Speakers

James Brennan is the founder of Enlightened Hospitality Group, which held Stingaree, and continues to hold the Fabric Family restaurants, including Searsucker and Herringbone. Combining his expertise in launching businesses and his entrepreneurial approach to building buzz and excitement, Brennan also helped lead the charge of Suja Juice’s launch and groundbreaking success as one of the co-founders. Today, Suja is one of the fastest growing juice companies in the country, and was recently featured in Forbes as the second most promising company in America. Recently, he has created the venture building firm, Enlightened Brand Ventures, where he has co-founded both Dizzle, a mobile branding app for the real estate industry and Kopari, a health and beauty line based around coconut oil. He is also a partner in Original Grain, which uses only the most exotic wood to create high fashion watches.

Damian Burke has served as a Managing Director on our lower middle market team since September 2019. Prior to joining Main Street, from 2016 to 2019, Mr. Burke served as Chief Financial Officer of Melior Innovations, Inc., a Houston, Texas based company focused on commercializing new technologies in the semiconductor, coatings and oil field service sectors. Prior to joining Melior, from 2011 to 2016, Mr. Burke served as VP Corporate Development for Kraton Corporation (NYSE: KRA), a leading global specialty chemicals company, where he created and built out the corporate development group and led the execution of an acquisition program that doubled the size of the company. Prior to joining Kraton, from 2006 to 2011, Mr. Burke served as an SVP Development and Strategy with Oldcastle, Inc. (now known as CRH Americas), the North American division of CRH plc (NYSE: CRH), a leading global building materials business, where he led the acquisition of numerous privately held businesses in the building materials and products sectors. Mr. Burke began his career as an engineer with ExxonMobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) and served in roles of increasing responsibility in the United Kingdom and the United States. Mr. Burke holds an M. Eng. in Chemical Engineering from University College, London and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

He has worked in tax practice for more than 15 years, he is dedicated to consulting and international tax planning for foreign companies doing business in Mexico. His areas of expertise are real estate, maquiladora, industrial and commercial companies as well as integrating companies and in general all types of foreign investments to which he has supported since the beginning of his operations. Former President and member of the Tax Commission of the Firm, member and former president of the Fiscal Studies Committee of the Association of Accountants in Baja California, member of the Advisory Council of Procopio International Tax Institute and former Counselor of Coparmex Tijuana. Lecturer in various forums on tax matters at national and international level. He has collaborated in the publication of articles on tax issues in various magazines of national circulation and is a member of the World Committee of Tax Crowe Horwath International.

As a founder and Managing Director of Correlation Ventures, David helps lead the firm. David created the original vision for Correlation, driven by the opportunity to offer entrepreneurs and other VCs a better co-investment option and to pioneer the use of predictive analytics in venture capital. David began his venture capital career in 1997. Prior to Correlation, David was a Managing Director of Hamilton BioVentures, an early-stage venture capital fund. As head of Hamilton’s Life Science team, David served on the Board of Directors of such companies as PhotoThera, Transcept (NASDAQ: TSPT), and Egea Biopharmaceuticals (Acquired by Johnson&Johnson). Previously, David was a Venture Partner at Windamere Venture Partners and President of Forge Medical Ventures, an early-stage incubator funded by Enterprise Partners, Mayfield Fund and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation. David was the Founder of Spine Wave, a venture-funded medical device company and Director of Business Development of UroMed Corporation (URMD), a venture-funded startup that raised several rounds of venture capital and completed a public offering. David received an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in Biology from Princeton University.

Rafael Fernández de Castro is a professor at the School and director of its Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies (USMEX). A former foreign policy adviser to President Felipe Calderón, he is an expert on bilateral relations between Mexico and the U.S. Fernández de Castro is founder and former chair of the Department of International Studies at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico City. He has published numerous academic articles and written several books, including “Contemporary U.S.- Latin American Relations: Cooperation or Conflict in the 21st Century?” and “The United States and Mexico: Between Partnership and Conflict” with Jorge Domínguez. He also worked as the Project Director of the UNDP’s Human Development Report for Latin America 2013-14, “Citizen Security With a Human Face: Evidence and Proposals for Latin America.” He is the founder and editor of Foreign Affairs Latin America and contributes to the daily newspaper El Financiero and a regular contributor to Televisa.

