The Cava Advisory Network
A Real Advantage
Cava accelerates value creation by strategically deploying capital and operational guidance. Collaborating closely with our entrepreneurial management team is a committed network of highly experienced advisors, providing a leveraged resource base for deal flow, diligence and portfolio support. We actively work with our entrepreneurs on all aspects of company development, helping them build profitable and highly attractive growth companies. Cava Capital is a true business building venture firm.
Members of our advisor network have themselves founded, led, built, consulted to and invested in numerous businesses at various stages of growth. Such a diverse group of talent eliminates a common issue many venture firms encounter; inadequate partner coverage for the portfolio, making it nearly impossible to add considerable value. To this end, the Cava Approach is designed specifically to make us available to every entrepreneur, adding value above and beyond traditional venture firms.
Cava also has formed relationships with many leading firms in areas that supplement our skills in order to make sure we have access to best-in-class products, services and resources for our portfolio companies. This includes technology, marketing, brand development and human capital partners.
The Advisor Network members are in constant communication with Cava leadership and fill out many of the internal committees for operations and investment oversight.
Jeff Giordano
Jeff is the CEO of IR Holdings and an active PE investor. He was previously CEO and Director of Media Syndication Global (MSG), an integrated marketing and media service company, which he sold to Snyder communications. He was also CEO of Media Solution Services and Spiritual Cinema Circle, which sold to Giam Inc in 2007. Jeff has represented over $100 million in transactional value. He was formerly Chairman of the Electronic Retailing Association and is an often-quoted expert in Direct Marketing and Marketing Services. He currently serves as CEO of Zadspace, Inc. a Cava portfolio company
Scott Case
Timothy "Scott" Case is a technologist, entrepreneur and inventor and was co-founder of Priceline, the "Name Your Own Price" company that was one of only a handful of startups in US history to reach a billion dollars in annual sales in less than 24 months. As Chief Technology Officer, he was responsible for building the technology that enabled Priceline’s hyper-growth. Most recently, Scott was named CEO and to the Board of the Startup America Partnership, where he’ll invest his energy to drive American entrepreneurship to create jobs and sustain our nation's global leadership.
Prior to joining the Startup America Partnership, Scott served as CEO of Maleria No More, where he worked to inspire individuals and institutions in the private sector to end deaths caused by malaria. Previously, Scott helped build a portfolio of intellectual property at the Walker Digital Invention Laboratory, and is a named inventor on dozens of U.S. patents including the underlying portfolio for Priceline. Scott also co-founded Precision Training Software, a software company that developed the world's first PC-based simulated flight instructor and photo-realistic flight simulator.
Scott serves as the Chairman of Network for Good, a national nonprofit that has distributed more than $475 million to 60,000 nonprofits and provides online fundraising and communications services to over 5,000 nonprofit organizations. He is also on the Advisory Board of By Kids for Kids, Tickets-for-Charity and ThreeJars.
Paul Dunay
Paul is Chief Marketing Officer of Networked Insights, a technology marketing optimization company. Paul is an award-winning B2B marketing expert with more than 20 years’ success in generating demand and creating buzz for leading technology, consumer products, financial services and professional services organizations. Mr. Dunay is also author of four “Dummies” books: Facebook Marketing for Dummies (Wiley 2009), Social Media and the Contact Center for Dummies (Wiley Custom Publishing 2010), Facebook Advertising for Dummies (Wiley 2010) and Facebook Marketing for Dummies 2nd Edition (Wiley 2011). BtoB Magazine recognized him as a Top 25 B2B Marketer of the Year for 2009 and 2010. Mr. Dunay also received the 2008 DemandGen Award for Utilizing Marketing Automation to Fuel Corporate Growth.He has also been a finalist for six years in a row in the Marketing Excellence Awards competition of the Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA), and received two gold awards for Driving Demand. Mr. Dunay’s blog, Buzz Marketing for Technology, has been recognized as a Top 20 Marketing Blog for 2008 and 2009, and an Advertising Age Power 150 blog in the “Daily Ranking of Marketing Blogs.” He shares his significant marketing expertise with national media (Fox News, BusinessWeek and The New York Times), leading trade media (BtoB Magazine, MarketingProfs and Marketing Sherpa) and industry influencers (CMO Club, Marketing Executives Networking Group and ITSMA).
