Jackie Kopcho is the CEO of Tortorella Group, the East End’s largest pool services company. For 40 years Tortorella have been engineering, building, and servicing some of the world’s most complex swimming pools. Jackie has held leadership positions in a variety of companies; with over twelve years of experience in business strategy, operations, marketing, and finance. Jackie holds a BBA from Fordham University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Charles is the CEO and Founder of Rebag, the most trusted resource in luxury resale. Prior to starting the company, Charles spent some time at online fashion rental company Rent the Runway, where he fell in love with collaborative consumption. Since then he has been on a mission to make secondary behavior the standard for luxury goods. Before becoming an entrepreneur he worked in the finance industry at Goldman Sachs and in private equity at TPG Capital. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Masters in Management from HEC-Paris.
Deborah is Avesta’s CEO and her career spans a variety of sales, product management and strategy roles. She most recently led a sales team at a Boston-based startup, where she helped to build a new segment of the business. She previously led operations teams at J.P. Morgan in identifying cost savings opportunities, designing and implementing operational solutions and in developing new products.
While her experiences have given her the confidence to pursue this entrepreneurial path, she is proudest of the lifelong relationships she’s cultivated from work. She holds a BSc. from Brigham Young University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Alex Spencer is the CEO of Solen Ventures and a Software Engineer and Product Leader who has built software that millions use daily. He was an early Software Engineer on the Amazon Echo & Alexa platform. He worked on Alexa’s “brain” — the AI/ML software that powers 100M+ Alexa-enabled devices. At Amazon he founded a team that has over 2,000 employees today. He has built APIs and artificial intelligence web services with millions of transactions per second. Alex’s career experiences include software engineering, early-stage software entrepreneurship, founding a social venture in Mozambique, venture capital investing, and managing machine learning, engineering, product management, and design teams. Alex attended Harvard’s MBA program and holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science from Brigham Young University, where he graduated Tau Beta Pi and obtained the degree in just over 3 years, while founding and selling a Machine Learning software product.
Brigid is the CEO of Aevcor. She’s leading a company that best serves the Office of the CFO. She is committed to a lifelong career in small business. This passion stems from growing up alongside a small electrical services business launched by her parents in Brisbane, Australia. Prior to Aevcor, Brigid was a consultant with McKinsey & Company, where she focused on strategy and organizational transformations. She also led growth and strategy for a capability building product incubated within McKinsey.
Brigid has an Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Stanford University, Master of Laws (LLM) from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Queensland.
Stijn Giesberts is CEO of Eclipse Group, Europe’s fastest growing communications management as a service software company. Previously Stijn was a Partner at Ernst & Young Technology Consulting, providing Software Financial Services Consulting. Stijn specializes in Cyber and Information Security and spent 9 years at EY before becoming CEO at Eclipse.
Haris Khan serves as Chief Executive Officer at BWS. He was the Principal of Sonmarg Capital. He was previously an Investment Manager at Alcuin Capital Partners, a UK focused lower-mid market Private Equity fund, where he was responsible for sourcing, executing and monitoring transactions. Prior to this, he worked at Risk Capital Partners, Luke Johnson’s (formerly Chairman of Channel4 and PizzaExpress) Private Equity fund. He holds a BA Business Economics from the University of Exeter and an MBA from INSEAD.
Chad Mitchell is the Founder and CFO of Bleecker Street Group; a Supply Chain Software Holding Company for Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain and Storage. Chad has an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and is currently the CEO of MarineCFO, the maritime industry’s leader with technology and services that have elevated company operations through standard and customized solutions.
Tyrel is a Canadian Harvard Business School graduate and former ExxonMobil engineer with a passion for operations, family and the outdoors. He is currently the CEO of Transtech.
Christopher is co-CEO of CW Group and is a Strategic operator with +14 years of experience launching, scaling, transforming, optimizing and managing a variety operations in multiple countries including with P&L responsibility within PE and VC backed businesses. He has led and built teams of up to 270 people from >20 nationalities, including over multiple continents. This IESE (MBA) graduate is excited about building and leading high-performing teams, transforming and scaling ambitious businesses, and solving strategic and operational challenges that slow business growth.
Gabriel is CFO of CW Group and a commercially focused Finance Director with experience across media advertising, entertainment, technology, software companies, SaaS, and services is passionate about developing the business and building relationship. Gabriel’s extensive international experience, both across EMEA and into the US, includes rapid expansion and opening new geographies. He has led finance teams; flexible to be both hands-on and strategic and broad exposure to fast growth companies in both B2B and B2C. Gabriel has strong finance professional skills in FP&A, Commercial Finance, M&A, Pricing, Financial Modeling, Cash Management and Transformation.
