LYNWOOD STREET - Key Persons
Aspect Investors is led by Andy Love. As a student of the search fund model, as a searcher/CEO of one of the most successful search funds to date, and as a search fund investor-advisor, Andy has spent most of his career and the last two decades in the search fund arena. In that time, he has invested in over 50 search funds and has advised dozens more.
Andy is a recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Southwest Region (2011), and is a member of Young Presidents' Organization (YPO). He has served as Co-President of the Dallas Chapter of the Stanford GSB Alumni Association, as a Board Member of the University of Texas Silver Spurs Alumni Association, and as an advisor and board member to community- and faith-based organizations.
Ashley has over 15 years of experience advising, operating and investing in high growth venture and private equity backed companies. Serving in corporate development, finance and legal roles Ashley has supported companies through periods of rapid growth by creating and executing business and capital strategies, negotiating complex transactions, building management teams, and managing transformational events in a company's lifecycle. From 2002 to 2011, Ashley was a member of the senior team at Asurion Corporation, the most successful search fund operating company to date, as the Company's first in-house counsel and later head of Corporate Development. During this time, she led the execution of multiple transformative acquisitions, an equity recapitalization of the company and multiple subsequent leveraged recapitalizations and advised on the Company's international expansion in Asia, Europe and Latin America.
More recently, Ashley was Vice President of Transactions and General Counsel at Sunrun, a residential solar company, where she led the project finance and legal teams through the raise of over $500 million in proceeds through equity, debt and project finance transactions and was instrumental in developing the strategy and establishing the infrastructure necessary to support the company's rapid growth. Prior to her operational experience, Ashley was a corporate associate at Venture Law Group in Silicon Valley and Riordan & McKinzie in Los Angeles and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Emilio M. Garza on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Ashley graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC, Santa Barbara and Order of the Coif from UCLA Law School.
Job Titles:
- Founder and General Partner of Alta Communications
Bill Egan is a founder and General Partner of Alta Communications and Marion Equity Partners, Massachusetts-based venture capital firms. He founded Alta's predecessor firm, Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. in 1979, and has identified and backed several of America's leading growth companies in the information technology, life sciences, and communications industries. Prior to founding Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co., Bill was a Partner at TA Associates. He began his career as a Manager of Venture Capital for New England Enterprise Capital Corporation. He is past President and Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, a Trustee of Fairfield University, a Member of the Board of Overseers of The Wharton School and a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Board of a number of privately held companies. Bill received a degree in Economics from Fairfield University and an MBA from The Wharton School.
Job Titles:
- Founding Member of Arrowhawk Capital Partners
Bob Dahl is a founding Member of Arrowhawk Capital Partners, an investment management firm which manages a multi-strategy, institutionally-focused fund. From April 1999 until June 2006, Mr. Dahl served as the head of Global Healthcare for the Carlyle Group, a leading private equity firm with over $50 billion of equity under management, where he was responsible for the firm's investments in the healthcare field. During his tenure at Carlyle, Mr. Dahl served on the investment committee of the U.S. buyout funds, including the $7.9 billion Carlyle Partners IV and the $3.9 billion Carlyle Partners III funds. Mr. Dahl also served on the investment committee of the $430 million Carlyle Mezzanine Partners.
Prior to Carlyle, Mr. Dahl served as co-head of healthcare investment banking in North America at Credit Suisse First Boston. Earlier in his career Mr. Dahl was a CPA for Price Waterhouse. Mr. Dahl is a graduate of the Harvard Business School, where he was elected a Baker Scholar and received a Loeb Rhodes fellowship. He received a B.A. from Middlebury College. Mr. Dahl is a director of Amkai LLC and Applied Sciences, Inc.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director of Bradford Brown Capital Partners
Brad Brown is the managing director of Bradford Brown Capital Partners, a private investment partnership that focuses on search funds and profitable small-cap companies. Prior to that, he was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, the world's leading consultancy, where he led several practices over time in the areas of Digital, Big Data Analytics, and FinTech. He has over a dozen years of experience in small cap growth investing and has acquired over 30 operating companies across many different industries. He focuses his board work on tech-enabled companies, and is on the board of five companies: Blue Sky Network, ISI Telemanagement, Attainia, CloudX, and D2C Brands. Brad brings a unique mix of advisory expertise with growth capital. He works closely with op-co CEOs as an Active Board Member. In addition, Brad is involved in the tech startup community as an ongoing advisor to the management teams of five companies: Uncork, Blueteam Global, Afiniti, One Inc, and Skydeo. He has professional expertise in business services, B2B sales, eCommerce, Saas, cloud, and data. He is also a Senior Partner Emeritus of McKinsey & Company, the world's leading consultancy. For eighteen years, he was a senior member of the Digital Technology practice, and recently the global leader of the Big Data practice. He worked with clients to implement strategies around digital, automation, analytics, cloud, and agile. He was central to the build-out of the McKinsey Analytics Nerve platform, Data Cloud, and analytics tools. He also worked in Fintech and InsurTech. For seven years, he led the Global Insurance Technology practice, and is well know in the industry.
