GROWTHPOINT TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS - Key Persons
Bio
Alex joined GrowthPoint Technology Partners in 2013 from FanTravel.com, a web-based group travel platform for universities and organizations he co-founded. In his role there, he was primarily responsible for business development. His other experiences include working for Asthmatx (acquired by Boston Scientific), a medical device startup which specialized in Bronchial Thermoplasty and Acuity Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm focused on digital media technologies.
Alex attended Stanford University where he played quarterback and was a member of the football team which won the 2011 Orange Bowl. After his college career, Alex spent one season playing football for L'Hospitalet Pioners in Barcelona, winning a Spanish National Championship and visiting over 10 different countries in Europe and Africa.
Alex graduated from Stanford University, with a Bachelor's Degree in Science, Technology, and Society in 2010 and Master's Degree in Media Studies in 2011.
Enjoys: When not on the job, he loves playing sports, exploring San Francisco's newest restaurants, and traveling when time permits.
After spending two years in the Bay Area at GrowthPoint, Alex moved to London and spent a few years working at Silverpeak. Now having rejoined the team, Alex is further developing GrowthPoint's presence in Europe.
Bio
Alex recently rejoined GrowthPoint after working for over two years in London at Silverpeak, a technology focused investment bank. Prior to joining Silverpeak, he worked at GrowthPoint in the Bay Area for 2 years. Alex brings years of investment banking experience and has completed notable transactions with Blue-Chip acquirers such as Facebook, Cisco, Gemalto-Thales, and GE.
Originally from Spain, Alex holds dual citizenship; British-Spanish, and fluently speaks: English, Spanish, German and French. Alex graduated with honors from Heythrop College, University of London with a BA in Philosophy.
Anson Kwan is a Director at GrowthPoint Technology Partners, and was previously serving in the private equity and consulting sectors with experiences in the sciences and tech industry for over 10 years.
Bio
As a recognized domain expert in software, services and tech-enabled services, Anson is a frequent contributor to industry events. He is in charge of financing, deal execution across M&A, capital raises, and other strategic transactions. Prior to joining GrowthPoint, Anson was a technology practitioner having extensive experience in cybersecurity, networking, computer architecture, and various software. He was experienced in buy-side diligence, SaaS businesses, managed services, as well as engineering science.
During his time at GrowthPoint, Anson has since made significant contributions in many leading growth companies. Some notable transactions include the Omnition, NetFort, OnBoard, and CNL Software acquisitions. As a reliable source of knowledge, Anson's experience across different industries and markets provides confidence and trust to clients in the M&A process. He advises companies regarding their positioning and strategies, helps them tell their success stories through deep analytics combined with supporting financial and industry metrics that shape meaningful relationships with potential buyers, and ultimately leads to effective outcomes.
As a Silicon Valley native, Anson received an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and Honors in Chemistry at the University of California, Davis.
Enjoys: Outside of the office, Anson is an open water swimmer, avid tennis player, and enjoys riding motorcycles.
Since joining GrowthPoint at the start of 2020, Avery has supported transactions, developed market and sectoral research, and published weekly and quarterly insights.
Bio
Avery moved to California from Oklahoma, where after graduating college, she worked at Hobby Lobby in the Risk Management department. There she supported operations, accounting, billing, liability, and workers' compensation.
Avery graduated in 2018 from Oklahoma State University with a B.S in Business Administration, with an emphasis on Marketing and Management.
