Meet Your Investment Team
Classmates and fellow investors who help create your venture portfolio
Steve Greenberg
Managing Partner
Steve has over 20 years of operating and investing experience, having closed 30+ equity, debt, and M&A transactions totaling ~$5 billion. Previously, he was Founder and Managing Partner of Fox Meadow Capital Partners, a PE and infrastructure investment and advisory firm. Prior to that, he was a General Partner and top performer at Clarity Partners, an $800M PE fund, and a Vice President and top performer at Clarity’s predecessor, Rader Reinfrank & Co., a $100M TMT venture capital fund. While at Clarity, Steve founded ImpreMedia, which he built into the largest Spanish language newspaper company in the US as CFO/EVP of Corporate Development. Steve has also worked in investment banking and as a developer and investor in energy and utilities. He has a JD from Stanford, an MBA from Cornell, and a BS with distinction from Cornell’s College of Engineering. Steve teaches Advanced Private Equity at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and serves on the advisory council of the Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy (CPIP).
Wesley Yiu
Senior Associate
Wesley has a background in both technology and investing. Previously, he served as a product manager at BlackRock Solutions. While at BlackRock, he helped grow and scale their enterprise risk analytics platform, including facilitating the on-boarding of a $300 bn AUM client. He later transitioned to a traditional investment role where he worked as an investment strategist for the fixed income division of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which manages over $400 bn in AUM across macro and credit strategies. He is also the author of the blog The Unofficial VC. Wesley received his BS from the College of Engineering at Cornell University.
Investment Committee
Classmates and fellow investors who help create your venture portfolio
Ian Bednowitz
Ian Bednowitz is currently Senior Director of Asia-Pacific Business Development for eBay, where he is primarily responsible for growing eBay’s presence in Greater China and in India. Previously he led the Corporate Development team for eBay Marketplaces (before the spin-off of PayPal) for five years. His team deployed over $1B in capital across over 20 global M&A and investment transactions during that time. Before joining eBay, Ian spent almost seven years at Bain & Company where he worked with executive teams of Fortune 500 companies and private equity firms across a variety of mostly consumer-oriented sectors to address critical issues in strategy, operations and execution. Ian has also created multiple online courses on Udemy, an online learning platform, to help entrepreneurs raise capital, grow their business and sell their companies.
Dr. Philip Farese BS ’96
INVESTMENT COMMITTEE FOR TRIPHAMMER VENTURES
Dr. Philip Farese serves as the Chief of Staff to Matthew Granade, the Head of Market Intelligence at Point72 Asset Management. Phil served as the Chief Strategy Officer at Enphase Energy, a leader in the Solar market, and as CTO for Advantix Systems, a global leader in energy efficient humidity and climate control. Dr. Farese began his corporate career at McKinsey & Company where he served high-tech, non-profit, and energy sector clients. Dr. Farese coauthored the McKinsey report Unlocking Efficiency in the U.S. Economy before joining the National Renewable Energy Laboratory where he continued his study and support of energy efficiency by developing a tool to prioritize energy efficiency investments with findings published by the journal Nature. He was fellow at Princeton University for three years. Dr. Farese holds his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara where he studied Cosmology and made observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background.
David Braunstein, MBA ’98
David Braunstein has a distinguished career spanning two decades in entrepreneurial business development. He is known for breaking new ground using “connected” analytics solutions driven by emerging technologies, including adtech, blockchain and the Internet of Things. Braunstein has been an Industry Innovation Lead at IBM where his work spanned five continents. He also held senior roles in strategy, analytics, and innovation within eBay’s marketing services organization. His ability to quarterback complex, cross-functional collaboration to drive business value has helped him succeed across many global industries. He has mentored many startups throughout his career and is an expert in Design Thinking, product-market fit and go- to-market strategy.
Braunstein is currently serving as President of Together for Safer Roads. His leadership is helping scale and sustain the global coalition’s efforts to improve road safety and save lives. He is responsible for overseeing the organization’s strategic direction on behalf of Together for Safer Roads’ Governing Board and membership, implementing Together for Safer Roads-supported local demonstration projects, advancing TSR’s thought leadership, building key partnerships, and increasing the coalition’s connections to the international road safety community.
Gautam Chandra, MBA ’94
INVESTMENT COMMITTEE FOR TRIPHAMMER VENTURES
Gautam Chandra is a private investor and entrepreneur through his company, CHANDRA VENTURES, LLC, investing and working with emerging growth companies focused on disrupting traditional industries through the application of leading edge technologies.
