At age seven I plotted the route, calculated the travel times, and drove a large truck from my home in southern Virginia to San Francisco. Well, actually my Dad drove — my legs didn’t reach the pedals yet. My Dad started his own trucking company when he was 15. Occasionally, he would come out from behind his desk to take me and my siblings on the road during summer break. I was the “co-pilot” as he warmly christened me. I couldn’t have been more thrilled to be next to him using my love of math and the Rand McNally Road Atlas to help us make good time crisscrossing the country.
My love of math and a wonderful high school economics teacher helped me earn a scholarship to UNC-Wilmington. I graduated with a degree in international business and accepted a position on the trading floor at George K. Baum in Denver. I learned a lot behind my Bloomberg Terminal but soon realized I needed to be out in the world.
I landed an exciting opportunity at BerchWood Partners in New York, where I spent eight years honing my skills in project management and fundraising for alternative investment funds. In 2008, I opened the firm’s San Francisco office and focused on building LP relationships on the West Coast and in Asia. My well-developed logistics and cartography skills had expanded from my father’s worn road atlas to include countries across the globe.
In 2012, I partnered with two of my mentors from my earliest fundraising days to launch Harpeth Fund Advisers, a fundraising and advisory platform that successfully helped raise more than $6 billion. In addition to raising institutional capital, a highlight of my work has always been story telling.
I was drawn to Delta-v’s story from the start. I knew it as a firm with strong history and culture, and a deep passion for funding innovative entrepreneurs. Now part of the team, I am most excited to help build upon their previous fundraising successes and share our story to an even wider audience.
My map and mileage calculator may have been replaced by 21st century technology, but what hasn’t changed are the values and entrepreneurial drive my father instilled in me so many years ago. Delta-v is a place where that’s not only celebrated, but is also the lead story.