Prior to joining McKinsey, Brad was a partner in the Stenbeck Group of companies, where he was a member of the board of several companies and a working member of the top 30 executives worldwide. Prior to that, he was the Managing Director of Arthur D. Little's North American information technology practice, with management and P&L responsibility for the United States. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees at Connecticut College, since 2012, where he chairs the Committee on Trustees, and the Advancement Committee. Brad is a graduate of Dartmouth College, receiving his bachelor of arts degree, cum laude. He received an M.S.E.E. in Computer Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A., with distinction, from the Wharton School.
Brad has a decade of private equity investment experience and has spent much of that time in an operationally-focused manner across a wide variety of industries and situations. Prior to joining Aspect, he was a Principal at Insight Equity, a Dallas area-based operationally intensive middle-market private equity firm with over $1 billion in capital under management. During his nearly 7 years at Insight, Brad helped to lead transaction sourcing and execution efforts and spent considerable time on Boards and on the ground advising and managing portfolio companies via Insight's "hands-on" investment strategy.
Before Insight, Brad was an investment professional at Wind Point Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm where he helped to execute on Wind Point's strategy of backing strong and proven CEOs in acquiring established businesses. Earlier, Brad was an Associate at the Boston Consulting Group in Chicago. Brad holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. While at HBS, Brad was a Summer Associate with the private equity team of The Blackstone Group. Brad graduated summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame where he received his BBA in Finance. Brad is a CFA Charterholder and CPA.
Job Titles:
- Principal of the Cambria Group
Mr. Sekula is a Principal of The Cambria Group, dividing his time between the firm's Dallas office and a satellite office in Lexington, Massachusetts. He works on the full spectrum of the firm's activity, with particular emphasis on evaluation, due diligence, and recruiting efforts as well as on portfolio company oversight. Mr. Sekula serves as a director of several private companies.
Mr. Sekula was previously a Principal with The Lucas Group, a management consulting firm which demonstrated its commitment to value creation in working with client organizations by frequently linking its compensation to results generated by its engagements. In this capacity, he specialized in designing and implementing programs to enhance client companies' operating performance and profitability and in conducting acquisition due diligence reviews.
Mr. Sekula also served as a senior consultant for Bain & Company, a leading international strategy consulting firm, where he focused on manufacturing businesses.
Previously, Mr. Sekula was a Vice President of Enterprise Investors, LP, a leading private equity firm which managed over $340 million in capital for investment in Central Europe. As a principal, his responsibilities included sourcing, evaluating, executing and monitoring investments.
Earlier, Mr. Sekula directed projects and managed client relationships for a construction engineering firm, serving in both technical and management capacities.
Mr. Sekula earned a Masters degree in Environmental Engineering from Politechnika Warszawska in Poland and an MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Mr. Sekula had been actively involved in the underground anti-communist movement in Poland and, after the introduction of martial law, was granted political asylum and later citizenship in the United States
Dan Cavanaugh is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lynwood Street, LLC, which is named in memory of Dan's grandfather who was a small business entrepreneur, and the street he lived on in upstate New York. Prior to founding Lynwood Street, he ran a financial advising practice in New Hampshire, advising clients on achieving their financial goals and retirement planning. He also spent time in investment banking, working on a variety of M&A transactions and also as a research analyst, analyzing the strengths of various industries and companies. He earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BS in Business Administration from the University of New Hampshire.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder of Search Fund Partners
David Carver is a co-founder of Search Fund Partners. He is on the board of iNet Interactive, FastSpring, Great Bay Software, Advanced Network Solutions, UnitedLayer, DataFusion, StaffOne, and Raptor Technologies.
David spent thirty years as an executive in the high tech industry, and has extensive experience in all phases of business, including M&A, fund-raising, corporate strategy and operations. He was CEO of HiFive!, an application service provider; CEO of Hipbone Networks, an online collaboration company; EVP and GM at Network Associates; COO of Network General; an EIR at Institutional Venture Partners; and an executive at Hewlett-Packard, including ten years in the professional service/software divisions of HP.
Dave has an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Arkansas. Dave and his wife Julia have two sons, RJ and Sam. He is active in community and non-profit organizations, having founded the Redwood Chapter of National Junior Basketball serving 650 children.
Jim Edmunds joined Search Fund Partners in 2008 after running a company sourced through the search fund model. Jim and his partner found and acquired Celebrity Kids Portrait Studios, a leading provider of upscale children's photography in 2005. Jim served as President and CFO of the company. He currently participates on the boards of Microdea, Neuro International, Consumeraffairs.com, Gogotech, and UCIT Online.