Gautam brings skills in Strategy, Operations, and Strategic Finance acquired through 30 years of experience both as a senior executive in large publicly traded companies and as an entrepreneur taking companies from inception to successful exits. He has been the principal deal maker in over 50 buy or sell transactions valued over $9 billion in aggregate.
Prior to his current position Gautam was responsible for all of WGL Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: WGL) competitive businesses with annual revenue approaching $2 billion and also all strategy and business development activities for WGL. He led the $6.4 billion merger of WGL into AltaGas. He was founder and CEO of SmartEnergy, Inc., an energy technology company, until its sale to Alliant Energy (NYSE: LNT) in 2001.
Gautam holds a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech and a Master’s in Business Administration from the Johnson School at Cornell University.
Steve Hubbard, MBA ’95
INVESTMENT COMMITTEE FOR TRIPHAMMER VENTURES
Mr. Hubbard has over 25 years of experience in the wireless and communications sectors. He founded RTO Wireless with Rob Reagan. RTO Wireless is a Microsoft Airband partner and is building out fixed wireless networks to deliver broadband to rural markets.
Prior to co-founding RTO Wireless, he serves as the Director, CFO and EVP of Corporate Development and was responsible for all financial, tax, audit and financing matters. Additionally, Mr. Hubbard directly negotiated all roaming and spectrum contracts with AT&T and is the primary contact for AT&T for all non-engineering activities. In July 2018, AT&T agreed to acquire the Northeast Wireless network.
Prior to joining Northeast Wireless in July 2012, Mr. Hubbard was a partner at Daniels & Associates, a premier investment bank in the wireless and cable sectors. Daniels was acquired by Royal Bank of Canada in January 2007, after which he became a Director at RBC. Mr. Hubbard advised on more than $1 billion of wireless transactions during his time at Daniels and RBC. Prior to Daniels, he was responsible for managing a $500 million portfolio of equity investments in the Communications and Technology sectors for Bethlehem Steel Pension Trust. Mr. Hubbard was a financial analyst for AT&T in Bedminster, NJ and Basking Ridge, NJ.
Mr. Hubbard earned an MBA at Cornell University’s Johnson School and a B.A. in Economics at Hobart College.
Kamal Mehta, MS ’84
INVESTMENT COMMITTEE FOR TRIPHAMMER VENTURES
Kamal Mehta has over thirty years of experience in global capital markets. As a private investor he invests in multiple asset classes with a view to analysis and integration of the macro environment, portfolio construction and trade design. He also allocates capital to specialized managers in in longer lead time investments like Private Equity, Real Estate and Venture Capital.
As the founding partner of Acies Capital Management, he formulated and implemented the investment strategies for the firm’s credit arbitrage and relative value funds and successfully raised funds from the US institutional investors. He served as the firm’s chief investment officer and was responsible for the portfolio construction and risk management of portfolios entailing debt, equity, structured credit portfolio instruments and related derivative products.
Prior to Acies Capital, Mr. Mehta worked at Natixis (formerly CDC IXIS) as Head of Interest Rate Derivatives and also Managing Director of Credit Markets where he structured and originated investments for the firm’s asset-backed special purpose vehicles.
Previously Mr. Mehta was Executive Director at Union Bank of Switzerland, in New York and London, where he was responsible for market making and proprietary trading of the bank’s fixed income derivative products.
Before joining UBS, Mr. Mehta worked at Lehman Brothers as Vice President of Interest Rates where he was responsible for developing mathematical models for market making and risk management of fixed income derivative and exotic products. He pioneered Lehman’s efforts in synthetic mortgage swaps, Bermuda and US treasury index linked options. Prior to that assignment, he advised the firm’s institutional clients on portfolio strategies designed to replicate the Lehman Bond Indices.
Mr. Mehta received a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Columbia University and received a Masters of Science degree from the School of Operations and Research at Cornell University. He is the co-owner of a U.S. patent for a semiconductor technology design that he developed during his tenure at National Semiconductor Corporation.
Dan Friedberg, MBA ’87
INVESTMENT COMMITTEE FOR TRIPHAMMER VENTURES
Daniel M. (“Dan”) Friedberg is Managing Partner at Hampstead Park Capital Management, which he founded in 2016. Previously Dan founded and was Managing Partner and CEO of Sagard Capital Partners, which invested in more than 30 companies in the U.S and Canada. Prior to Sagard, Dan was a partner at Bain and Company, where he was a leader in the private equity business.