Mark rejoined ClearLight in 2014 to lead the deal sourcing function for the firm and has over 10 years of experience helping private equity funds find and close on investment opportunities. Before rejoining ClearLight, Mark led deal sourcing for American Infrastructure Funds, a $1.5 billion private investment firm focused on investments in the energy, infrastructure and real property sectors. Mark previously served as an Associate and Senior Associate with ClearLight where he was a founding member of the firm’s Investment Development Group and also assisted with transaction due diligence, execution and portfolio company governance. Before ClearLight, Mark executed sell-side M&A transactions as an Analyst in Houlihan Lokey’s Basic Industrial Group. Mark graduated with a BA in Economics and a Minor in Spanish from Duke University.

Enrique Hernández-Pulido's legal practice includes representing clients in international tax planning and related international matters, particularly Mexican and US-Mexican legal matters. He serves on Procopio's Management Committee, and chairs its Latin America – US Cross-Border Practice Group and Co-chairs its Beer, Wine and Spirits Practice Group. Enrique worked for ten years in the Mexican government in the areas of tax, finance and administration, acting as Subprocurador Fiscal de la Federación (Under Fiscal Federal General Attorney) in charge of consultation and legislative issues, Director General Jurídico (Legal General Director) of IPAB (Mexico’s Bank Deposit Insurance Federal Authority) and Director Jurídico (General Counsel) of FIDELIQ. Before his public career, Enrique was an associate attorney for the law firm of Bryan, González Vargas y González Baz in Mexico City. Before relocating to San Diego, he was on the faculty at ITAM (Instituto Tecnológcio Autónomo de México) in Mexico City teaching advanced courses in tax law in its School of Law. Enrique is a past chair of the International Law Section and of the International Tax Committee of the Tax Section of the California State Bar and of the International Law Section of the San Diego Bar Association. He is a member of the Practice Council for NYU’s School of Law’s LLM in International Tax and of the Council for the Center for US- Mexican Studies of the University of California in San Diego.

John Iannarelli retired from the FBI after more than 20 years of service, during which time he was the FBI’s National Spokesperson, on the FBI Cyber Division executive staff, an FBI SWAT team member, and the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Phoenix Division, where he oversaw all Criminal, Cyber, and Counter Intelligence Investigations throughout Arizona. John has participated in many extensive investigations, including: The Oklahoma City Bombing, The 9/11 attack, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shooting, and The Sony hack. During his FBI tenure, John was the recipient of the FBI Director’s Distinguished Service Award, for which he was selected from the ranks of the Bureau’s 35,000 employees. John is also the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Computer Science in recognition of his contributions to the field of cyber investigations. A former San Diego Police Officer and a graduate of the University of San Diego School of Law, to include international studies at Oxford, England, John is an attorney admitted to the practice of law in California, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

Joe is the founder and CEO of Vuori, Inc. Vuori is an active lifestyle apparel brand that draws inspiration from the aspirational coastal California lifestyle, an integration of yoga, surf, sport, art, and a strong visionary spirit. Vuori makes products that stand the test of time and hopes to inspire others to be healthy, vibrant and live their dreams.

Stephen LaSala is a partner in the firm's Corporate Practice Group and a member of the firm’s Compensation Committee. He is also the former Managing Partner of the San Diego (Del Mar) office and the former Practice Group Leader of the Corporate Practice Group. Stephen specializes in mergers and acquisitions and corporate law. He counsels buyers and sellers in M&A transactions on a daily basis. His practice also includes venture capital and private equity financings, joint ventures, corporate governance, equity and executive compensation and matters relating to the formation and structure of business entities. Stephen represents both small and large companies ranging from startups to well established public companies in a variety of industries, including life sciences, healthcare, software, energy, clean technology, consumer goods, construction, aerospace and defense, media and e-commerce. He also represents institutional and individual investors in connection with public and private company investments.

Mr. Laurence Lederer is primarily involved in the sourcing, acquisition and oversight of Branford Castle Fund investments. He is a board member of Earthlite Massage Tables, Vitrek and Drew Foam. Prior to joining Branford Castle in 2015, Mr. Lederer founded Rubicon Associates, an independent sponsor, where he invested in and took on senior operating roles in small, private companies. Prior to that, Mr. Lederer was a Principal at ACG Capital, where he sourced, evaluated and executed private equity investments in the business services and education sectors for a family office. He has also worked as an investment banking Associate at Morgan Stanley & Co. and an Associate at Castle Harlan, Inc. Mr. Lederer received a B.A. from Carleton College, where he was a cum laude graduate, and received his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. He is a former member of the Board of Trustees of Riverdale Country School and the City Parks Foundation.

