Chestnut Street Ventures Team

Bio: Brian is a seasoned venture capitalist with over 20 year of investing experience across a range of industries. Before joining Chestnut Street Ventures, Brian was the Managing Director for New York Ventures, the venture capital arm of the State of New York. Prior to New York Ventures, Brian was VP of Strategy & Corporate Development at Arbitron (now Nielsen Audio) and a Managing Director at the Peacock Fund, the venture capital arm of NBC Universal. Before joining the Peacock Fund, Brian worked at GE Capital and Bain & Co. Brian holds an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School and a BS in Industrial Engineering from The University of Southern California.
Notable Deals: Outlooksoft, The Rubicon Project, Adify, Unite Us

Bio: Jonathan is responsible for sourcing, conducting due diligence on, and executing venture capital investments at Chestnut Street Ventures. He previously spent 12 years investing in private companies at two single-family offices and at American Capital. Jonathan began his career as an investment banker as an analyst at Wasserstein Perella and subsequently joined Goldman Sachs as an associate. He received his BS in Economics cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his MBA with honors from Columbia Business School.

Bio: Prior to joining AVG, Jordan worked in consumer and commercial lending with New Hampshire based firms. A Massachusetts native, Jordan graduated with honors from Plymouth State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management with a focus in business law.

Bio: Taylor graduated from Southern New Hampshire University with a B.S. in Finance/Economics. Prior to joining Alumni Ventures Group, Taylor spent the early part of his career at Fidelity Investments as a licensed Financial Advisor, providing existing 401k clients with financial planning advice.

Bio: Adam Carn-Saferstein was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He attended college at UC Santa Barbara, where he studied Economics and played on the division 1 varsity soccer team. After school, Adam pursued professional soccer in Israel, playing with teams in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Prior to joining AVG, Adam worked for three and a half years at investment-manager AllianceBernstein, where he helped clients with wealth planning, asset allocation, and investment strategies.

Bio: Yuval is a leading expert in decision-making in the context of risk and the founder of the Pillars of Wealth financial literacy initiative for medical professionals. He is a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School, where he primarily teaches investments, corporate finance, wealth management, and risk and leadership courses. In 2015 he was awarded the school’s Excellence in Teaching Award and he’s received a Dean’s Award for Faculty Excellence each year from 2015 to 2018. Yuval is also the founder and president of the Light Brigade, LLC (a management consulting company) and the author of seven books, including the Pillars of Wealth book series for doctors and Leveraging People for a Corporate Turnaround (also available in Chinese). Prior to launching The Light Brigade, Yuval held senior strategy and operations roles with some of the world’s leading risk management firms, notably KMV and Algorithmics. His roles have included managerial responsibilities in New York, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Singapore, and Sydney. His risk management expertise has assisted global financial institutions in management of over a trillion dollars in assets. Yuval has lectured extensively in academic, government, and corporate settings on the subjects of risk management and financial literacy. He’s been a contributor on Forbes.com and has been quoted in various media, including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Reuters, USA Today, The Baltimore Sun, TheStreet.com, WTOP radio, American Public Media, FoxBusiness.com, Bankrate.com, Washingtonian, Investopedia.com, AdvisorOne.com, InvestmentNews.com, The Arizona Republic, Consumers Digest, US News & World Report, Treasury; Risk, Morningstar.com, RIABiz.com, WalletHub.com, Sweet Fish Media, Progressive Dentist Magazine, the Journal of Medical Practice Management, Cureus, and The Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions. Yuval holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an engineering degree (B.Eng.) and two economics degrees (B.A. summa cum laude, M.A.) from Canada’s McMaster University. As a college student he was a member of the varsity wrestling and rugby teams, and prior to that a provincially ranked gymnast.