Dan received his MBA in 1987 from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell and a Bachelor of Science honors degree in 1984 from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, in England. He is on the Advisory Council at the Cornell Johnson College of Business and has served on a number public company boards, including X-Rite Corporation (XRIT), GP Strategies Inc. (GPX), and InnerWorkings Inc. (INWK).
Tony Chen, BS ’97
INVESTMENT COMMITTEE FOR TRIPHAMMER VENTURES
Tony Chen is Managing Director of Kinyungu Ventures, an investment/advisory group focused on early-stage ventures in emerging markets. He is also Chairman/Owner of FDAzilla, a high-profit, high-growth SaaS business Tony served as Founding CEO for seven years. Tony’s first media start-up, Hospital Impact, was acquired by FierceMarkets in 2009. Tony earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Northwestern Kellogg School of Management.
Peter Cai, BS ’97
INVESTMENT COMMITTEE FOR TRIPHAMMER VENTURES
Peter is a co-founding partner of Canvass Capital, an opportunistic real estate private equity firm focused on real estate and technology-enabled operating businesses. Previously, he worked for Lone Star Funds, BlackRock, Wells Fargo, and Merrill Lynch in capital markets and structured finance. Across multiple disciplines, he has structured financing and investment transactions in excess of $20 billion. Peter is a graduate of Cornell University in Applied Economics and Management.
Advisors
Classmates and fellow advisors who help create your venture portfolio
Tony Diab, MBA ’12
Venture Advisor for Triphammer Ventures
Tony is part of the Financial Markets practice at PwC, based in New York City, where he services private equity and venture capital firms in regards to portfolio company valuation, governance, and technology. Prior to joining PwC, Tony was at Ronin Capital, where he specialized in identifying undervalued companies who could create shareholder value through special situations. Tony has an M.B.A. from Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management, a Private Equity & Venture Capital program from Harvard Business School, a Graduate Diploma in Finance from McGill University, and a B.A. degree in Economics from Concordia University.
Adam Simons, BS ’01
Venture Partner for Triphammer Ventures
A maverick, systems thinker, and champion for growth. Adam Simons is a Bay Area based investor, adviser, and business operator. Adam regularly works with
emerging companies at all phases of growth. Adam sits on several advisory boards and regularly counsels founding teams on a variety of business issues. Throughout his career, Adam has had a number of interesting “day jobs” as well – currently he’s the Head of Emerging Brands at Clorox. He has responsibility for leading the strategy, operations, and P&L of a high growth part of the company’s portfolio. Adam has an MBA from NYU-Stern and an undergrad degree from Cornell University. He lives in Oakland, CA with his wife (an M&A partner at Goodwin), two precocious kids, and a giant St. Bernard.
Jordan Bloom, BS ’11
Venture Advisor for Triphammer Ventures
Jordan is a founding partner of South Ave Capital, a boutique investment firm based out of New York. He focuses on asset-backed lending and opportunistic equity investments across numerous industries and asset classes. Prior to founding South Ave Capital, he was an investment professional at Aristeia Capital, a multi-billion dollar multi-strategy investment fund. While there, he focused on credit and special situation investments, between $10 and $200M in size, across a wide range of industries. Before that, Jordan worked as a research analyst on the Special Situations Desk at the Royal Bank of Scotland. He graduated cum laude from Cornell University with a BS in Finance, and from Columbia Business School with an MBA. He currently is a member of the Advisory Council for Entrepreneurship at Cornell.
Dr. Andres Jiminez, M.D., MBA ’19, M.S.’19
Venture Advisor for Triphammer Ventures
Andres spent the last decade on the non-clinical, entrepreneurship side of healthcare and is author of the book Healthcare IT Entrepreneurship. His first company leveraged both his background as a physician and educator to develop a data-driven personalized training platform used by physicians in over 1,000 hospitals and clinics throughout North America, including the largest health system in Canada and fifth largest nonprofit health system in the US. Today, Andres is focused on tackling challenging healthcare issues that rely on physician engagement to generate value. He graduated from the Dartmouth/Brown combined medical program, completed two years of general surgery at Emory University, and an educational leadership fellowship at USC School of Medicine. He has a Master’s in education from Capella University, and is currently in the EMBA/MS in Healthcare leadership program at Cornell, Class of 2019.
Venture Fellows
Select group of young Cornell alums participating in our Venture Fellow Program
Joshua Jahani
Joshua Jahani is an investment banker, author, and teacher. He specializes in maximizing M&A and capital raising value through the development and identification of intangible assets for healthcare, advertising, insurance, and technology companies. He holds numerous advisory roles for startups and Fortune 500 companies through Jahani and Associates (J&A), Cornell Tech, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, NYU Entrepreneurial Lab, and other global organizations.