Expertise Bob is a technology generalist who has worked with a wide variety of firms across the entire spectrum of high technology and associated supporting sectors. He is involved with the semiconductor sector, hardware and electronic systems in networking and storage, software companies that are based on analytical algorithms and the optical sector. Additionally, Bob has significant expertise in energy technologies and energy related businesses. Bio Bob has been assisting technology companies in the merger and acquisitions process for over 20 years. During this time, he has been involved in over 150 transactions and has enjoyed the opportunity to work with both large and small technology companies worldwide. His range of client experience includes companies that are less than a year-old to the sale of Peter Wolters GmbH, a 200 year-old German firm that was acquired by Novellus. Prior to his investment banking career, Bob was a manager and engineer at several technology businesses, including a defense-electro-optics company (night vision goggles, thermal imagers, laser range finders, etc.) and an energy capital equipment company. He is the inventor of record for patents in clean HVAC, horizontal drilling technology, data center cooling, acoustic systems and solar concentrators. He also performed the preliminary economic-engineering analysis for Stanford's 50 Megawatt cogeneration facility. He has personally been an active investor in technology start-ups in a variety of sectors from semiconductor capital equipment to optical telecom. Bob's career began after graduation from the US Naval Academy where he received a BS in Physics. He was an engineering officer on surface ships, qualified as a deep-sea diver and spent several years in Italy managing a five hundred person organization that repaired and overhauled US nuclear submarines in the Mediterranean Sea. Before gravitating to the technology sector, he ran a marine shipping business in the Caribbean and became an expert in the use of motivational management tools. Bob has a Master's in Engineering from Stanford University in Engineering Economic Systems, a discipline in modeling problems using dynamic system theory, optimization and decision analysis techniques. Enjoys: In his spare time, he enjoys sports that begin with the letter "s" (skiing, squash, sailing and swimming) and developing equity option trading models.
Bio
Prior to joining GrowthPoint Technology Partners as IT Director, David worked as a Technology Product Manager at both Microsoft and Wells Fargo Bank, developing digital products and services for the consumer marketplace. At Microsoft's MSN TV unit, he led the development and integration of Wi-Fi componentry for the MSN TV 2 media set-top box.
His earlier work as Business Technology Architect for Nextera Interactive focused on large-scale intranet and groupware applications for clients such as Verizon, Hartford Insurance, and Bell Canada, as well as a digital media startup for a hospitality consortium which included Hilton, Starwood, and Marriott groups.
His experience includes 10 years at Bank of America, including a key role on behalf of the Capital Markets Systems division in the mid-1990's. On this assignment, David was instrumental in arranging capital funding and equipment as well as technical resources for the bank's global TCP/IP deployment.
David began his career as an industrial engineer in the financial services industry, including assignments for Bank of America's nationwide credit card operations and as VP/Manager of Operations Analysis at Coast Federal Bank.
David graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Communications Research.
Enjoys: David makes the most of his central San Francisco playground, enjoying the best of the city's new- and old-world food, music, and nightlife. If he's not catching a new act at SF Jazz, Yoshi's, or Feinstein's, you'll find him at home entertaining over a fiery grill and well-appointed libations.
Expertise
Prior to joining GrowthPoint, Debbie Gray was Group HR Manager for Pyroban Group Ltd, following Caterpillar Plc purchasing the company. Before her time there, she worked as PA to the Pyroban Group directors for ten years.
Debbie also worked at PwC as PA to the Managing Partner of the Management Consulting Division and latterly as head of Support Services Training for EMEA.
Debbie started her career with Shearson Lehman Brothers where she spent two years in Sydney, Australia setting up their office to complete their global footprint.
Debbie graduated from Hull University in England with a BA in French Studies which included a year living in France working as an English assistant in a French high school.
Bio
Prior to joining GrowthPoint, Jack worked in cybersecurity at Illumio as a sales development representative. He previously held internships at GrowthPoint and Anacapa Partners. Jack attended Stanford University where he played quarterback and was a member of the football team which won the 2016 and 2018 Sun Bowls. Jack graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology in 2020 and Master's Degree in Sustainability Science and Practice in 2021.
As a Co-Founder of GrowthPoint Technology Partners, John focuses on software technologies, encompassing Internet, mobile, security, infrastructure and enterprise applications.
Bio
John has been actively involved in helping the growth of some of the world's best-known technology companies. These engagements have produced transactions that span all sizes, from billion dollar divestitures or financings to ten million dollar fundraises or acquisitions. While successfully completing a transaction is rewarding, seeing the underlying technology innovation realized and commercialized is even more exciting to him.
In the span of his career, John has completed countless transactions in the software sector. Noteworthy companies he has worked with include Apple, Cisco, Dell, EMC, E*TRADE, HP, IBM, Intel, Rovi, Oracle, Qualcomm, Symantec, VMware and Yahoo.
Prior to forming GrowthPoint Technology Partners, John managed the Software and IT Services practice area at SVB Alliant (formerly known as Alliant Partners), which he joined in 1996 as its first outside partner. In 2001, John, along with his fellow partners at Alliant, sold the firm to Silicon Valley Bank.
