Senior Management Team
Investment Staff
Advisory Committee
Sun Mountain Capital has a top caliber Advisory Committee to leverage its own knowledge base and experience.
Brian Birk, Managing Partner Mr. Birk has over 20 years experience as an operating executive and investor. Prior to forming Sun Mountain Capital, Mr. Birk was a Vice President at Fort Washington Investment Advisors where he managed New Mexico Co-Investment Partners (a single limited partner, state sponsored Fund) and led 8 of the 9 investments originated by the Fund. He also oversaw the New Mexico and Utah in-state Private Equity investment programs with investments in excess of $400 million. Mr. Birk was a founder or senior executive at several high profile start up companies including Applied Minds and BiosGroup. He was a Senior Manager at Boston Consulting Group and a Finance Manager at General Electric and GE Capital. Mr. Birk has an MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management where he graduated first in his class and a BS in Economics from Carleton College.
Ms. Corning has over 20 years experience in evaluating investment opportunities,
conducting due diligence, structuring transactions and raising equity and debt
capital in both the public and private markets. Prior to joining Sun Mountain,
Ms. Corning was a Principal in a family company, Corning Enterprises, where she
invested in private equity opportunities primarily in real estate and oil and
gas partnerships. Prior to Corning Enterprises, Ms. Corning worked for 13 years
at Credit Suisse First Boston in the Firm’s Private Placement Group. In this role,
she led the evaluation of numerous companies and fund sponsors and structured,
marketed and executed over 40 private placements of debt and equity capital.
Ms. Corning has an MBA in Finance from the Columbia University Graduate School
of Business and a BSBA in Finance from Georgetown University.
Ms. Shaw has over 25 years of experience establishing and running back office operations for private equity organizations. Prior to forming Sun Mountain Capital, Ms. Shaw was the CFO of Kline Hawkes & Co., a Los Angeles based private equity firm with assets under management of $300 million. Prior to Kline Hawkes, she was the CFO and later Administrative Partner of Brentwood Associates, a Los Angeles based venture capital firm that grew from $40 million to over $500 million of capital under management with over 100 limited partners. Ms. Shaw has a BA in English from UCLA, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and is a certified public accountant (non current license) in California.
Kevin Leclaire, Principal Mr. Leclaire brings over a decade of technology and investment-related experience to Sun Mountain. He was a Senior Associate at SpaceVest Capital (now RedShift Ventures), a venture capital firm that invested in space-related and advanced technology companies. In addition to his Sun Mountain responsibilities, Mr. Leclaire is the Managing Director of ISDR Consulting, a boutique consulting firm. Previously at General Electric, Mr. Leclaire completed GE’s Six Sigma Black Belt and Technical Leadership Programs and was part of the GE Corporate Audit Staff. He earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School and holds Bachelor's degrees in Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISE) and Economics, with Honors, from Virginia Tech. Mr. Leclaire is a member of the ISE Academy of Distinguished Alumni and also serves as the Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association.
David Boland, Associate Mr. Boland has over 15 years of operating experience and leadership. Prior to joining Sun Mountain in July 2007, he was an F/A-18 jet fighter instructor pilot in the United States Marine Corps. Mr. Boland was selected as the Instructor pilot of the year in 2005 and is a graduate of the Navy’s TOPGUN training program. Mr. Boland has an MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Buffalo.
Matt Culler, Associate Mr. Culler joined the firm as an Associate in January 2008. He came to Sun Mountain with 3 years of investment banking experience from Banc of America Securities in New York. While an analyst in the private equity placements group at BAS, he was responsible for conducting due diligence, marketing investment opportunities, structuring transactions and raising private equity and debt capital in both the PIPE and private markets. Mr. Culler has a BBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin.
Steve Brodeur - President of Bluefish Capital, a boutique corporate advisory and investment banking firm, and the former Chief Executive Office and former owner of the Cambridge Strategic Management Group (CSMG). CSMG (now a major division of The Management Network Group-Nasdaq: TMNG) was a leading provider of management consulting services to emerging and established telecommunications operators, equipment manufacturers, and financial services companies. Mr. Brodeur played key roles in the creation of numerous high technology companies such as Verizon Wireless, CBeyond, Allegiance Telecom, and ChoiceOne Communications. He has worked extensively with a number of internationally recognized private equity and financial services firms, including Blackstone, Morgan Stanley, Madison Dearborn, Columbia Capital, and Welsh Carson.
Peter Frank - Former Vice Chairman for Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP (PWC), a leading financial services and management consulting organization. Mr. Frank worked for PWC from 1965 until 2001. During his tenure, he served as Vice Chairman of the Firm and as a member of the eight person Chairman’s office. Mr. Frank played a leadership role in negotiating and implementing the 1998 merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lebrand and has been a partner with the firm since 1977. After leaving PWC in 2001, Mr. Frank moved to Daymon Worldwide, an international company specializing in private label consumer products, with over 15, 000 employees. Mr. Frank is a member of Daymon’s Board of Directors.
Kit Lokey - Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors and a Founder of Houlihan Lokey, Inc, an international boutique investment bank and evaluation firm. In addition to being Chairman, Mr. Lokey was Houlihan Lokey’s CEO and President until 2002. His activities within the firm currently involve business development and strategic initiatives, including geographic expansion, acquisitions and strategic partners.
Len Rand - Managing Director at Granite Ventures, an early stage venture capital company with over $1 billion in capital under management. Len joined Granite Ventures in may 2002, after spending nearly three decades working inside both public and private companies. As CEO of four private companies, he successfully turned them into public entities through acquisition. Prior to joining Granite, Len was General Manager of Strategic Marketing and Global Alliances for the Intel Communications Group (ICG) at Intel Corporation.
Cecil C. Rosen III - Has had a long and distinguished career managing complex R&D organizations in the space and aerospace industries, and was formerly the Administrator of Research for NASA and also led the Technology Enterprise for the National Reconnaissance Organization, a “black” organization that designs and operates the nation’s overhead space reconnaissance systems. Mr. Rosen began his professional career with Pratt & Whitney Aircraft where he designed advanced jet engines for commercial and military applications. He then moved to NASA where he served in a number of key management positions including Manager of Propulsion Research and Technology, Director of Aerospace Research, and Associate Administrator of the Office of Aeronautics where he managed the four NASA Research Centers (Ames, Langley, Lewis and Dryden). Following his distinguished career at NASA, Mr. Rosen moved to the National Reconnaissance Office, and led the NRO’s Technology Enterprise and was one of the initial leaders of the Advanced Systems and Technology Directorate.
Russell “Rusty” Schmit - Is the founder, and former Chief Executive Officer of Advent Solar and is considered one of the leading experts in alternative energy. Rusty started Advent after 21 years in the Photo Voltaic (PV) industry in the U.S. and Europe. Most recently, he led Photowatt International, a PV manufacturer based in France. Rusty began his career at Motorola and its PV subsidiary Solavolt in various engineering and development roles. He managed a wafer manufacturing start-up owned by the Italian firm EniChem before joining Texas Instruments, where he led the successful transition of a new technology (Spheral SolarTM) from a small research program to full pilot production and product certification.
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