Before launching a search fund, Jim was an Associate at McKinsey & Company in Palo Alto. Prior to attending business school, Jim conducted business development for PetSmart.com, managed a successful political campaign in Texas, and worked in Investment Banking and Equity Capital Markets at Bear Stearns.
Jim holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was named a Siebel Scholar, and an A.B. in History from Harvard University. He is the treasurer of Building Futures Now, a non-profit dedicated to helping high potential students in East Palo Alto. He lives in Menlo Park with his wife Christine, daughters Emiko and Mika, and son Koji.
J.T. Fitzgerald is founder and Managing Partner of Argo Management Partners and in that capacity,
Mr. Fitzgerald has had extensive transactional and operating experience in Argo's portfolio companies.
Mr. Fitzgerald is Chairman of Hunter MFG, LLP, and serves on the board of directors of Oak Patch Gifts , Progressive Bronze Products, Atlas Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: AFH), and 1347 Capital Corp (NASDAQ: TFSC).
JT has been invited to speak on multiple occasions at the Kellogg School of Management on the topic of Search Funds and acquiring and operating middle-market businesses. He is a member of the Young Presidents Organization, Turnaround Management Association, the Association for Corporate Growth, and The National Association of Corporate Directors. In his free time, J.T. enjoys skiing, cycling, competing in triathlons, and fly-fishing.
Mr. Fitzgerald is an MBA graduate of the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University with concentrations in Finance, Accounting, and Management Strategy. He holds a BS, finance, from DePaul University with highest honor, Beta Gamma Sigma.
Job Titles:
- Executive Chairman and Former CEO of Progressive Home Care
Kent Weaver is currently executive Chairman and former CEO of Progressive Home Care, a Northern California-based health care company. Previously, Mr. Weaver held executive positions in marketing and product management for a VC-backed marketing automation startup, as a regional CFO and business analyst in Pepsico's Pizza Hut Division, and as a management consultant at Ernst & Young.
Larry is a talented business leader with over 25 years' experience. He has generated substantial value in high growth environments by delivering solutions in a wide array of areas, including organizational strategy, corporate development, financial reporting, cost reduction, cash flow and working capital management, and process improvement. In addition to his role at Endurance he is the CFO of NIP Group. Prior to joining NIP Group, he was Managing Director at Ally Financial and a Director of M&A and divisional CFO at AIG Group. He began his career at KPMG. Larry graduated from Pace University with a BBA in Accounting with highest honors. Larry is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Larry, similar to Rich, enjoys working closely with searchers at every stage supporting their goals to build a great company while becoming a highly successful CEO. He is committed to lend his expertise to, and generously collaborates with, all members of the search fund community.
Job Titles:
- Founder and Managing Partner at Marion Equity Partners
Mark Egan is a founder and Managing Partner at Marion Equity Partners, a Boston based investment firm. Prior to Marion, Mark focused on growth equity investments in the technology, healthcare, media, and business services industries at Polaris Venture Partners. Before Polaris, Mark began his career at Alta Communications where he executed investments in the media and telecommunications sectors. Mark also has previous experience with Comcast Corporation in business development. Mark received a degree in Finance from Fairfield University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Mike is a Partner at Windley Ely and oversees the Appeals division and general claims management operations for many of Windley Ely's largest clients. Additionally, he is Head of Business Development and Partnerships for Windley Ely. He is responsible for the growth in the TCMP solution and Integrated Claims Management across Canada.
Mike is an expert at creating customized claims management solutions for Canada's largest employers to maximize client productivity while minimizing overall claims related expenses.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director at Trilogy Search Partners
Mitch is a Managing Director at Trilogy Search Partners. Mitch was a Managing Director of Hellman & Friedman from 1989 until 2008, where he sourced and oversaw portfolio investments, as well as lead the firm's fundraising and client relations. Mitch worked closely with other Trilogy partners while representing Hellman & Friedman on the boards of Western Wireless and VoiceStream. Prior to Hellman & Friedman, he was an Associate at Shearson Lehman Hutton. Recently, Mitch has been managing his family office, investing in a range of private companies. He graduated from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. Mitch lives in Marin County, California and serves on a number of for-profit and non-profit boards.
Mr. David Luttrell provides deal sourcing, coordination, due diligence and analysis for LCM Group's investment activities. He previously served as Senior Economic Analyst and Special Assistant to President Richard Fisher at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and worked in the Private Equity/Venture Capital Group at Makena Capital (Menlo Park, CA) and the Financial Institutions Group at Temasek Holdings (Singapore).