Bio: Nidhi is a highly-experienced early – stage generalist investor as well as a consultant and strategic advisor to numerous founders and start-ups. She is a member of the Investment Committee of Wharton Alumni Angels as well as the sector lead for cybersecurity and co-sector lead for retail / e-commerce at Harvard Alumni Angels Association of Greater New York. Nidhi has over a decade of experience in investing in public equities as a generalist, with a focus on US small and mid-cap growth equities. Most recently, Nidhi was a generalist portfolio manager at RBC Global Asset Management, covering the small, SMID and mid-cap growth strategies. Prior to joining RBC, Nidhi was a research analyst primarily focused on small cap strategies as a generalist at Fred Alger Management. She began her career in the investment industry as a global consumer analyst at Sursum Capital and OppenheimerFunds. Her prior experience includes working within investment banking in both mergers and acquisitions and restructuring advisory, at Greenhill & Co and Goldman Sachs, and in corporate finance at McKinsey & Co. She earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Bio: Martha Cummings is a global leader with extensive financial services expertise including investment banking, regulatory supervision, risk management, and business transformation. She established and built out an enterprise Compliance function at Wells Fargo, leading a major transformation for the firm. While at the Federal Reserve, Martha was the senior supervisor for several large global banks and represented the US on the Basel Supervision Implementation Group. She was Chief Risk Officer for Banco Santander NY and Santander Investment Securities, and later led financial sponsor client coverage. Earlier in her career, Martha led groundbreaking capital markets transactions for public and private Latin American clients and advised global companies on M&A and financing strategies. Martha is an Executive Leadership Fellow for the Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota. Martha holds an MBA from the Wharton School and an MA in International Studies from the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management & International Studies, and earned a BA in Economics with a minor in Spanish from the University of Minnesota. She speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese.

Bio: David is currently an MBA candidate at the Wharton School. Prior to Wharton, David worked for Geolo Capital, the private equity arm of John Prtizker’s family office, where he focused on early stage / VC investments and real estate equity / debt investments in hospitality and multifamily. At Geolo, he invested in Fra’Mani, OriLiving, Livly and WhyHotel. He has also angel invested in several companies primarily in the CPG and hospitality space. David received a BS in Hotel Administration from Cornell University and during his time on campus co-founded a Mexican food truck, Dos Amigos.

Bio: Steven Finn was cofounder of LocalStove (Acquired Summer 2018 by HUNGRY Marketplace Inc), a marketplace connecting the best local, independent chefs with corporate catering customers. He launched LocalStove during the final semester of his Wharton MBA (WG ’16 – Entrepreneurial Management). He cofounded his first company (RentMine.com) as an undergrad at Wharton (W ’08 – Operations and Information Management). He holds a third Penn degree, a Masters in Engineering (GEng ’10 – Computer and information Technology). Earlier, he was at Bloomberg LP for four years as a full stack software engineer in their Internal Systems/CRM group. He lives in NJ with his wife and three children.Steven Finn was cofounder of LocalStove (Acquired Summer 2018 by HUNGRY Marketplace Inc), a marketplace connecting the best local, independent chefs with corporate catering customers. He launched LocalStove during the final semester of his Wharton MBA (WG ’16 – Entrepreneurial Management). He cofounded his first company (RentMine.com) as an undergrad at Wharton (W ’08 – Operations and Information Management). He holds a third Penn degree, a Masters in Engineering (GEng ’10 – Computer and information Technology). Earlier, he was at Bloomberg LP for four years as a full stack software engineer in their Internal Systems/CRM group. He lives in NJ with his wife and three children.

Bio: Brian is a former audit partner and operational leader at KPMG LLP, where he was National Private Markets Group Leader and National Co-Leader Venture Capital in addition to a full client portfolio. He has nearly 40 years of diversified experience in public accounting, with a unique specialization as a lead client services partner serving venture capital and private equity–backed portfolio companies as well as public companies. Client work included supporting entrepreneurs with high-growth companies from the development stage, through subsequent rounds of financings and other capital formation transactions, on to an IPO or acquisition by a larger market participant. Brian has heavily invested in the leadership training and development of entrepreneurs to fuel the growth and success of their companies. He earned his BS in Economics and his MBA from Wharton.

Bio: Richard Goozh is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for building, professionalizing and financing technology companies. His career spans founding companies, investment banking and Fortune 500 leadership roles. Richard’s recent C-level roles were with private biotech companies focused on biological media and molecular diagnostics, including leading the highly successful sale to a leading Private Equity buyer. Richard has led dozens of financing and M&A initiatives.

