Edward Balassanian

President & CEO
Aimi

With more than 30 years of experience in the technology industry, Edward Balassanian has founded and funded numerous startups ranging from operating systems to consumer packaged goods. He most recently founded Aimi, the groundbreaking new music platform that allows fans to enjoy immersive listening experiences, while providing artists a new medium to create and monetize AI-powered music. In addition to Aimi, Edward has founded startups including BeComm Corporation, a pioneer in building operating systems for digital devices, Endanik - an IP centric incubator - Vital Juice and Strings Inc, among others. A graduate of the University of Washington with Distinction in Computer Science, Edward started his career at Microsoft where he worked from 1990-1995. He is the named inventor on over 80 patents in technologies ranging from gesture interfaces, networking, distributed processing, and digital music synthesis.

Roger Bertling

Founder & Former President
Best Redi-Mix Co., Inc.

Walker Brierre

Partner
Holland & Knight

Walker Brierre focuses his practice on mergers & acquisitions (M&A) and private equity transactions. Mr. Brierre represents financial sponsors, their portfolio companies and other privately- and publicly-held companies in connection with their M&A and investment activities. Mr. Brierre also counsels financial sponsors in all aspects of private fund formation and capital raising. His primary industry experience includes energy, commercial real estate and investment management.

AJ Bruno

Founder & CEO
QuotaPath

From a successful exit to two years into his next venture, QuotaPath CEO and Co-Founder AJ Bruno has learned a lot about starting a sales-led company versus a product-led one. For starters, the former TrendKite President and Co-Founder created a competitor in an industry he was already familiar with. With QuotaPath, nothing quite like this exists and it’s being built from a pain point he has only experienced as a customer.

With the desire to build an organization that disrupts a new industry in a completely unique way, and applying lessons learned from TrendKite, AJ knows that QuotaPath is operating in a multi-billion dollar industry and they are launching their product to organizations this summer. Here’s a snapshot of some of the differentiators.

Ross Buhrdorf

Co-founder & CEO
ZenBusiness

Ross Buhrdorf is the Founder & CEO of ZenBusiness PBC. He has over 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur, technology leader and c-level exec, angel investor and board member, and has helped transform the way consumers interact with technology. As CEO of ZenBusiness, Ross is helping historically underserved small business owners start, run, and grow their companies through a single, comprehensive guided platform that provides all the tools they need to get their business off the ground and running. Prior to ZenBusiness, Ross was CTO of HomeAway (now Vrbo), a vacation rental site.

Jason Chirogianis

Senior Portfolio Manager | Senior Vice President - Investments
UBS

For nearly 25 years, Jason has been an advisor, ally and mentor to clients, providing the experienced guidance they need to confidently face their financial decision-making process. Jason goes above and beyond, making a real impact and helping clients focus on what is most important in their lives. As the Senior Portfolio Manager on the team, he manages their customized investment strategies, ranging from traditional diversified portfolios to tactical all-ETF proprietary portfolios. He also has extensive experience with hedging strategies, insider-diversification planning and concentrated/restricted stock positions.

With a specific concentration on the diverse needs of entrepreneurs and business owners, Jason works with key stakeholders at all stages of their business life cycle. Whether considering a transition or actively navigating a sale, Jason provides the experience and access to the global resources and experts of UBS to address business owners’ needs before, during and after their exit.

Ash Cintas

President & CEO
City Shoppe

Ash Cintas is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for empowering small business owners with the tools they need to succeed in a digital-first world. She is the Founder and CEO of City Shoppe, a SaaS-enabled, values-based marketplace that enables people to shop locally, from wherever they are. Highlighting BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and woman-owned business owners from major cities across America, Ash is focused on servicing conscious consumers and helping small business owners thrive in the digital era of commerce.

Cole Crawford

Founder & CEO
Vapor IO

Eric Easton

Chief Financial Officer
Ampex Brands

Eric Easton as CFO of Ampex Brands oversees an a portfolio of businesses and investments including restaurant operating companies, real estate investment and direct equity investments including partnerships with private equity and hedge funds. Ampex Brands owns and operates more than 500 restaurants and oversees a real estate portfolio in excess of $100 million. Over his career Eric has been active in M&A and Capital markets and has played senior roles in public and privately held companies. He is a graduate of the Kelley School of Business.

Braden Fineberg

CEO
RoundUp App Inc.