David earned an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. He also earned undergraduate magna cum laude honors with a B.S. in Economics and B.B.A. in Finance with a concentration in Alternative Assets from Southern Methodist University.
David serves on the Board of Directors for HOI (Helping Others Internationally), a community and economic development NGO in Central America. He is also a Trustee of The Light Foundation and is the Founder and Director of Dallas-based Christian stewardship ministry Ambassadors Club.
Ms. Cryer is a Vice President working in the firm's Dallas, Texas office. She works on all aspects of the firm's activities, focusing on search funds and the firm's work with independent sponsors.
Prior to joining Cambria, Ms. Cryer worked for Accenture as a Senior Analyst involved with Business & Systems Integration. At Accenture, she managed the finances for a $24M software- as-a- service project, developed sales forecasts and managed a $50M sales pipeline for the firm, and advised clients on Big Data product growth opportunities. While getting her MBA, Ms. Cryer also worked for Salt Creek Capital, a private equity firm focused on acquiring smaller operating businesses.
Earlier Ms. Cryer worked for three years as a Research Assistant for former Secretary of State, Dr. Condoleezza Rice. She focused her research on the potential for further democratic development in countries in Africa for Dr. Rice's book Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom and assisted Dr. Rice with her two other books, Extraordinary, Ordinary People and No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington.
Ms. Cryer holds a Bachelor's degree in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University as well as an MBA with a Certificate in Public Management and Social Innovation from Stanford's Graduate School of Business.
Paul L. (Lew) Davies founded The Cambria Group in 1996 and is its Managing Principal. He is an experienced private equity investor, having previously been a Principal in the leveraged buyout groups of both Brentwood Associates and The Fremont Group. Mr. Davies brings experience in all stages of the private equity process - identifying and sourcing opportunities, arranging financing for transactions, building management teams at both the functional and executive levels, assisting with portfolio company acquisition and divestiture programs, and exiting investments. He currently serves on seven corporate boards, as well as serving on the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution and the Advisory Council of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Formerly, he was a National Trustee of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, a Trustee of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and Vice Chairman of the Board for Menlo School.
Previously, Mr. Davies worked for Bechtel Group, Inc., a leading international engineering-construction firm, in both operating and financial roles. Mr. Davies' positions in project management, as well as field roles in procurement, construction and startup capacities, provided broad line management experience. In addition, Mr. Davies had leadership roles in Bechtel Enterprises, the company's project financing and investment arm, having opened its office in Saudi Arabia, with responsibility for all Middle Eastern activity, and having worked in numerous capacities in its merchant banking activities. He also served on the team established to secure the release of company personnel trapped during Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
Rich Kelley co-founded Search Fund Partners in 2004. He currently serves on the boards of Discovia, Pet Heaven, DCI, Lund Van Dyke, Verengo, Avadyne, RIA in a Box, ISC, and Medical Positioning, Inc.
Rich Kelley has been involved in numerous small businesses and start-up companies as an operator, owner, and investor. His varied experience includes: CFO of Score Learning Centers, CEO of San Jose Giants, General Partner of the Stanford Terrace Inn, developer of houses and subdivisions, owner of office buildings and hotels, investor in successful tech start-ups (Coinstar, PLX Technology, Corcept Therapeutics). He has also invested in many limited partnerships, including venture funds, and has been involved as a search fund investor since 1994.
Rich has an MBA from Stanford and a BA from Stanford. Rich and his wife Gina have two children, Riley and Sam. He has served as an elected school board trustee and is active with the Positive Coaching Alliance and Sustainable Conservation as an advisor.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director at Trilogy Search Partners
Scott is a Managing Director at Trilogy Search Partners. Most recently, he was on the investing team of Trilogy Equity Partners, where he is still a Partner. Previously, Scott spent 11 years at Western Wireless Corporation in various roles, including Chief Financial Officer of Western Wireless International which operated mobile networks in Europe, Africa, South America and the Caribbean. Scott graduated from Whitman College, where today he serves on the Board of Overseers, and he has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Todd Tracey joined Search Fund Partners in 2016 after acquiring, running, and successfully exiting HemaSource, a company he sourced through the search fund model. HemaSource is a distributor of medical disposable products to the blood therapies markets and at the time of the sale it was one of the most successful ‘single searcher' exits. Todd served as President and CEO of the company.
He currently participates on the boards of ComplianceLine, TDR, Detroit Dental, and Elevated Billing Solutions.
Prior to launching his search fund, Todd filled leadership roles in operations, sales, and finance for a variety of lower middle market companies. His broad industry background includes agriculture, telecommunications, web advertising and healthcare. He also worked as a Senior Associate for Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman).
Todd holds an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University where he was a Lerner Scholar and the Harry W. Gillies Management & Strategy Student of the Year. He graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College with an A.B. in Economics.