Meet the Team
Center Leadership Team
Mark Hardie
Director, Center for Private Equity & Venture Capital
Mark Hardie is the Director of the Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Prior to joining Tuck, Mark was the Director of the Entrepreneur Innovation Center at Framingham State University. A start-up veteran with deep experience in operations leadership, Mark is also an alumni Career Coach at Harvard Business School, working closely with start-up leadership teams, first time founders and mid-career entrepreneurs.
The son of two teachers, he has taught and lectured on technology issues and entrepreneurship at Harvard, MIT, University of Virginia, Framingham State University, and University of Hartford. A Massachusetts native, Mark attended primary and secondary schools in Holyoke MA, is a graduate of both Tufts University with a B.A. in Political Science and the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management with concentrations in finance and operation. He brings extensive experience launching start-ups, driving corporate strategy and business innovation, all with a focus on Internet business models, mobile device platforms, and cloud-based B2B and B2C service businesses.
Ashley Alkins
Program Manager, Center for Private Equity & Venture Capital
Faculty
Mark Anderegg
Adjunct Professor of Business Administration
Mark brings to Tuck 15 years of private equity experience, with a focus on micro cap investing. He is co-founder of Newbury Franklin, a holding company that acquires and builds recurring revenue businesses with an extremely long-term orientation.
Mark is also Chairman of Little Sprouts, a Massachusetts-based provider of early education centers, which he led the acquisition of in 2012 via a search fund. What started as a local business with 16 locations in the Boston area grew to become the largest private preschool company in New England during Mark’s 6-year tenure as CEO. Little Sprouts now operates three brands across four states.
Mark is an active investor and serves on multiple private company boards in the search fund ecosystem. He was previously Faculty Associate in the Kellogg Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative, where he continues to advise and mentor on the subject of Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition.
Earlier in his career, Mark was an investment banker with Goldman Sachs, first in New York and later in Chicago. He subsequently worked as a private equity investor with Chicago Growth Partners, a middle-market buyout fund.
Mark received a B.A. in Economics from Vanderbilt University and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Jim Feuille D’79
Lecturer; Faculty Adviser, Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital
Jim brings to Tuck 35 years of experience in the equity capital markets including the past 16 years as a highly accomplished principal investor in private equity at Crosslink Capital. Jim’s investment focus areas at Crosslink have included enterprise software/SaaS, internet digital media and consumer services, analytics, advertising technologies, and financial technology. Jim has led Crosslink’s investments in four companies which achieved multi-billion market cap exits—Omniture (NASDAQ: OMTR, IPO 2006, acquired by Adobe 2009 for $1.8B), Ancestry.com (NASDAQ: ACOM, IPO 2009, acquired by Permira 2012 for $1.6B), Pandora (NYSE: P, IPO 2011, average market cap at fund exit $5.5B), and Coupa (NASDAQ: COUP, IPO 2016, current market cap $2.6B). Jim’s current board seats for Crosslink include Personal Capital, Chime, Reltio, Gain Credit, Zebit, and Devon Way. In addition, Jim is Crosslink’s board observer for SilkRoad and Zoosk.
Prior to joining Crosslink, Jim’s professional experience included positions as Global Head of Technology investment banking at UBS, Chief Operating Officer at Volpe Brown Whelan & Company, and Head of Technology Investment Banking at Robertson Stephens.
Jim received an A.B. in Chemistry from Dartmouth College, a J.D. from the Stanford University Law School, and an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Josh Lewis
Adjunct Professor of Business Administration
Josh is a 35-year VC and PE veteran who’s applied the tools of that profession to a portfolio of for-profit and nonprofit activities. He was a partner of two world-class firms then for over 20 years ran his own, generating top decile returns. His portfolio ranged from start-ups through growth stage and large/public companies. He has served on a range of public, private, and nonprofit boards in the U.S. and abroad. He also serves as a faculty advisor for Tuck’s CPEVC.
Josh teaches “Moral Reasoning: From Machiavelli to The Bomb to AI Deployment,” which he describes as a humanities course designed for a business school. He adds, “The course provides tools for critical thinking, for finding the right questions, and for challenging assumptions and conventional wisdom. It is not a course in what to know—more an exercise in ways to think. While success in business requires both hard skills and soft skills, I found that this third type of skills, which the study of humanities can provide so effectively, was often more valuable.”