Philip is a serial software entrepreneur in the field of cloud based platform business. He is founder and CEO of Apaleo, a Munich Germany based company developing a next generation cloud platform for the hospitality industry. Philip has successfully built up cloud platforms in various industries for almost 20 years. Having built up a nationwide logistics platform in the late 90’s, he cofounded conject in the year 2000, which became Europe’s market leader in real estate management and was sold to Aconex and later became part of Oracle. In 2013, he joined hetras, the first true Cloud PMS for hotel chains and grew the business until the company was acquired by the stock listed travel corporate Shiji Technologies. Philip acts as advisor for startups and has also invested in various innovative software companies with experience in Strategic Application Planning for European Logistics Provider and IT consulting in various industries.
Jeffrey Eschbach is the Founder & President of Page Vault Inc., a Professor at Kellogg, Angel Investor and Public Speaker. Graduate degrees in both business and engineering, MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University; BSCEE & MSEE, Purdue University. He is the Principal & Founder of Chicago Early Growth Ventures and a Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship Program Outreach Lead for Executive/EMBA and E&W Programs. Jeffrey experienced a lot of startup success – has raised multiple funding rounds, and navigated the entire startup lifecycle, from initial concept to successful exit. Extensive high-tech innovation leadership, in both large corporation (intrapreneurship) and startup (entrepreneurship) settings. Passion for building new products & businesses, with assignments across the US, Latin America and Asia.
Johanna is the CEO at EvoText, with a demonstrated history of working in the e-learning industry. Skilled in Product Lifecycle Management, Educational Technology, Instructional Design, Market Research, and Management. She is a strong entrepreneurship professional with an Ed.D focused in Leadership and Learning from Vanderbilt University and an Ed.M focused in International Education Development from Boston University.
Remy Harrewijn is the CEO of Chateau Amsterdam, Europe’s first urban winery. Remy is an experienced creative strategist specialized in branding, growth strategies and new business modelling. Remy is also a seasoned investment manager. Remy holds a BSc in Economics and an MSc in Business from the University of Utrecht.
Gerrit is the CEO of Boxie24 Storage, a leading on-demand Self Storage platform. With low churn and dependable recurring revenue, Boxie24 succeeds in on-demand and full service storage solutions. Prior to Boxie24 Storage, Gerrit worked as an Auditor at Deloitte, acting as a trusted business advisor providing audit and advisory services for a number of Deloitte’s international clients, publicly listed or part of a private equity portfolio focusing on consumer and industrial products. Gerrit holds a BBA and a Masters degree in Finance from Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Rotterdam School of Management.
Mark is the CEO of WeSendHelp, a Florida based mobile pers monitoring company. Mark is an accomplished 20+ year security industry veteran with an extensive technical background in hardware and software application development. Specialties include central station technology integration and communications, mPERS, GPS, M2M communications and applications, security software development, emerging technologies, design and implementation of innovative solutions to meet customer needs.
Parham Alizadeh is the founder and CEO at Verdocs. An alum of Emory University, Parham is passionate about the intersection of technology and productivity, and particularly, the positive impact that can result when people can experience a better way of doing things. He is interested in connecting with people that are not only talented and experienced, but demonstrate enthusiasm in what they do best and believe that their contribution in any shape and form can truly make a difference.
Hugo is Mors Transmission’s CEO. Mors is a search fund with the goal to acquire a privately held company with 2-5m EBITDA in France. Having years of M&A experience with SAUR, Hugo holds an MBA from INSEAD, an MSc from Imperial College London and a BSc from EPFL.
Most recently the global strategy director with Zero and prior to that head of strategy of Heathrow Airports, Katriona has spearheaded $1 billion+ investments at an ASX20 tech company. She started her career with Thomson Reuters, Accenture and Ernst & Young. Partnered with SMEVentures Kat is searching for one privately held company in the Australia/Asia Pacific region and she holds an undergraduate degree from UNSW in Sydney and an MBA from the University of Sydney.
Jaime is the CEO of Dangalena Capital, Europe’s first fund performing a search for a privately held winery or wine industry affiliate in Spain. With extensive food and beverage industry experience as COO, Director, and Manager, Jaime’s profile is suitable to the industry specific search. In addition, Jaime holds an MBA from IESE Business School
Mansour Afshoon is SMB Transition’s CEO. SMB is looking for a North American company to acquire and Novidam is assisting the search. Mansour has private equity experience in Europe and holds an MBA from INSEAD. Novidam has supported Mansour iearlier in his entrepreneurial career as well.
Jack is Cork Capital’s Managing Partner and President. Cork Capital is a search fund with aspiration to acquire one privately held company in the United States 2-5m EBITDA. With a previous career at the McChrystal Group in growth and management, and private equity experience, Jack also holds an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and a B.A. from Georgetown University.
Adrian Bezler is the Managing Partner at Seqos Capital. Seqos is currently searching for its first privately held company in the DACH region.