Jahani and Associates (J&A) is an investment bank advisory firm headquartered in New York City. The firm has advised on billions of M&A and capital markets deal flow for startups and Fortune 500 clients. The firm specializes in applying FASB and IAS rules to maximize corporate value associated with intangible assets and business combinations. J&A’s proprietary frameworks are built on three criteria for maximizing corporate value: separability, measurability, and predictability.
J&A’s success is predicated on bringing deep technology expertise to the M&A and capital raising markets. In 2017, the firm started providing blockchain advisory services for enterprise clients. Bringing together traditional banking principles with blockchain and tokenomics allows the firm to maintain its rapidly expanding global reach.
Aaron Steffensmeier, MBA ’11
Community Engagement Fellow
Aaron currently is a Vice President in the Capital Markets division of Webster Bank. Prior to Webster, Aaron served as Vice President of Credit at TD Securities where he was responsible for structuring and executing middle market loan transactions in the communications, media, and technology sector, committing over $2Bn of capital to facilitate acquisitions, dividend recapitalizations, and refinancings. Aaron holds a B.S. in Computer Science and B.A. in Economics from the University of Maryland, and an MBA from Cornell University.
Neiman Tan, BS ’12, mEng ’13
Venture Fellow
Cornell University
Neiman (B.A. ’12, MEng ’13) currently works on the Android Business Operations and Strategy team at Google. Previously, Neiman worked at OnDeck Capital, primarily as a Data Scientist in a variety of projects spanning data science, international growth initiatives and strategic partnerships. Earlier in his career, Neiman was a management consultant at PwC, where he helped develop go-to-market strategies and predictive models for several Fortune 500 companies. Neiman holds a B.A. ‘12 with honors in Chemistry and an MEng ’13 in Operations Research, both from Cornell University.
Eric Lo, mEng ’06
Venture Fellow
Cornell University
Eric is an aerospace and defense professional currently at Booz Allen Hamilton, a management and technology consulting firm. He supports both clients and senior leaders of Booz Allen in advancing their corporate capabilities during a time of great engineering and economic changes in the A&D sector. Eric is also active in the aerospace startup community, helping entrepreneurs and nascent companies reach their full potential through formal mentorship and business development support. Prior to Booz Allen, Eric worked on some of the most technologically advanced radars that exist in the world today at Raytheon. Eric has an B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UC San Diego, a Master’s degree in the same field from Cornell, and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Asya Bashina, MBA ’17
Venture Fellow
Cornell University
Asya has a background is in marketing, business development and user research. She has marketing strategy and business development experience working in a variety of tech companies such as SolidWorks (computer-assisted design), GrokStyle (visual search and image recognition seed stage startup) and Electroninks (a STEM education start-up). At these companies, Asya did everything from managing B2B customer relationships through customer testimonials and customer satisfaction surveys that touch product management, sales, strategy, engineering and marketing. Asya received her MBA from Cornell Tech at Cornell University and her B.A. at Brandeis University.
Alumni Ventures Group Support Staff
The team behind the Triphammer Investment team - freeing them to build you a great venture portfolio
Chris Sacharuk
Investor Relations Manager
Prior to joining AVG, Chris was a Customer Advocate at Graphic Packaging and in Sales & Marketing at Putnam Investments, where he created materials for reps and investors. He’s a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Manning School of Business, where he studied Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Studies.
Anne Miller
Investor Relations Manager
Previously, Anne was an Applied Behavioral Analysis Counselor for Melmark and a medical biller for Physicians Resources. She is also a certified Certifiied Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor, with her own clientele. Anne has a Bachelor’s in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire.
Hilary Ncala
Director of Investor Relations
Prior to joining AVG, Hilary was a Staffing Executive and Program Manager at Robert Half. Previous positions include Retirement Planning & Guidance Consultant for Fidelity and an Investor Assistant for an independent investor. She has a Bachelor of Science, Business Management & Marketing from Fisher College.
Jamie Eitel
Community Relations Manager
Jamie was the Clinical Secretary Sr for Pediatric Gastroenterology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Earlier, he served as a Claims Processor Associate and then a Senior Associate at Cigna Health. He has also served in multiple church youth ministries for over 15 years throughout Ontario, Canada, in many different cultural contexts. He was part of the adjunct faculty in the youth ministry department at Tyndale University College. He has a BA in Psychology from York University, a Masters of Divinity from Tyndale Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.