Gordon Phillips
Laurence F. Whittemore Professor of Business Administration; Professor of Finance
Gordon Phillips is the Laurence F. Whittemore Professor of Business Administration and a professor of finance. He teaches the 2nd year course Venture Capital and Private Equity and specializes in private equity, mergers, and the impact of financial decisions on firms' strategic decisions. He is a faculty advisor at the Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital, where he was the faculty director for 5 years, reorganizing and helping to expand the previously named Center for Private Equity. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a visiting research professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He previously taught at the University of Southern California and the University of Maryland. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard Business School, Duke University, HEC Paris, Insead, MIT, and Southern Mediterranean University. He received his MA and Ph.D. from Harvard University and his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University. His areas of research include corporate finance and how financial decisions impact firms' strategic decisions, and contracting in financial markets. His work in corporate finance includes studies of private equity issuance, capital structure, Chapter 11 bankruptcy, how leverage buyouts and other forms of high debt influence a firms' and rivals' investment decisions.
Recent research published in the Journal of Political Economy and the Review of Financial Studies has been on applying computational linguistics to firm financial statements to analyze merger synergies, dividends and product market competition. Research published in the Journal of Finance has been on real and financial booms and busts and mergers and acquisitions and how firms organize across multiple markets. He recently presented the keynote address on PIPEs (private investment in public equity) to an audience of executives and finance professionals. He has served as an associate editor at The Review of Financial Studies and The Journal of Corporate Finance.
Nick Russell D’00, T’10
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Private Investments
Nick Russell has twenty years of experience as an investor, advisor, strategist and occasional operator. The entirety of his career has been focused on helping engineering-driven product and service companies across a range of sectors succeed and generate shareholder value. He began his career as a strategy consultant focused on corporate venture formation and growth strategy, as well as complex operational improvement engagements. For the last fifteen years, Mr. Russell has focused on leading control buyout investments in middle and lower-middle market companies, and working closely with portfolio companies and their leaders to develop and execute growth and other improvement initiatives. Mr. Russell joined Tuckerman Capital in 2010. He has been a Board Director and has led several Tuckerman investments. He is responsible for all facets of the firm’s efforts including business development and partnership origination, investment execution, portfolio management, investor facing activities, and internal firm operations.
Mr. Russell received his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and his MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth. He teaches an MBA course on private investments in small and middle market companies at the Tuck School and is a frequent speaker on small company buyout investing, particularly addressing the emerging ecosystem surrounding independent private equity sponsors.
Morten Sorensen
Associate Professor of Finance
Morten Sorensen’s research is in the areas of private equity, venture capital, entrepreneurial finance, and executive personality and characteristics; he studies economic behavior and financial performance in private markets, in individual transactions and in the role of private markets in the economy. Morten has presented his research at numerous universities and conferences and published in leading academic journals, including the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, and Management Science. His research has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, the Economist, Harvard Business Review, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, CNBC,and Bloomberg. In addition to his faculty positions, he is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research; he has advised PhD students, worked with numerous companies, and served as an expert in litigation involving mortgage lenders, private companies, and private equity firms. Morten grew up in Denmark and relocated to the United States; he lives with his wife, two daughters, a dog, and a cat in Hanover, NH.
Executive Advisors
Josh Lewis
Executive Advisor
Joshua Lewis is a 35-year veteran of venture capital and private equity, who has applied the tools of the profession to a diverse portfolio of for-profit and non-profit activities. His portfolio has ranged from raw start-ups and growth-stage companies to large public companies and various social enterprises. He has served on a range of public and private boards across sectors such as technology, education, telecommunications, and life sciences, both in the United States and internationally. Several of these enterprises have had transformative impacts on their respective sectors.
Joshua has been centrally responsible for investing over $400 million of equity capital, which has produced realized returns of over $2.1 billion. Capital loss has been infrequent, with over 95% of investments generating positive returns. Salmon River Capital, the firm he led, generated top decile returns over its 20-year life. Having wound down the firm's portfolio in 2021, he remains engaged in the VC/PE markets on a personal basis and continues in a variety of advisory roles.
Simultaneously, Joshua has begun returning to his academic roots at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, where he is teaching a course in the ethics and social responsibility vertical (Winter Term 2024: "Moral Reasoning: From Sophocles to Machiavelli to The Bomb") and contributing to the programming at Tuck's Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital.
Renee Noto D’88
Executive Advisor
Renee has over thirty years of experience in financial services and asset management. She has built three asset management firms and most recently was Partner and President of Brightstar Capital Partners, a middle market private equity firm she helped found in 2015 and grew to over $4bn in assets by 2023. Prior to the inception of Brightstar, Renee was involved in founding two asset management firms, Narraganset Asset Management, a long short hedge fund, and Talon Advisers, a specialty fund of funds. She has advised several other funds on capital raising, operations and strategy. Renee started her career with Peter Lynch at Fidelity Investments where she was a public equity analyst.
