Sun Mountain Capital has a top caliber Advisory Committee to leverage its own knowledge base and experience.
Senior Management Team
Brian Birk, Managing Partner Brian Birk has over 20 years experience as an operating executive and investor. Prior to forming Sun Mountain, Mr. Birk was a Vice President and Director of Private Equity at Fort Washington Capital Partners where he helped the firm establish and manage a number of private equity direct investment funds, secondary investment funds, and fund of funds programs. Mr. Birk was a founder or senior executive at several high profile start-ups, including Applied Minds and BiosGroup and held a senior manager position at the Boston Consulting Group and finance manager positions at General Electric and GE Capital. Mr. Birk has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a BS in economics from Carleton College. Mr. Birk is a Board Member of Sun Mountain Capital portfolio companies Aspen Avionics, American Clay, Exagen Diagnostics, Lumidigm and Puente Partners, as well as a Board Observer for Sun Mountain Capital’s investments in Advent Solar and Eclipse Aviation. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association.
Sally Corning has over 20 years of experience in evaluating investment opportunities, conducting due diligence, structuring transactions and raising equity and debt capital in both the public and private markets. She has worked in investment banking at Dean Witter Reynolds, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston. Most recently, Ms. Corning worked for 13 years in Credit Suisse First Boston’s Private Placement Group, where she led the evaluation of numerous companies and fund sponsors and structured, marketed and executed over 40 private transactions. Ms. Corning has an MBA from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and a BSBA in Finance from Georgetown University. Ms. Corning is a Board Member of Sun Mountain Capital portfolio company nanoMR as well as a Board Observer for Sun Mountain’s investment in Sundrop Fuels. She is also a member of the Board of Directors for the New Mexico Venture Capital Association.
Lee Rand, Partner Mr. Rand has over 15 years experience starting and managing technology businesses at both startups and large corporations. Prior to joining Sun Mountain, Mr. Rand founded Knogee a semantic search company, ran business development for Intel's consumer electronics group, launched and managed the product marketing and standards team for Intel's blade based server initiatives and led product management at semiconductor start-up Netboost which was acquired by Intel in 1999. Mr. Rand also has extensive business consulting experience having worked at Ernst and Young early in his career and more recently as an independent consultant brought in by investors and the board to work with start-ups on strategy and operations. Mr. Rand has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a dual BA in computer science and mathematics from Cornell University.
Leslie Shaw, Chief Financial Officer 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.
Investment Staff
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.
Pat Stone, Analyst Mr. Stone joined Sun Mountain Capital as an Analyst in 2008. Prior to joining Sun Mountain, Pat worked for UBS in their Fund of Hedge Funds alternative investment group where he was responsible for evaluating private equity, credit, and fixed income hedge fund strategies, including high yield, distressed debt, and capital structure arbitrage. Mr. Stone holds a B.S. in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University.
Advisory Committee
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.
Patrick Fortune - Has over 30 years of experience in the healthcare, life sciences and information technology sectors. Pat is presently a Partner at Boston Millennia Partners, a healthcare and life sciences venture capital firm with over $700 million under management. Prior to Millennia, Pat was previously President and Chief Operating Officer of New Era of Networks (NASDAQ: NEON); Vice President at Monsanto Corp.; Vice President at Bristol Myers Squibb; Group President at Baxter International; and VP R&D at Baxter International. Pat currently serves on the Boards of Directors of CombinatoRx, Inc. (NASDAQ-GM: CRXX); and PAREXEL International Corp (NASDAQ-GS: PRXL). Pat also serves on the Boards of several private life sciences companies, including: Arthrosurface, Inc., CardioMEMS, Inc., Collegium Pharmaceuticals, Epigenesis Pharmaceuticals, Histogenics, Inc. and Sapphire Pharmaceuticals. Pat has been responsible for nurturing start-up activities from idea to prototype to standalone business and has been involved in some 30 M&A transactions from sourcing the company to closing the deal and ensuring successful integration. Pat has also served on the engineering and scientific advisory boards of the University of Wisconsin, the University of Illinois, and the University of Chicago and currently serves on the Industrial Advisory Board of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and on the Commercial Advisory Board of the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center of the Cleveland Clinic. Pat holds a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, an MBA from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin.
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.
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 former President and 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. Prior to Advent, 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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