Bio: Alka is a fortune 500 executive and tech entrepreneur with deep experience in digital transformations, fintech, marketplaces, identity, growth, and globalization. She has been at the beginning of some of the most significant disruptions and platforms including search, ecommerce, mobile, payments, and blockchain at both early stage and public companies. She has done so working globally across US, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. Alka is a Co-Founder and Board Director at globaliD, a venture backed, portable, and interoperable identity platform leveraging the blockchain. Prior, she was head of Strategy at eBay Marketplaces at eBay/PayPal. Earlier on, she was at Lycos, the first search engine to go public, where she served as head of Strategy and Corporate Development and earlier on as General Manager of a global suite of products. Alka received an MBA from The Wharton School and B.S. (cum laude) from Case Western Reserve University. She is a Board Director at globaliD, Digital Frontiers, and Fintel AI. She has served as a guest lecturer at both The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and The University of Michigan on the topics of Digital Transformations, How to Manage in Hyper Growth Environments, and Blockchain Use Cases and Payments. She serves on the Finance and Audit Board Committee, MPCSD; How Women Lead World Executive Committee; World Economic Forum Digital Advisory Council; a Distinguished Wharton Women in Business Alumna Award Nominee.

Bio: Vijay has over 25 years of experience in investing, operations, technology entrepreneurship and strategic consulting. Vijay was formerly Head of Strategy and M&A for Broadridge Financial Solutions, where he invested over $800M across 14 acquisitions and minority investments, developed the firm’s growth strategy and incubated a number of innovative ventures. Vijay helped increase Broadridge’s market cap by over 5x from $2.5B to $15B. Prior to Broadridge, Vijay worked at BCG in New York, at private equity firm Invus Opportunities and co-founded and sold an AdTech data and analytics company, in addition to being a successful angel investor. Vijay started his career working as a software engineer on fixed income trading platforms at SBC Warburg and Accenture, Vijay received an MBA from Wharton where he received the Sol Snyder Award for Entrepreneurship and a BA and MA in Physics form Oxford University. Vijay currently has P&L responsibility running one of Broadridge’s largest SaaS franchises and driving technology innovation in distributed ledger technology, artificial intelligence and pre- and post-trade execution platforms.

Bio: Deana has 20 years of experience in executive leadership, corporate development and investment banking. She is the former President and CEO of Torn Ranch, a luxury CPG company based in Sonoma, California. Prior to Torn Ranch, she led M&A and due diligence efforts for BAE Systems and was a technology investment banker with Credit Suisse. Deana earned her BS in Economics from The Wharton School, BA in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania, MSc in Aeronautical Engineering from Imperial College, London, and Executive MBA from Georgetown University.

Bio: Chris has over 30 years of investment management and finance experience, including multiple C-Suite roles at Assurant, a Fortune 500 multi-national insurance company. During his 23-year career with the Company, he held a variety of leadership roles, including Chief Investment Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Risk Officer. Chris has a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Bio: Eric is a Director of Speyside Equity, a PE firm, where he oversees sourcing, analysis, financial modeling, transaction structuring, and operational optimization. Previously, he was President & CEO of Kelix Heat Transfer Systems, a manufacturer focused on the geothermal HVAC space. Eric also held progressive roles at Eaton Corporation and Hilti Corporation, where he completed mergers and acquisitions, opened an automotive plant in Mexico, ran the marketing department, and led the salesforce. He has degrees from the University of Notre Dame and Wharton.

Bio: Lynn is a second-year joint-degree candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, pursuing an MBA from The Wharton School of Business and a Master of Arts in international studies from The Lauder Institute. Lynn spent this past summer working with SPRK, a Wharton-founded seed-stage technology startup endeavoring to make the global food supply chain food-waste-free. Prior to Wharton, she worked at Morgan Stanley as an equity research associate covering North American metals and mining companies. Lynn holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from New York University.