Prior to Alliant, John was Managing Director of Bank of America's high-technology group, which he ran from 1992 through 1996. He was responsible for directing the bank's global high tech practice. It was early on in his career, during the later stages of the Pleistocene period that John first demonstrated his entrepreneurial flair, when developing some early prototypes to the current wheel design.
John received a BSC degree from Santa Clara University in 1976 and a Master's in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley in 1989. He was instrumental in helping launch the opening of the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose and sits on the Development Counsel of the Haas School of Business.
Expertise
John's technology knowledge is very broad, from application software to chip design. His main focus areas are on the Internet of Things, Human Computer Interfaces, Sensors, Embedded Software, EDA, PLM and complex hardware and software systems.
Bio
Before co-founding GrowthPoint Technology Partners, John spent nearly eight years as Managing Director at Alliant Partners. At Alliant, he co-managed the Electronic System Team, working in semiconductor design, IP, manufacturing and test; graphics software and systems, and storage systems.
John has completed dozens of transactions with leading technology companies, including Intel, HP, Qualcomm, Sun, Cadence, Synopsys, KLA Tencor, Novellus and ASML.
Prior to Alliant, John spent 18 years as a venture capitalist at Weiss, Peck and Greer and with his own firm, Glenwood Capital Partners. In the early 1990's Glenwood Capital was the first investment fund with a pure focus on buyouts of mature technology companies. Prior to his venture capital career, Mr. Savage headed strategic planning and business development for Four-Phase Systems, a computer systems company, which was sold to Motorola in 1982.
John began his business career in the first year of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC, where his group was involved in establishing the first air and water standards. In the early 1970's John joined Envirotech Corporation, a diversified process and environmental technology company. It was at Envirotech where he developed his interest in mergers and acquisitions working with the founder and chairman to grow the company through an aggressive acquisition program. Envirotech also strengthened John's experience in clean energy, when he managed Envirotech's clean energy division.
John has a degree in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He was formerly a director of several public technology companies, including FileNET Corporation (sold to IBM). He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Silicon Valley YMCA. And he has also served as a member of the Georgia Tech Advisory Board.
Enjoys: In his spare time, John works out with the local Masters Swim Club, and tries to find time for golf, when he isn't otherwise occupied with grandchildren and the family's Children's Book Store in San Carlos.
Bio
Before joining GrowthPoint, Julia worked in marketing and program development at Newchip Accelerator, a digital accelerator program in Austin, TX. She supported her team with prior experience in marketing, advertising, sales, and writing. She previously worked for Yelp in Washington D.C. at which she honed her strategic communications skills and found passion for a career in technology.
Julia graduated with a Bachelor's in Entrepreneurship and Marketing from Miami University with a concentration in social and corporate entrepreneurship. At school, she was active in venture pitch competitions and worked market strategy and patent development with Proctor & Gamble and The U.S. Airforce.
Outside the office: Julia enjoys running, playing tennis, morning crosswords, writing, and eating her way through San Francisco.
Job Titles:
- Financial Principal
- Growth Point Technology Partners' Financial & Operation Principal and Chief Accountant
Bio
Karyn M. White serves as Growth Point Technology Partners' Financial & Operation Principal and Chief Accountant. She is responsible for ensuring the accurate and timely filing of the firm's financial regulatory reports to all regulatory bodies.
Over the past 20+ years, Karyn has worked as a part-time Financial Principal and CFO, with an emphasis on compliance with FINRA financial rules and regulations, developing and maintaining internal accounting systems, and assisting with financial audits. Previously, she was a Senior Compliance Examiner with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and received her C.P.A. license in 1986.
Karyn graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Business Administration.
Enjoys: In her free time she enjoys swimming, spending time with her husband, two cats, and taking care of her twin boys.
Bio
Prior to joining GrowthPoint from Google, Kyle held a range of roles across investment banking, private equity, management consulting, and venture capital. He earned three Bachelor's degrees from the University of Chicago (in economics, philosophy, and abstract mathematics) and was the recipient of the MBA scholarship from the Booth School of Business. While at University, Kyle assumed leadership on Admissions and Healthcare Advisory Boards and worked closely with the Board of Trustees. Kyle has lived across three continents, speaking four languages and extending his love of travel across 50 countries and 48 states.