Renee is an experienced investor in both public equities and private companies. As a public market investor, she focused primarily on the retail and consumer sectors and is fluent in all aspects of the investment process and public markets. At Brightstar, in addition to running the firm’s daily operations, she was involved in sourcing and deal activity and was a member of several portfolio company deal teams. As a board member, she worked closely with the management teams of two portfolio companies, Gateway Dealer Network and America’s Group. Renee has raised over $7 billion of capital for multiple asset classes across many LP types and geographies and has been the primary contact and relationship manager for these capital allocators.
Renee is a leader with a proven track record of creating, managing and developing teams across many different functional areas, combining empowerment with accountability and leading from the front with strong technical expertise. She has strong relationship building skills and was instrumental in creating a sourcing network of family business owners across the U.S. for Brightstar. Renee has extensive experience in working with entrepreneurs and assessing business models, including as a Regional Judge for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year program.
Renee currently serves on the board of the Metropolitan Golf Association. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Dartmouth College with an AB in Mathematics and Geography and has earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives in Greenwich, CT with her husband and is an avid golfer.
James Socas
Executive Advisor
James is a Managing Director & Head of the Climate Solutions business at Investcorp. Climate Solutions brings Investcorp’s combination of capital, business-building services, international network and investment experience to the leading companies addressing climate change. James is responsible for managing the overall business, working with portfolio company executive teams, sourcing new investment opportunities, and is the chairperson of the Investment Committee.
He has invested in, advised and financed leading technology companies throughout his career as a private equity and growth investor, board member, senior executive, and strategic advisor. Prior to his current role, James was a Managing Director at Blackstone, where he sourced, managed and lead transactions in the software and global technology industries, including the take-private of events management software leader Cvent, convertible equity investment in cybersecurity services leader FireEye/Mandiant Solutions, pre-IPO investment in data management leader Snowflake, and convertible preferred investment in cybersecurity AI developer Vectra, among others.
Prior to joining Blackstone, he was co-managing partner of a boutique technology growth equity firm and earlier served as a Managing Director with Credit Suisse First Boston and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. James began his career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. His operational experience includes serving as head of corporate development and a member of the senior management team of global technology leader Symantec, where he executed over seven corporate acquisitions, managed Symantec's corporate VC investments, and established a highly successful joint venture in China.
James currently serves as a board member of Island Press, the leading not-for-profit publisher on sustainability and the environment and is a member of the Woodwell Climate Research Center’s President’s Council; he has also served on the boards of the Potomac School, the University of Virginia Alumni Association, and the Commonwealth of Virginia's Board of Corrections. He is a member of the Latino Corporate Directors Association (LCDA) and was until recently a member of the New America Alliance, organizations that provide mentoring and networking opportunities for diverse business leaders. He is an honors graduate of the University of Virginia and the Harvard Business School.
Stephen Vicinelli D’87
Executive Advisor
Stephen is a Vice President of Impact Investments at Social Finance, where he leads the design and implementation of impact-first investment solutions.
Previously, Stephen served as Deputy Chief Investment Officer for TIFF Investment Management, a provider of investment solutions to the nonprofit community. Stephen was a member of TIFF’s management committee and a member of the firm’s investment committee. He also spent 15 years leading TIFF’s private investment program, raising 25 private funds with roughly $2.5 billion of capital on behalf of nonprofit investors. Stephen served on the advisory boards of over 20 private investment managers.
Prior to joining TIFF, Stephen spent ten years at Morgan Stanley, where he held positions in the firm’s mergers and acquisitions, technology corporate finance, and realty advisory practices. For nine of those years he was based in London, where he had significant exposure to the global private equity community as an advisor, underwriter, and co-investor. Before joining Morgan Stanley, Stephen was employed by the investment banking division of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in the firm’s New York and Dallas offices. He serves as a member of the investment committee for The Hotchkiss School and as a council member of the Tuck Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital.
Stephen obtained his AB in History from Dartmouth College and received his MBA from Columbia Business School.
Fellows
Philip Bates T’25
2024 CPEVC Fellow
Hometown: Bethesda, MD
Education: AB, Harvard University
Previous Employer: Auribus Consulting
Summer 2024 Employer: Ilion Capital Partners
Career Interest and Goals: Investment roles in middle-market or lower middle-market private equity, with a particular interest in the agriculture, industrials, and technology sectors.
Personal Interests: Fitness, music, chess, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Julia Giorgio T’25
2024 CPEVC Fellow
Hometown: Greenwich, CT
Education: B.A. and M.S.A, University of Notre Dame
Previous Employer: L Catterton
Summer 2024 Employer: L Catterton (Growth Fund)
Career Interest and Goals: Investing or operating roles in growing consumer health and wellness companies
Personal Interests: Tennis, horseback riding, Notre Dame & NY sports (Giants, Yankees, Rangers!), electronic and country music, reading, traveling
Will Griggers T’25
2024 CPEVC Fellow
Hometown: Atlanta, GA
Education: Georgia Institute of Technology
Previous Employers: Highmetric/New Rocket, Acacia Group
Summer 2024 Employer: Guggenheim Securities
Career Interest and Goals: I am aiming to involved in the finance deal-making community within Atlanta and the greater southeast.