Braden Fineberg is the Founder and CEO of Flourish Change, Inc. After starting the company while getting a Master's of Data Science at the University of Pennsylvania, he pursued it full-time post-graduation. In the two years since, he acquired RoundUp App and rebranded the combined entity before securing a Seed Round of $2.3M from bi-coastal investors and venture capital firms; as an Austin local, the round was led by Mike Dodd at Silverton Partners.

Matt Ford

CEO
Prism.fm

Matt Ford - CEO - Serial Entrepreneur in the Tech and Live Music space - founded spotlight.fm while in College which grew to hundreds of thousands of users and serviced some of the biggest promoters, agencies and music brands in the country. Went on to fund Solstice - part concert promoter part tech company. While building a concert promoter brand, booking thousands of concerts and building Solstice Festival, Ford was also building software to match venues and artists and streamline the planning of events. Prism ultimately emerged from this process.

Kelly Gasink

Co-founder
Austin Cocktails

Kelly is a seasoned entrepreneur who has Co-founded four companies, including two that were sold to publicly traded companies. For her early entrepreneurial successes, the Wall Street Journal named her one of its “Faces of a New Generation of Leaders and Entrepreneurs.” She currently is Co-founder of Austin Cocktails. Austin Cocktails is a line of natural, bottled, craft cocktails developed on the belief the time had come for a beautiful, craft cocktail to be as easy as nice wine or premium beer. Kelly graduated from Stanford with degrees in Economics and Latin American Studies and later earned a Masters in Public Policy at Harvard.

Sean Geoghan

Principal
Cherry Bekaert, LLP

A Principal with Cherry Bekaert’s Deal Advisory practice, Sean has more than two decades of deal experience working with senior and mezzanine lenders, private equity firms and strategic acquirers and sellers. He has extensive experience in all aspects of buy- and sell-side advisory services and has been involved in over 400 acquisition transactions globally, which represent an aggregate deal value of over $75 billion. Sean’s deal advisory experience covers a variety of industries including the telecom, software, manufacturing, government contracting, retail, restaurants, healthcare and professional service sectors. As a member of the Firm’s Private Equity Services group, he has advised and worked with a wide variety of private equity funds across the United States.

Prior to joining Cherry Bekaert, Sean co-founded CTS Capital Advisors, LLC, a boutique transaction advisory firm that specialized in financial due diligence, valuation and business advisory services.

Brandon Henry

Partner
Mosaic Advisors

Brandon Henry is a founding partner of Mosaic, a Family Office dedicated to working with a select number of business owners & their families. These families have found that along with success comes complication & few things are more complicated than the myriad of tax, legal, business, financial, & family issues they confront daily. Mosaic’s purpose is to alleviate the burden associated with success by serving the diverse needs of successful entrepreneurs & their families.

Brian Hill

CEO
Edovo

Brian Hill is the CEO of Edovo, a venture that aims to reduce recidivism by bringing tech-enabled education and communication tools to incarcerated people. The Edovo platform, which has scaled nationally, has already reached over 300K learners and in 2022 will be reaching over 500K incarcerated learners daily.

Myah Moore Irick

Senior Vice President, Private Wealth Manager
The Irick Group- Merrill Private Wealth

Myah Moore Irick is the founder of The Irick Group at Merrill. Myah specializes in providing wealth planning strategies to successful families & mission-based investment guidance to nonprofits. Her experience as Miss Oregon 2003, inspired her commitment to promoting equity for women. Myah received a B.A. from Lewis & Clark College, an M.A. from Columbia University, & a joint M.B.A. with honors from Brown University and Instituto de Empresa.

Sid Jawahar

Founder & Managing Partner
Swiftarc Ventures

Sid is the Founder & Managing Partner of the Swiftarc Group which focuses on the Consumer & Consumer Health Industries across different life cycles. He founded Swiftarc Ventures along with his co-founders, Frank Krasovec and Zohar Ziv to offer exposure to promising early and growth-stage consumer companies in the US, leveraging the Firm's deep expertise in the industry. Sid & Swiftarc’s Partners’ portfolio has consisted of highly successful and fast-growing consumer businesses, several of which are now listed in local markets or have been acquired by strategic players or financial sponsors in the following consumer staple categories: food retail, fast food, household products, fast-moving goods, and food & beverage products & disruptive consumer technology.