William Lynch is a Managing Director in the Los Angeles office of Imperial Capital, focusing on Security Industry. Mr. Lynch has over 18 years of Investment Banking experience, with focus on mergers & acquisitions and strategic advisory. He joined the firm from ProFinance Associates, Inc., where he spent his tenure working security, maritime technology, and high gross margin and repetitive income service businesses. In security and life-safety, he has managed and completed transactions in software, hardware, sensors, recurring revenue monitoring, and integration service businesses. Prior to ProFinance, Bill was in industrial manufacturing, where he led strategic and capital planning, distribution, marketing, and sales with responsibility for the general management of the western United States for the Industrial Gypsum Division of USG Corporation. Mr. Lynch has a B.S. in Business Administration from Menlo College.

Kirk Michie has been in the business of collaborating with investors to optimize trade-offs between risk and return, and between core capital and philanthropic assets for 30+ years. He spends the bulk of his time helping closely held businesses navigate from success to sale, oftentimes acting as outside consultant to pull in other resources, build go-to-market deal teams, and optimize entrepreneurs’ paths to succession or exit. As an Advisor with Bernstein’s Private Client Group, Kirk splits time between California and Hawaii, facilitates investment and complex legacy strategies for individuals, institutions, and large single-family offices. 

Rhett is a Partner at Tower Arch Capital. Prior to co-founding Tower Arch Capital, he was a Partner at Huntsman Gay Global Capital and also worked at Sorenson Capital Partners and Highland Capital Partners. Rhett began his career in the Investment Banking Group at Goldman Sachs. Rhett received a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Bachelor of Science in Psychology, summa cum laude, from Brigham Young University, where he was valedictorian. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Nexeo Staffing, Panoramic Doors, and Kiinde.

Stefan Okhuysen is a Principal at CVF Capital Partners and heads the San Diego office. He brings over 10 years of investment, investment management and operational experience to CVF and has either led or participated in transactions in several sectors, including logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, business services, education, food and beverage, and retail. He has sat on a number of boards in these sectors, either as a member or advisor in both Mexico and the U.S. Mr. Okhuysen joined CVF in 2011 but between 2013 and 2016 he served as Vice President at Tresalia Capital's Private Equity team, where he led and participated in several transactions throughout the U.S. and Mexico. Prior to transitioning into Private Equity, Mr. Okhuysen was founder and CEO of SOU Group, a Los Angeles-based imports and distribution firm focused on Hispanic products. Previously, he worked at Banco Santander Suisse’s Asset Management division in Geneva, Switzerland, as a Fixed Income Analyst. Stefan received an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. in Financial Management from Tec de Monterrey.

Bill has more than two decades of experience in private equity and strategy consulting. Prior to joining Seaside, Bill served as a Managing Director at Encore Consumer Capital, where he worked from 2008-2019. Encore is a private equity firm focused on investments in lower middle market consumer companies. Bill began his career in strategy consulting at Swander Pace & Co. (later Kurt Salmon, part of Accenture Strategy). Bill graduated with a BA from Stanford University. He lives in Encinitas, CA with his wife and three children.

Sureel has been part of the JMI team since 2010 and focuses on the healthcare IT sector. He is responsible for sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities as well as providing strategic and operational support to portfolio companies. Sureel is currently a director of Healthx and Jvion as well as a board observer at CipherHealth and Yello. Prior to joining JMI, Sureel was a business analyst at McKinsey & Company. He also worked in sales operations and business development for DoubleDutch, a mobile software company focused on the events space.

Scott Takaoka is responsible for developing and growing the firm’s relationships with enterprise clients, helping them identify, characterize and proactively manage their cyber risk and increasing their resilience to cyber events. Scott is a part the Aon Cyber Solutions Group, comprised of cyber liability insurance brokers, cyber security consultants, digital forensic/incident response practitioners and cyber risk analysts, providing a comprehensive solution portfolio to assist clients with their cyber risk management challenges. With this holistic approach, Aon helps its clients understand and characterize their current levels of cyber risk, then provides risk transfer and risk mitigation solutions should their current risk levels exceed their appetite for such risks.