the United States Naval Academy, a MS in Applied Physics/Materials Science from UNC-Chapel Hill, and an MBA from Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC Chapel Hill.
Job Titles:
- Associate at SDC
- Associate, Investor Relations
Neeraj Mahey is an Associate at SDC and is responsible for investor relations and capital formation activities at the firm. Prior to joining SDC, Neeraj was an Associate at Rede Partners and Eaton Partners where he supported project management and origination functions for private equity, infrastructure, and private credit fundraises.
Neeraj holds a B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Colgate University where he was a member of the men's varsity soccer team.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Senior Advisor at SDC
- Sentinel Data Centers in 2009 As Senior Vice President, Operations and Engineering
Paul Hines is a Senior Advisor at SDC. Paul joined Sentinel Data Centers in 2009 as Senior Vice President, Operations and Engineering, where he was responsible for managing the construction, engineering and operations of Sentinel's enterprise-class colocation data centers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and North Carolina. Prior to joining Sentinel, Paul spent 20 years as the executive responsible for the management of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) data center portfolio in New York, New Jersey, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.
Paul holds a BS in Business and Mechanical Engineering Technology from the New York Institute of Technology and a MS in the Management of Technology from NYU Polytechnic University.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Principal at SDC
Pei Zhou is a Principal at SDC. Prior to joining the company in 2018, Pei was an Investment Associate at Aptigon Capital, a Citadel company, where he was part of the fundamental long/short equities group. Prior to Aptigon Capital, Pei was an Associate at Healthcare Royalty Partners ("HCR"), where he supported HCR's transaction-related activities, including financial analysis, transaction structuring and due diligence. Before joining HCR, Pei worked in the healthcare investment banking group at MTS Health Partners.
Pei holds a B.A. in Economics from University of Pennsylvania and is a CFA® charterholder.
Job Titles:
- Accounting Manager
- Accounting Manager at SDC
Ping Liu is the Accounting Manager at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Ping was the Accounting Manager at One-Blue, LLC where she supported the overall maintenance of accounting, audit, budgeting as well as tax. Prior to One-Blue, Ping was a Staff Accountant at Funaro & Co., P.C., where her primary responsibilities included management consulting and financial reporting for multiple clients across various industries.
Ping holds a BA in Accounting from Queens College and is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the State of New York.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Associate at SDC
Polina Naumenko is an Associate at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Polina was an Analyst in the Generalist Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Greenhill & Co. During her tenure as an investment banker, Polina executed M&A, debt and equity transactions across a variety of sectors.
Polina holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Qazi Fazal is a Partner at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Qazi was a Senior Managing Director since 2008 at Evercore. He has almost three decades of experience working with companies across a variety of industries on developing strategic alternatives and in executing mergers, acquisitions, sale and restructuring transactions. Most recently, he co-headed Evercore's telecom industry group where he worked with the world's leading communications infrastructure companies. Prior to Evercore, he was with Miller Buckfire & Co. and its predecessor entity, Wasserstein Perella & Co (DrKW).
Qazi earned an A.B. from Harvard University.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Principal at SDC
Scott Gross is a Principal at SDC. He currently serves on the boards of Tilson, Arcadia Towers, Cityside Fiber, and previously served on the board of Fatbeam. Prior to joining SDC in 2018, Scott spent six years as an investment banker in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at RBC Capital Markets, where he executed over $20 billion in M&A transactions across a variety of sectors with a focus on the data center space.
Scott has a B.B.A. from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan with concentrations in Finance and Accounting.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate at SDC
Seth is a Senior Associate at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Seth was an Associate in the Technology Investment Banking Group at J.P. Morgan, where he executed M&A and financing transactions with a focus on data and infrastructure software. Prior to J.P. Morgan, he worked at Vodafone in a variety of technology strategy and project management roles, where he executed the first mass market fiber deployment in Ghana.
Seth holds an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, a B.S. in Electrical/Electronic Engineering from KNUST, Ghana and is PRINCE2 project management certified. Seth is a youth development enthusiast and currently serves as a Braven leadership coach.
Todd is the Founder and Managing Partner of SDC. He has spent most of his career developing, operating and investing in digital infrastructure. Prior to forming SDC, Todd co-founded Sentinel Data Centers in 2001 and led the company as its co-CEO. From 2001 through 2017, Sentinel developed two multi-asset data center platforms which it sold in 2010 and 2017, respectively, to two different public data center REITs. Sentinel additionally developed and monetized multiple single-tenant data center facilities. Todd began his career at investment bank Wasserstein Perella & Co. focused on technology and media investments for the firm's affiliated private equity fund.
Todd is a graduate of Dartmouth College. He is engaged with multiple non-profits and has served on numerous corporate and non-profit boards.
Todd is a Partner at SDC. He previously spent 17 years at Catalyst Investors, a growth equity fund, where he was a Partner and member of the Investment Committee. Todd led many of Catalyst's investments in the internet infrastructure, wireless communications, software and IT services sectors. He served on the boards of numerous portfolio companies including EDB, Effectual, InSite Wireless, Latisys, and Pax8, among others. Prior to joining Catalyst, Todd was an Associate at Lightyear Capital. He began his career at PaineWebber Capital (now UBS Group AG) investing in both private equity and alternative assets.
Todd received a B.A. from McGill University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business where he graduated with honors as a Beta Gamma Sigma scholar.
Tyler Benitez is a Finance Associate at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Tyler was a Senior Associate at Deloitte in the Investment Management and Private Wealth practice focusing on the taxation of private equity firms, hedge funds, and high-net-worth individuals.
Tyler earned his B.S. in Accounting and Business Administration from the University of Southern California.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Managing Director, Finance & Operations
Victoria Fox is a Managing Director whose responsibilities include implementation and management of the firm's operations, technology and human resources activities. She additionally handles various finance and treasury functions at the Company. Victoria joined Sentinel in 2005 and previously managed Sentinel's finance (including treasury management), property management and lease administration activities. Prior to joining Sentinel, Victoria was an Assistant Property Manager at RFR Realty and spent 8 years at the US Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, managing residential and commercial leasing and acquisitions on the Embassy's behalf.
Victoria earned her Masters of Arts degree from Kiev State Linguistic University and an MBA from Stern Business School at NYU.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Principal at SDC
Victoria Seskin is a Principal at SDC. Prior to joining SDC, Victoria was a Consultant at Altman Vilandrie & Company, a TMT-focused strategy consulting firm where she began her career as an Analyst. Victoria's consulting work focused on commercial due diligence for investor clients in the digital infrastructure space in North America, LatAm, and APAC. She also worked with the major U.S. wireline and wireless operators to support strategy and investment decisions.
Victoria holds an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business with a concentration in Finance and a BA in Political Science and Global Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Job Titles:
- General Counsel
- General Counsel at SDC
Vladislava Rebeiz is General Counsel at SDC. Prior to joining the company in 2020, Vladislava served as M&A Counsel at Danaher Corporation, where she assisted in the execution of a variety of acquisitions, divestitures and investments. Prior to Danaher, Vladislava was an Associate at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, where she was a member of the firm's Private Equity Group and supported a variety of clients in a range of transactions and investments, including acquisitions, divestitures, minority investments, public company transactions and portfolio matters.
Vladislava holds a B.A. in Politics from New York University and received her J.D. from William & Mary Law School. Vlada is a member of the New York State Bar.