He started his career at Morgan Stanley and spent time in the firm’s Hong Kong, Singapore, and New York offices focusing on deal execution across various products and geographies. Over the years, Sid has advised and invested in several consumer and consumer-related companies.

Henrik Johansson

Founder & CEO
Gembah

Henrik Johansson is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded and built the product company Boundless into a $100M company. Currently he is the co-founder and CEO of Gembah, a product development platform and marketplace. Johansson specializes in technology-enabled services, marketplaces, and software as a service. He is an expert on scaling startups, building world-class teams, culture, and scalable processes and infrastructure and has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Austin Business Journal, and was named Counselor's 2017 Person of the Year.

Steve Kesten

Shareholder
BoyarMiller

Steve Kesten is a Shareholder and Business Group Chair at BoyarMiller. Steve counsels clients through his corporate, securities, bankruptcy and litigation experience. Most recently, Steve’s practice has centered on the purchase and sale of middle-market companies, private placements, private equity, and venture capital investment and representing foreign companies with the expansion of their businesses into the United States, in particular the State of Texas.

Kerry Kilgore

Audit & Transaction Advisory Partner
Briggs & Veselka Co.

Kerry brings more than 20 years of experience in public accounting, serving multinational and middle market clients in a variety of industries. His tenure includes public and private clients, including significant experience managing audit engagements involving mid-cap SEC reporting, IPOs, business combinations, and other complex transactions, most of which require significant technical accounting insights.

Kerry has experience working closely with private equity backed mergers and acquisitions and is one of the audit leaders in the firm’s transaction advisory services niche, with a focus on buy and sell side due diligence and quality of earnings engagements. He has been involved in the initial public offering process for two entities in the past 3 years as well as others previously. In addition, Kerry has extensive experience working with multi-national companies, including direct exposure to companies with foreign operations.

Dustin S. Klein

Chief Content Officer
Smart Business

Dustin is an award-winning business journalist, bestselling author, and the chief content officer of Smart Business. Over the past 30 years, he has interviewed thousands of business and civic leaders, and helped more than 50 CEOs and entrepreneurs transform their ideas into books. A trained investigative politics reporter and former digital media entrepreneur, Dustin joined Smart Business in 1997 after serving as an editor at several daily newspapers.

Grant Kornman

Managing Partner
NCK Capital

Grant is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of NCK Capital (“NCK”). He is a seasoned investment professional with decades of investment and operating experience. He has helped build NCK into a unique private equity firm that generates world-class returns through the individual attention of its partners.

Before NCK, Grant was the Florida Development Partner for The Lane Company, a large multifamily management and development company in the Southeast that acquired/developed $1B and $2B of assets per year. Grant also founded several companies and was profiled on CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. He was also the Director of Business Development at Isadra, an enterprise software company acquired by VertcialNet (NASDAQ: VERT). He began his career as an Associate at Sterling Partners, a private equity firm with over $4B AUM.

Grant has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Finance from Georgetown University and is a member of the Lone Star Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO).

Michael Kornman

Managing Partner
NCK Capital

Michael is passionate about running companies, building effective teams and navigating dynamically changing industries. He has founded many companies including MoneyToGo, HelpMeToBuy, ASAP Air Services and Quickfire Restaurants. These companies are leaders in their respective industries, which include direct-response marketing, consumer finance, airfreight and restaurants. Michael’s vision and leadership has guided these companies through many strategic milestones including securing outside equity and debt financing from institutional investors, obtaining mission critical regulatory approvals, company recapitalizations and company sales. He has led companies with as little as a few million in revenue to over $60 million in annual revenue. These experiences and successes enable Michael to provide meaningful insight to companies at every stage of their corporate development regardless of their size.

Brandon Metcalf

CEO & Founder
Place

Brandon Metcalf is the CEO and Founder at Place, an agile finance platform for the entire company. He recognized the need for a dynamic financial engagement solution as a founder at Talent Rover (acquired by Bullhorn). He started Place to help businesses of all sizes leverage accurate, real-time financial insights to make better decisions.