Bio
Matthew joined GrowthPoint Technology Partners in 2017. He previously worked at AGC partners, a technology focused investment bank where he worked on advising companies on mergers and acquisitions. Prior, he worked at Arrowroot Capital, a growth equity firm focused on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies.
Matthew graduated cum laude from the University of Southern California in 2017 with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and a concentration in Finance.
Enjoys: Outside of the office, Matthew enjoys playing tennis in the summer and skiing in the winter, watching all things sports (especially the USC Trojan football team), and traveling whenever he gets the chance.
Bio
Prior to joining GowthPoint, Michael worked in the strategic finance department for enterprise software company ServiceNow, supporting their bookings team. He previously interned at tech-focused investment bank GP Bullhound.
Michael graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance and a minor in Technology Commercialization.
Enjoys: Outside of the office, Michael enjoys exploring new restaurants, traveling, attending sporting events, and playing golf.
Mike's technology knowledge is primarily in software from the chip to the application layer. His main focus is on cloud computing (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS), systems management, security, storage, networking and mobile device software.
Bio
Mike has closed transactions with companies such as Accenture, ARM, BMC Software, Cavium, Chordiant, Dell, F5, Fair Isaac, GD, GE, GN, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NetApp, Oracle, Parallels, Qualcomm, Rapid7, Splunk, Symantec, Veritas and VMware. Before co-founding GrowthPoint Technology Partners, he was a principal at SVB Alliant conducting software mergers and acquisitions transactions. Prior to joining Alliant, Mike was Managing Director of the Nextera Interactive division of Nextera through to its IPO. At Nextera, he worked with News Corporation on bringing the company's assets to the Internet and with Hilton Hotels, Starwood and Marriott on Internet strategy.
Before Nextera, Mike founded and served as President & CEO at Pyramid Imaging Inc., which was sold to Nextera in 1998. Pyramid was a software and services company focused on financial services and utilities. While at Pyramid, he started and spun out two other companies, an interactive entertainment company (OM Records) and a video indexing company. Prior to Pyramid, Mike was a management consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton and a manager at Accenture in the Advanced Technology Group. Earlier in his career, Mike was one of the earliest members of the team that started The Independent newspaper.
Mike graduated with honors from Imperial College London, with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, and specialized in Biotechnology. He currently serves on the board of the Imperial College Business School. He is an Associate of the Royal College of Science. He also graduated from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is a Sloan Fellow.
Enjoys: Mike plays guitar, squash, tennis, and tries to play golf.
Bio
Nick DeRose joined GrowthPoint Technology Partners in 2011 after spending 12 years in the tech industry. His roles have ranged from IT management to technical marketing to strategic alliances and corporate development. He brings deep technical experience in cloud computing, virtualization, data centers, software, "Big Data", networking and storage.
Prior to joining GrowthPoint Technology Partners, Nick ran technical alliances between NetApp and Cisco. As an Alliance Manager for NetApp, he helped identify and lead strategic initiatives across different business units, including the successful launch of the FlexPodTM data center solution. Before NetApp, Nick spent five years at Brocade Communications, where he started in IT, later moving into strategic alliances and corporate development to manage the technical relationship with VMware. As one of the first virtualization specialists, Nick was instrumental in positioning Brocade's product portfolio as a preferred networking solution in a newly emerging field. Nick's first job was running global IT for HPL Technologies - which was sold by Alliant Partners, led by John Savage and Bob Horstmeyer.
Nick graduated from California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo with a B.S. in Business Administration and Management Information Systems.
Enjoys: Outside of the office, Nick can be found out on his bike or running the local trails. He has competed in over 50 triathlons, including the Ironman. In addition, he has completed numerous marathons including the NYC and Boston Marathons. He also enjoys golf when time permits.
Bio
Rishi joined GrowthPoint in 2014. He has previous experience at Woodside Capital Partners, an Investment Bank providing M&A advisory and capital raising for emerging growth companies in the technology and healthcare sector. Prior, he worked at Silicon Valley Bank, where he provided debt financing to venture backed companies.
Rishi graduated from UC Berkeley. He holds a dual degree in Engineering and Business Economics.
Enjoys: He is a Bay Area sports fan, loves playing basketball, hiking, and travelling in his free time.
