Stephen spent 20 years inside investment banks in Asia and the US. He ran the Asia Pacific Equity activities of Salomon/Citigroup from 1999 to 2001, after stints at Morgan Stanley, UBS and Deutsche Bank. From 2005 through 2007 he built Merriman Curhan Ford’s asset management division as the group’s Chief Operating Officer. He is also active member of the Innovation Advisory Council of the Japan Society of Northern California. Stephen graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in History and attended the Falcon Program for Japanese Studies at Cornell University. He is an enthusiastic reader, skier, biker, coach, carpenter, dad, student and mentor.
Sheryl WuDunn, Partner - New York Sheryl has served in a variety of roles marketing, strategic planning and banking, raising capital in new media, media technology and healthcare. Previously, Sheryl has worked as investment advisor at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and at The New York Times. Her work for the Times was both as an executive and journalist: and in management roles in the Strategic Planning and Circulation Sales departments. As the first Asian-American reporter to win a Pulitzer Prize, Sheryl was selected as one of 60 notable members of the League of Extraordinary Women by Fast Company magazine. In August 2015, Business Insider named her one of the 31 most prominent graduates of the Harvard Business School.
Kevin Layton, Venture Partner – Aerospace and Defense Kevin serves as PPGV’s Aerospace and Defense Venture Partner. He is the CEO of Data-Dynamix, a privately held digital marketing agency. Prior to Data-Dynamix Kevin held C level positions in SRA International (now GDIT) and Decision Sciences International (DSIC). Kevin led the Air Traffic Systems business for SRA International, was technical director of Australia’s Jindalee OTH Radar program for Lockheed Martin, was technical director of the European COBRA Radar system, and was Deputy Program Manager for Lockheed Martin’s Transformational Satellite Mission Operations (TMOS) System. Kevin received a BS in Computer Science from Penn State and an Executive MBA from the Melbourne University School of Business. Kevin has traveled the world, done business in over 37 countries, and has lived in Germany, Australia and the Czech Republic.
Steve Dymant, Venture Partner - Business Development & Capital Formation Steve is an experienced business development professional with a proven track record of raising capital across alternative assets and hedge funds. He has extensive background sourcing assets, portfolio construction, capital allocation and risk management. He currently serves on the executive team of XTI Aircraft and the advisory board of LeadKlozer. Steve has held senior positions at hedge funds including Walden Bridge Capital, Echelon Asset Management, T3 Asset Management, Paskewitz Asset Management and PK4 Capital Management. While on Wall Street, he worked at both Ambac Financial Group and Merrill Lynch. Steve graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in Finance, Entrepreneurial Management and International Management.
Alex Antebi, Venture Partner Alex is an expert at financial analysis and deal execution with over 20yrs of experience in investment banking and asset management. Alex started his career at JP Morgan & Co. in NY, where he executed equity and private equity financing deals, as well as joint ventures and debt restructurings. He moved to the Bay Area in 2001 to focus on Asset Management, launching a successful fund of funds now called Persistent Asset Management. He then worked on evaluating equity investments at hedge funds in London and New York, prior to launching a fund in 2008 on his own. From 2012 to date, Alex has been COO of hedge funds and of a Venture fund of funds investing in top VC firms. He has an AB in Applied Mathematics-Economics from Brown University, MBA from Stanford University and is fluent in Spanish, French and Portuguese. His favorite pastime is cycling up steep hills all over California.
Stephen Cohen, Venture Partner - London Stephen Cohen began his career at SG Warburg/Mercury Asset Management in 1980. He spent 3 years in the USA and 7 years in Japan, starting and running two asset management businesses in Tokyo. He managed Japanese and global equity portfolios for over 10 years. He also worked extensively in Asia and Europe to build Mercury’s global business. Subsequently he worked at Zurich Scudder and Putnam heading up regional businesses, then set up a Russian hedge fund business for Troika Dialog. His last executive role was CEO of GO Investment Partners which managed European and Japanese equity activist funds. He is a NED at the UK Gambling Commission, the UK Health and Care Professions Council, JPMorgan Japan Investment Trust plc, Schroder U.K. Public Private Trust plc and EG Capital Advisors. Stephen has an MA in Physiology from University College, Oxford and is a Fellow of the UK CISI.
Roger Marshall, Venture Partner - North Asia Since 1975, Roger has been actively involved in business consulting and retained executive search consulting in Japan, Korea and APAC, and helping Japanese and Asian multinational firms to build successful organizations. Since 1990, Roger has been a Partner & Managing Director Global Business Development - Chairman since 2019 - a London-based top-tier global consultancy. Prior to that, Roger was a director at KPMG Consulting, building and leading one of the firm's practices in Japan and Korea. Roger is fluent in Japanese, with a B.A. degree in Asian Studies from Sophia University. He also studied Biotechnology at Penn State University, College of Science.
Keith Spears, Venture Partner As the CEO of Heritage Impact Partners, Keith is a financial services professional and impact investor. Over a 30-year career, Keith has advised on over $47 billion in transactions - $30 billion in 80 private equity investments and $17 billion in 75 in M&A deals. While at Hamilton Lane, a leading private equity firm with over $421 billion in assets under advisement, Keith co-managed the Golden State Investment Fund (“GSIF”) for CalPERS, a $550 million fund. Since 2007, GSIF invested in 230 companies, supported over 119,000 jobs, accounted for 91% of the total new California jobs and generated $104 billion in revenues. Earlier in his career Keith worked at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse doing mergers and acquisition and Merrill Lynch where he was managed investment capital for family offices and institutional investors. Keith received his JD from Yale and MBA from Stanford Business School and his BA from Brown University.
Scott Lin, CFA, CPA, Partner Scott is an experienced finance professional, spending over 15 years in the US and Hong Kong with JP Morgan, Swiss Re and Daiwa Capital Markets. He covered key Asian markets such as China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, focused on financial and technology industries. Scott advised clients on M&A and capital market transactions, as well as invested in illiquid and liquid markets acting on behalf of clients and as principle. Prior to going to Hong Kong, he was an accountant and consultant at PwC Los Angeles. Scott has an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and a MBA from USC Marshall School of Business. He is a fluent Mandarin speaker.