Jonathan Yarmis
Jonathan has been a leading voice in the technology industry for over 30 years, with a variety of experience in industry analysis, end-user computing, and public and analyst relations. His research focus has always been on “disruptive technologies,” which these days encompasses social media, mobility, cloud computing and “big data.”
Currently operating as an independent analyst, Yarmis has worked at leading analyst firms including AMR, Ovum and a 10 year stint at Gartner. He has held titles including Senior Research Fellow, VP of Disruptive Technologies and Service Director. He has also worked at senior levels at PR firms Hill & Knowlton and Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. He produced and served as content chairperson for a variety of conferences and tradeshows at eMarketWorld, including ad:tech, eFinancialWorld and eMediatainmentWorld. Yarmis is a regular speaker at industry events and appears regularly on a variety of print and broadcast media. He blogs on disruptive technologies at DoctorDisruptive
Robert Raciti
Robert is a Managing Director of The Silverfern Group and has over 23 years of experience in the Media, Communications and Technology sectors, as well as over 10 years of capital raising experience. Robert leads Silverfern’s TMT merchant banking business, with a focus on Media, Communications and Entertainment. Prior to joining Silverfern, Robert was the Senior Vice President with GE Capital’s Media, Communications, and Entertainment group where he provided industry expertise to financial sponsors and internal GE underwriting teams. While at GE, he provided industry diligence to over 600 transactions of which 90 were consummated, representing $8 billion in funded deal volume. His thought leadership enabled GE Capital to amass a $4 billion communications portfolio with no write-offs for six years including 2009. Prior to GE Capital, Robert held numerous operational roles in the Information Technology, Communications, and Engineering fields. He led large IT organizations that built data centers and advanced communications systems, designed voice, data, and e-commerce applications for Fortune 250 firms, and designed customer hardware and software for clients such as the United States Air Force. He has also been a regular speaker at major industry conferences and has been profiled in business and industry publications including The Wall Street Journal and the Consumer Lending Review.
John Levinson
John is the founder and President of Westway Capital LLC, an investment and strategic advisory firm that manages a portfolio of public and private equity investments and provides strategic advisory services to young companies.
John served as a board member or advisor to many of these companies until their ultimate sale or IPO, the last of which occurred in 2007. John's 25+year career began with 13 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was a Senior Securities Analyst responsible for select hardware, software, and services companies. Among other accolades, Institutional Investor magazine named John to its “All American Research Team” for eight consecutive years, recognizing him as the top analyst in his category for five of those years. Additionally, he was an officer and director of Goldman Sachs’ Stone Street and Bridge Street private equity funds. He subsequently began his money management career at Lynch & Mayer, Inc. where he managed large cap portfolios and its hedge fund group. John has also consulted for several technology firms, worked for Andor Capital Management, a large technology-focused hedge fund, as Research Director for its 20-person research staff, and has been a featured college lecturer and conference speaker.
David Jacobs
David is the Founder, CEO and President of Orbin & Co., LLC, a financial consultancy formed in April 2007. He is the former Vice Chairman of Deutsche Bank and was Head of the firm’s Global Consumer Group. He was also a former Morgan Stanley Head of Global Consumer Group and prior to that was MD and Co-Head of Corporate Finance at Hambro America, the US Investment banking affiliate of Hambros Bank Ltd. Notable M&A transactions include the merger of Coors Brewing and Molson Cos, sale of Nabisco Holdings to Phillip Morris and the sale of Snapple to Cadbury Schweppes.