Job Titles:
- Office & HR Manager, Compliance
Bio
Sara joined GrowthPoint Technology Partners in 2012 after working for Airship Ventures, which operated the only passenger carrying Zeppelin in the United States.
In 2008, Sara earned her Private Pilot Certificate for single engine aircraft, thus leading her to enroll in one of the only aviation programs in California at San Jose State University (SJSU). At SJSU, Sara was a member of the Precision Flight Team and was an officer for the Women in Aviation student club. She has prior experience working as a Certified Weather Observer at the San Jose International Airport and dispatching aircraft to students at a local flight school. At Airship Ventures, she organized private charter flights and lead the Pilot Experience Program that gave private pilots the chance to fly a Zeppelin NT.
She graduated from San Jose State University in the Spring of 2011 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Aviation Operations and a Minor in Business.
While at GrowthPoint, Sara has completed the certificate program through UC Berkeley for Human Resource Management and achieved her Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification.
Enjoys: In her free time, Sara enjoys traveling, kickboxing, hiking, wine & craft beer tasting, and spending time on the lake near her cabin in Arnold. She also loves being a mom to her daughter, Sienna, and son, Salvatore.
Expertise
Surabhi joined Growthpoint in 2021 after completing her MBA from Imperial College London, as an Imperial Advisory Board Scholar. She began her career as an auditor with Grant Thornton LLP. Post that, she worked at Ernst & Young Mumbai in their Forensics and Due Diligence practice where she was investigating corporate frauds. Surabhi is also a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Secretary, having completed her bachelor's degree in commerce, with distinction, from Mumbai University. During college, she was a 3-year scholarship awardee (2012-15) from the Government of Maharashtra.
Enjoys: Dancing, having professionally trained in Kathak and Bharatnatyam for 8 years. She also has a keen interest in writing stories for her blog ‘Humans of Business Schools' and working as an academic support volunteer, at an NGO.
Expertise
Vijay's technology knowledge is broad across many sectors such as software, financial technology, mobile, and technology services. His main focus areas are technology services/BPO, mobility, social analytics, big data, BPO, and communications hardware and software.
Bio
Vijay joined GrowthPoint Technology Partners in 2015 from Jefferies where he was a Senior Vice President within the Technology Investment Banking Group. At Jefferies, Vijay worked on various sell side and buy side M&A, equity (IPO and follow-on) and debt / LBO transactions in various technology sectors including IT services / BPO / HR Services, Communications Hardware and Software, Financial Technology Software, and Telecom.
Prior to Jefferies, Vijay was a Vice President within JPMorgan's Telecom, Media, and Technology (TMT) group in New York and San Francisco.
Some of the transactions Vijay has worked on include: merger of Sprint and Nextel; leverage buyout (LBO) of Verizon's Hawaiian wireline assets (Hawaiian Telcom); LBO of Adelphia Puerto Rico assets (San Jaun Cable); LBO of SunGard Data Systems; LBO of Oasis outsourcing Inc.; LBO of Compucom; LBO of SS&C; minority buyout of Cox Communications' stake in Discovery Communications; Dialog's acquisition of Sitel; Ceragon's acquisition of Nera Network; separation of NCR and Teradata; sale of Pure Commerce to Euronet; sale of ARC International to Virage Logic; sale of Furukawa's majority stake in OCPI to Oplink; IPO of Trinet; IPO of Globalstar; Restructuring of Wind Hellas in Greece; follow-on equity offerings for Dialog, Infinera, iGATE, and Advent Software; and debt financings for Nextel, AT&T, Agilent, NCR, and Clearwire.
At GrowthPoint, Vijay has led the following transactions: sale of Altaflex (services) to OSI Systems, sale of Gotham Digital Science (cybersecurity) to Stroz Friedberg, sale of Wise.io (Machine Learning / AI) to GE Digital, sale of Xcentric (Cloud / Managed services) to Right Networks, and sale of minority stake in Denim Group (Cybersecurity) to Wipro.
Prior to his investment banking career, Vijay worked at Nextel (now Sprint) in its Corporate Development and Strategic Planning Groups and at LCC as a consultant.
Vijay holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE) from The University of Southern California (USC) and an MBA with Honors from The University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.