Amantia Muhedini

Sustainable Investing Strategist
UBS Global Wealth Management

Amantia is a Sustainable Investing (SI) Strategist in the Chief Investment Office, Global Wealth Management. Prior to UBS, Amantia was a sustainable investing fellow with Morgan Stanley’s Investing with Impact team focusing on impact measurement and product development. She also spent time at Working Capital – the Supply Chain Innovation Fund conducting impact and commercial due diligence on potential investments. Amantia previously was an Investments Associate at the Omidyar Group’s Humanity United addressing forced labor in global corporate supply chains. She is also a member of the Governance Council of United World Colleges International (UWC), a global education organization, and was a founding board member and acting Executive Director for UWC Albania, an education non-profit based in Albania.

Derek Nixon

President & CEO
Varel Energy Solutions

Derek Nixon is the current CEO and President of Varel Energy Solutions. He is a dedicated, decisive leader and outstanding team builder with extensive experience both domestically and internationally, Derek has a proven track record of growing top and bottom lines in drilling and completions tools around the world.

Derek started working in the oilfield 14 years ago with Varel Oil Gas Drill Bits in the Barnett Shale as a field sales professional. Derek worked through various levels of responsibility towards becoming a US Regional Manager where he was responsible for the majority of US markets. Following his management role, he took a position in Houston as the Director of Western Hemisphere for Downhole Products, a legacy subsidiary of Varel. In doing so, Derek gained valuable international experience. He was instrumental in setting up the structure of distributers in Latin America along with the sales team and offices in North America. In his most previous position as Vice President for Downhole Products, he was responsible for every facet of the global operating business, including sales, operations, engineering, manufacturing and finance.

Samuel Parker

Managing Director
UBS

Sam started his career in 1986 with the investment firm Smith Barney Harris Upham. In 1994, he joined the downtown Houston office of PaineWebber as a branch sales manager/branch manager trainee and, two years later, was given his first and only assignment as a branch manager in Austin, Texas. In 2000, Sam was awarded the firm’s “Branch Manager of the Year" award. In continuing recognition of his managerial excellence, Sam has received a place on the firm’s prestigious Leadership Council nine times since taking the management position in Austin in 1996.

Hema Reddy

Founder & CEO
Crafty Counter

Hema Reddy is the founder and CEO of Crafty Counter, a consumer packaged goods startup that makes plant based snacks. Prior to her entrepreneurial ventures, Hema achieved career success with IBM and left while she was the Director of Marketing for their Systems and Technology division. Hema has spoken at conferences globally, and occasionally volunteers her time in the Austin culinary circuits and local community organizations. Hema has a Bachelors's and Masters's degree in Computer Science and is certified by the Institute of Managerial Leadership, UT McCombs School of business. She has 9 published patents under her belt throughout her professional career.

Brian Reed

Partner-in-Charge, Transaction Advisory Services
Weaver and Tidwell, LLP

Brian has more than 20 years of diversified transaction advisory experience including acquisition due diligence and valuation services. He has worked with both private equity and corporate clients in a number of industries including manufacturing, retail, distribution, technology, and energy for transactions with revenues ranging from $1 million to over $500 million.

Brian is an active member of the TXCPA and the AICPA. He is a frequent author of articles for professional and business publications, providing valuable industry insights. Brian earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree from Tulane University.

Sid Shaver

Senior Managing Director
B & V Capital Advisors

Sid has substantial experience providing investment banking, merger & acquisition advisory services in the areas of financial analysis, negotiations, strategic planning and objectives, due diligence, transaction tax analysis and structure, as lead investment banker in numerous transactions, domestic and international. His background includes working as an investment banking managing director in several investment banking firms and a partner responsible for transaction advisory services in CPA firms. Designations include CPA, PFS, CFP and CM & AA. FINRA registrations include Series 7, 24, 66 and 79 licenses. Licensed with the Texas Real Estate Commission.