Raghav Nandagopal
Raghav has over 20 years of operating, technology and investing experiences with over 9 years in the Private Equity and Venture Capital industries. Raghav is a Partner at Exigen Capital where he concentrates on the Financial Services, Media and Communication sectors. Most recently, he was the Senior Vice President of Bank of America Capital Advisors ($3.2B under management) and a senior member of the Investment Committee. He joined BofA through the acquisition of U.S. Trust where he served as the Co-CEO of the PE / VC funds and head of direct investment programs with investments in IT, Software, Communications and Life Sciences sectors. He has extensive experience in sourcing, diligence, syndication, execution and exit management as a lead director of a number of portfolio companies and has played a leadership role in raising over $350 million for portfolio companies. He has held multiple board seats during his tenure and has strong relationships with tier-1 venture, growth equity and buy-out firms as co-investment and LP partners. In addition, Raghav has served as an LP advisor to some of these funds. Prior to joining U.S. Trust in 2001, he was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company where he served clients in communications, media, wireless and financial services sectors. Raghav has been a long time board member of the CT Venture Group and Angel Investor Forum and has been an advisor to the annual Cross-roads Venture fairs. He holds a BS from the University of Madras, an MBA from the University of Bombay and an MS from Penn State, and has also completed executive programs at MIT and Carnegie Mellon.
Tom Crowley
Tom is a seasoned management professional with 35 years of entrepreneurial, corporate and investment management experience. Tom has founded, managed and advised over two dozen early stage companies, emphasizing information technologies, digital media and business services. During his 12 years at GE Capital, Tom invested more than $250 million of venture and private equity in over two dozen early and growth stage businesses.
Dick Wingate
Dick is currently Head of East Coast Client Relations for TAG Strategic, a digital entertainment consulting firm, where he consults with clients on business development, content licensing and distribution strategy. Previously he served as President, Media Development & Chief Content Officer for Nellymoser Inc, an early provider of rich media mobile services, overseeing content, licensing and biz dev strategies, and worked closely with top media companies such as Sony Music, Warner Music, ABC, and MTV. He was responsible for Nellymoser’s music discovery services, currently operating on AT&T, Virgin Mobile and Alltel. In addition, Dick helped pioneer the digital music business during his years as SVP, Content Dev., at Liquid Audio, Inc, playing an integral role in their IPO in 1999 and was responsible for managing music licensing, label relations, affiliate mgmt and content mktg. Dick has deep industry experience from many years as SVP, Marketing, Arista Records (BMG); SVP, A&R PolyGram Records; Dir. Talent Acquisition, Epic Records; and Dir.,Product Mgmt, Columbia Records. He was integrally involved with the careers of artists such as
Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and Aimee Mann. Dick speaks at numerous industry events, including: CTIA, MEFCON, Billboard Live, Jupiter Plug-In, CMJ, Midem, Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse, Business Week and SXSW, has been featured in the Sunday NY Times Business section, a front page LA Times article as well as quoted in the Wall St. Journal, Time Mag, USA Today, the NY Times Mag and Billboard Mag.
Paul Hondros
Paul
is the controlling equity holder and chief executive of the
AlphaOne entities. He has more than thirty (30) years of investment
industry experience and serves as the President and Chief Executive
Officer of AlphaOne Capital Partners.
David Weild IV
David is the Founder of Capital Markets Advisory Partners. He was the former Vice Chairman of The NASDAQ Stock Market in charge of the Corporate Client Division with line responsibility for NASDAQ's 4,000 listed companies. He was also a former Senior Executive with Prudential Securities including President of eCommerce, Head of Corporate Finance, Head of Technology Investment Banking and Head of Equity Capital Markets in New York, London and Tokyo.
Bruce Cooperman
Bruce Cooperman is the Chief Financial Officer of ISE, LLC and ISE Holdings. Bruce helped start ISE as the seventh employee hired in 1999. He has responsibility for Finance, Treasury, Human Resources, Facilities and Administration. He guided the IPO of ISE in 2005 and facilitated the subsequent sale of the company in 2007. From 1997 to 1999, he was Senior Vice President at the Board of Trade of the City of New York (NYBOT). During his tenure, he was Chief Financial Officer of the New York Cotton Exchange (subsidiary of NYBOT) and played a lead role in developing the first electronic marketplace for trading U.S. Treasury futures contracts. From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Cooperman was Director of Finance and Information Technology at Fischer, Francis, Trees & Watts where he directed the global operations of the finance and technology divisions. From 1984 to 1993, he was a Vice President in the Finance Division of CS First Boston, where he supervised the management reporting and budgeting effort.