Bio: David is the Head of Partnerships at Somatix, where he works on advancing AI-Powered Remote Patient Monitoring and gesture detection technology with hospitals, senior care homes, and substance abuse rehab centers. David has done a lot of work in healthcare both commercially and academically, including writing a masters course on economics in healthcare for Penn Medicine. While at school, David designed an award-winning healthcare incubator and led consulting projects for pharmaceutical and digital therapeutics companies. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Biology and a B.S. in Economics and Healthcare Management from Wharton.

Bio: Min is a tech enthusiast and she is passionate about integrating technology, product and business together. Currently Min is the engineering manager in Corporate Technology at TE Connectivity with over 10 plus years of professional experience in cross-functional technology solutions development, alliance/partnership programs, technology scouting, market analysis as well as business strategy. Min holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University of New York.

Bio: Polina is currently pursuing an MBA at Wharton. She is passionate about early-stage venture; industry interests include cybersecurity, encryption, AI/ML, fintech, real estate, and retail tech. While at Wharton, Polina was working with early-stage companies Bungalow and ClearCare and spent her summer at Maverick Ventures, an early-stage arm of Maverick Capital. Prior to Wharton, Polina was an engagement manager at McKinsey and Company leading strategy development, global and local product launches and operational improvement efforts across technology companies in the US, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

Bio: Ramesh is a seasoned executive, an entrepreneur, and a technologist with a demonstrated track-record in hi-tech markets and products. He has deep knowledge and experience in High Performance Cluster & Cloud Computing, Applied AI/Machine-Learning, Cybersecurity, Wired/Wireless Telecommunications, and Distributed Software System Design. He has co-founded a Cybersecurity startup where he led its product/technology strategy and engineering operations. Ramesh has an MBA (for Executives) from University of Pennsylvania – The Wharton School (General Management and Finance), BS (IIT Kanpur) and MS in Computer Science.

Bio: Phuong is the founder of P.MAI, a women’s bag brand that combines luxury and utility. Prior to that, she worked as a senior strategist and management consultant, advising corporations on change management, marketing, sustainability, and leadership. She is a graduate from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Bio: Mark brings over 10 years of professional experience in investment banking, advisory services, capital markets, and consulting from his roles at RBC Capital Markets, Pacific Investment Management Company, Goldman Sachs, and U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets). Mark is passionate about clean technology, user experiences, and social impact investing. He has particular interests in veteran founded startups and has advised both investors and founders in early-stage capital raises. Mark holds an MBA from Cornell, an MPA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA from the University of California, Riverside.

Bio: Gagan is a Product Management executive with experience in bringing to market innovative Enterprise SaaS products in big data analytics, information governance, cyber security and privacy domains. Currently, he is leading product management at NVISNx, a data analytics start-up focused on classifying and protecting “crown jewels” for F500 and growing start-ups. In the past, Gagan worked at EY where he developed the tools and methodologies to operationalize strategy for GDPR compliance. Earlier, he worked with ZL Technologies leading Product Management and Professional Services for ZL’s Information Governance & Data Analytics platform. Gagan holds a Master’s Degree in Biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Technology from Jaypee Institute of Information Technology University.

Bio: Keaston is a former active-duty Air Force contingency contracting officer and Federal government procurement consultant who has managed approximately $5.5+ billion in U.S. taxpayer-funded business requirements. He is relentlessly curious and deeply passionate about civic and social innovations at the nexus of education, health+wellness, and finance. And, he is currently a doctoral (Ed.D.) student in the Penn Chief Learning Officer (PennCLO) program with research interests in diversity, equity, and inclusion; sustainability leadership and corporate responsibility; and, impact investing.

Bio: Vincent is currently an MBA candidate at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Prior to Wharton, Vincent was an engineer with over 5 years of experience spanning medical devices and biopharma. During his tenure, he launched multiple life-saving therapies for patients suffering from neurological disorders. Vincent holds a BS from UC Berkeley and an MS in chemical engineering from Stanford University.

Bio: Life sciences executive with extensive strategic, operational and investment expertise from R&D to commercialization in the US, EU and China. Currently heading Pfizer’s external strategy and scientific affairs within Pfizer’s early stage partnering organization, focusing on new idea incubation, therapeutics and AI. Doctor of Pharmacy, MS in Physiology and Wharton MBA major in Finance.