Personal Interests: Guitar, Powerlifting, Reading, Cooking
Jamie Havran T’25
2024 CPEVC Fellow
Hometown: Madison, CT
Education: BA, Williams College
Previous Employer: Stanwich Advisors, Optum
Summer 2024 Employer: Renovus Capital Partners
Career Interest and Goals: Investing roles in private equity with specific interest in healthcare and business services
Alice Jang T’25
2024 CPEVC Fellow
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Education: BS in Dairy Science, BA in History from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Previous Employer: Macy’s Supply Chain & Logistics, Schreiber Foods, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Summer 2024 Employer: UBS
Career Interest and Goals: My career aspiration is to work in biotech venture capital, where I aim to identify and support pioneering companies developing innovative technologies and scientific solutions to catalyze advancements that address unmet health needs and enhance the well-being of the broader population.
Personal Interests: Reading, baking, video games, taking naps
Alek Komatina T’25
2024 CPEVC Fellow
Hometown: San Diego, CA
Education: University of California, Berkeley- Economics B.A
Previous Employer: NextGen Growth Partners (MBA internship), KPMG
Summer 2024 Employer: KPMG (PE consulting group)
Career Interest and Goals: Middle Market PE/VC Investing, ETA, Private Equity Consulting (Diligence & Performance Improvement)
Personal Interests: Soccer (Chelsea FC), Running, Being terrible at all Tuck Winter Sports
Bruce Li T’25
2024 CPEVC Fellow
Hometown: Xiangyang, China
Education: LLM, University of New South Wales; BS, University of South Carolina
Previous Employers: Feilong Animal Health, Legends Restaurants, Star Education Consulting
Summer 2024 Employer: BofA Securities
Career Interest and Goals: investment banking, private equity, entrepreneurship
Personal Interests: Cooking, fine art, golf, hiking, meditation, motorcycles, soccer, track car racing
Dana Lucas T’25
2024 CPEVC Fellow
Hometown: Brookline, MA
Education: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Previous Employer: Jiffy, Root AI, AppHarvest
Summer 2024 Employer: Bayer Leaps (CVC)
Career Interest and Goals: My interests lie in venture capital and private equity, particularly in real assets, food and agriculture, and financial technologies.
Personal Interests: I enjoy cooking, staying active through exercise, and challenging myself with the New York Times Daily crosswords, Wordle, and other puzzles.
Lachlan Macdonald T’25
2024 CPEVC Fellow
Hometown: Cape Town, South Africa
Education: Stellenbosch University, Bachelor of Accounting, Honours
Previous Employers: Deloitte, BDO, Nuxeo, Sportable technologies
Summer 2024 Employer: Navaid Equity Partners
Career Interest and Goals: Late Stage/Growth VC or PE. Interested in Sports Technology, SaaS and Fintech
Personal Interests: Hiking, Backpacking, Fishing, Trail Running, Open Water Swimming, or anything else that involves being outdoors in the most beautiful parts of the country!
Adam Scharf T’25
2024 CPEVC Fellow
Hometown: Hastings-on-Hudson, NY
Education: Emory University 2018
Previous Employer: BuildZoom, Deloitte Consulting
Summer 2024 Employer: BCG Brooklyn
Career Interest and Goals: Post Tuck, Adam will be joining BCG's tech practice to deepen his understanding of the tech side of business and plans to use this knowledge to invest in and lead startups in the future.
Personal Interests: Adam enjoys skiing, hiking and most outdoor activities as well as board games, guitar, and live music
Jack Torney T’25
2024 CPEVC Fellow
Hometown: Shelburne, Vermont
Education: AB, Dartmouth College
Previous Employers: Xerox Financial Services, Gartner, GV Investment Managers
Summer 2024 Employer: Guggenheim Partners
Career Interest and Goals: Investment Banking, Growth Equity, Technology and Industrial sectors
Personal Interests: Skiing, hockey, fishing, golf
Yashu Vuruputoor T’25
2024 CPEVC Fellow
Hometown: Saratoga, CA
Education: B.S. Cornell University, 2018
Previous Employers: Capital One Commercial Bank, CIBC Innovation Bank
Summer 2024 Employer: HCAP Partners
Career Interest and Goals: Venture Capital, Impact Investing, Growth Investing, Digital Health, Health Care IT, Health Care Services, Health Care Medical Devices and Technology
Personal Interests: Travel, Literature, History, Crafts, Archery, Basketball