Jeffery Sheldon

CEO, General Partner & Managing Director
CITARETX

Mr. Sheldon is the CEO, General Partner & Managing Director/Founder of the HIP 360 family of healthcare venture capital funds and CitareTx, a medical device venture capital fund; Managing Director of CitareTx Management LLC, the venture fund management, incubator & operating company; Chairman & CEO/Founder of three CitareTx portfolio companies: EMIT Corporation, Houston Medical Robotics, Inc., and Coagulex, Inc.; and President & CEO of Yguana Entertainment, Inc. Mr. Sheldon also serves as a member of the University of Minnesota Discovery Capital Strategic Advisory Board; member of the University of Texas Medical Branch Health Technology Seed Fund Investment Review Committee; member of the University of Houston Cougar Venture Fund Board of Advisors; member of the Medical Bridges Advisory Counsel; and was a Houston Technology Center Board Director until it merged with Houston Exponential. Mr. Sheldon was also the Founder/Chairman & CEO of IDev Technologies, Inc. sold to Abbott in August 2013 for $310 Million; Founder/Chairman & CEO of Nittany Polymedics, Inc; Director of Technology Development at MD Anderson Cancer Center; founder of the Technology Management Office at The University of Texas Medical Branch; and held various leadership positions at Rockwell International/Rockwell Space Operations Company. Mr. Sheldon holds a B.S. Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics, with distinction, from the University of Minnesota and a M.B.A. from the University of Houston - Clear Lake.

Scott Sims

Regional Manager
Concentric

Scott Sims created Solaris Power Systems in 2006 to fill a gap in critical power specialist. After 25 years in the Engineering and construction industry with years of mega-project experience with companies including Bechtel, KBR and G.I.E, Solaris entered the market. DC and AC critical power is at the heart uptime. The goal was simply to supply the best critical power design, procurement, installation and maintenance service in the industry. Client and employee are a primary focus and have allowed Solaris to grow exponentially.

Martin Taylor

President; Managing Director
OneVista; Vista Equity Partners

Martin joined Vista Equity Partners in 2006 and was the initial President of Vista Consulting Group. He sits on the Vista Flagship Funds’ Investment Committee and is responsible for driving the transformation and operational improvements of the Vista Flagship Funds’ portfolio companies through leveraging the Vista Best Practices and building platforms for their deployment. Additionally, Mr. Taylor serves as a member of Vista’s Private Equity Management Committee, the firm’s governing and decision-making body for the overall management of Vista’s private equity platform. Mr. Taylor is also active in portfolio executive development. He currently serves on the boards of Aspira, DealerSocket, Integral Ad Science, Jamf, Mediaocean, MINDBODY, NAVEX, Numerator, Ping Identity and VividSeats. In addition, Mr. Taylor is the President of OneVista, responsible for leading the OneVista executive strategy across strategic clients, portfolio companies, partners and the external directors program.

Howard Tellepsen

Chairman
Tellepsen

Howard is the previous CEO of Tellepsen, where he has expanded upon a multi-generational dedication to building projects of significance that greatly impact the Houston community. As “builders and believers,” Tellepsen has changed the lives of decades of Houstonians, creating shared spaces where people work, play, live, learn and worship. Howard is a member of the Engineering Hall of Fame and is the recipient of the Alumni Distinguished Service Award from Georgia Tech, where he established the Howard T. Tellepsen Endowed Chair for the School of Civil Engineering. He continues his commitment to Houston by acting as Chairman and Board Member for organizations such as the St. Luke’s Foundation, the YMCA Foundation and Boy Scouts of America.

("TOM") Thomas C. Washmon

President & General Counsel
Privateer Capital Management, LP

Thomas C. Washmon is President and General Counsel of Privateer Capital Management, LP, a closely held, multi-strategy private investment platform headquartered in Austin, Texas. Privateer Capital's investments include strategic partnerships with an oil and gas private equity firm, a nuclear power/uranium-focused fund and a global equities ETF and UCITS fund which collectively manage well over $1 Billion in assets and committed capital. He serves on the Board of Directors for several portfolio entities and in a Board advisory role for a multifamily and commercial real estate investment company. Previously, Tom practiced law for fifteen years acting as a strategic advisor to clients in various matters including corporate law, governance, real estate, asset protection, and litigation.

Brent Worthy

Managing Director
BDO USA, LLP

Brent has move than 15 years of crisis management, corporate restructuring, M&A and digital finance transformation experience, with a focus on creating and preserving value for companies throughout all phases of the corporate life cycle. Prior to BDO, Brent was a leader within Deloitte’s Finance & Enterprise Performance practice (formerly Strategy & Operations) and FTI’s Corporate Restructuring practice. He has led numerous debtor-side, creditor-side and interim management engagements for public, private and PE-sponsored companies throughout his career.

His industry experience spans the energy, technology, automotive, healthcare, real estate gaming & casino and defense contracting sectors. For the past several years, Brent has transformed all aspects of the CFO’s organization for companies through a combination of strategic and operational initiatives across people, process, data and technology solutions aimed at driving long-term shareholder value and sustainable growth.