Management Team

The founders of J. Devien Capital, Joe McGhee and Jim Kennedy, have over 35 years of combined investment and executive level operations experience. Under the leadership of some of the nation's most successful business leaders, we offer the opportunity to enhance your company’s long term value.

Joseph D. McGhee	Managing Partner	Terry Comer	General Partner
James F. Kennedy	Managing Partner

Investment Team

The investment team is composed of leading private equity firms, successful CEOs and seasoned executives.

Scott Asen	Limited Partner	Michael O’Connell	Limited Partner
Craig Burr	Limited Partner	Bob Oster	Limited Partner
Tom Cassutt	Limited Partner	Gerald Risk	Limited Partner
Michael de Anda	Limited Partner	Howard Stevenson	Limited Partner
David Dodson	Limited Partner	Bill Strang	Limited Partner
William P. Egan	Limited Partner	Kevin Taweel	Limited Partner
Lamont Humber	Limited Partner	Will Thorndike	Limited Partner
Brett R. Keith	Limited Partner	Steven Wheelwright	Limited Partner
David Lazier	Limited Partner

Institutional Investors:

Housatonic Partners (web site)
RockWood Equity Partners (web site)

Profiles:

Joseph D. McGhee
Mr. McGhee was most recently a Division President at Asurion Insurance Services. His previous work experience includes various senior executive level positions with Cisco Systems, Avaya, IBM, LOTUS software, and Siemens.  Mr. McGhee has extensive global operations experience and has conducted business in over 20 countries including leading Cisco Systems’ $400M+ Operations in Korea as Executive Vice President and COO.  In addition to his experiences throughout Asia, he has also conducted business in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as various European countries while working for Siemens. From 2001-2003, Mr. McGhee was responsible for driving over $2 Billion in total revenue and leading all associated business and strategic initiatives as Vice President of Sales, Americas East, for Avaya Communications.  Mr. McGhee received his Bachelors Degree in Business Management & Marketing with Honors from Jackson State University and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School with a concentration in marketing and international business.

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James F. Kennedy
Mr. Kennedy was most recently the Vice President of Sales for North America at 3com Corporation.  While working for 3com, Mr. Kennedy was responsible for driving over $300+ Million in annual revenue and managing a sales force of over 150 sales executives throughout North America (including Canada). He has over 20 years of increasingly successful product and service sales experience, as well as excellent P&L management experience in key sales operation roles.   His previous work experience includes Cisco Systems, Synoptic Communication/Bay Networks, Avaya Communications, Unisys, and Digital Equipment Corporation. Mr. Kennedy holds a Bachelors degree in Management Information Systems from Central Connecticut State College.

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Terry Comer
Mr. Comer joined J. Devien Capital in July 2006 after graduating from Harvard Business School.  Prior to earning his M.B.A., Mr. Comer worked as a Strategy and Development Analyst at Cox Communications, a cable and diversified communications company. He also worked at Avaya Communications in multiple field services and sales roles.  Mr. Comer received a Bachelors degree in Mathematics, suma cum laude, from Morris Brown College and a Bachelors degree in Industrial Engineering with high honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

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Scott Asen
Mr. Asen graduated from Harvard College in 1966. In 1966 and 1967, he co-authored a study of the put and call options markets, How to Make Money Selling Stock Options. Mr. Asen joined the brokerage firm of Mitchell, Hutchins & Co. in 1967 where he worked in the investment advisory department with responsibility for research on small technology stocks. Between 1969 and 1974, Mr. Asen was a portfolio manager with Research and Science Investors, a New York based venture capital and money management firm. From 1974 until 1977, Mr. Asen was self-employed as a journalist specializing in reporting on municipal finance issues.  In 1977, Mr. Asen became a general partner of Pioneer Ventures, a group of venture capital and special situations entities created by a wealthy New York investor. Throughout the following two decades, Mr. Asen had primary responsibility for managing the various Pioneer Ventures entities, which were successfully liquidated over a number of years with final payments made in 2002. Mr. Asen is currently a private investor managing a portfolio of equity and real estate investments for his personal account.  At present, Mr. Asen sits on the boards of three privately held companies.  He is a Trustee of Groton School and The Paris Review and a board member of the Island Foundation.

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Craig Burr
Mr. Burr's career has been devoted almost exclusively to venture capital and private equity activities, having founded Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. in 1979. Previously, Mr. Burr was a Partner at TA Associates. In addition, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the New England Venture Capital Association and currently serves on the Board of Directors of several private companies. Mr. Burr received his Bachelors Degree, cum laude, from Harvard College and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

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Tom Cassutt
Mr. Cassutt is the Vice President and Co-President of Nelson Nameplate, a rapid prototyping and engineering support company based in Los Angeles, California. Prior to joining Nelson, Mr. Cassutt functioned as the Controller of Bristol Corporation from 1978-1984.  He currently sits on the board of American Security Products and Columbia Sanitary Products.  Mr. Cassutt received his Bachelors degree in Physics from the University of California, Irvine and his M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

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Michael de Anda

Mr. de Anda has been investing in privately held companies since 1993 and has over ten years of experience in the private and public equity markets. Mr. de Anda serves on the Board of Directors of Pricing Dynamics and Circle of Friends. Previously, he was an Advisor to Ecoupons and sat on the Board of NetHandicap and Federal Research prior to their sales. Mr. de Anda was a General Partner of Eureka Capital, a small cap focused hedge fund. Mr. de Anda  earned his C.P.A. in Illinois in addition to an M.B.A from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and a Bachelors degree in Accounting from DePaul.

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David Dodson
Mr. Dodson is currently the Managing Director of Headwaters MB. He has been the CEO or Chairman of six middle market companies and has acquired and/or sold 55 companies in that role. Mr. Dodson has also led multiple capital raises as CEO or Chairman with a range of private equity firms, including TA Associates, Bain Capital, Housatonic Partners, the Centennial Funds, and others. He currently serves as Chairman of Wind River Management Inc., was formerly Chairman of Worldbridge Broadband Services Inc., and has been Chairman & CEO of ADAP Inc. and Smith Alarm Inc. Mr. Dodson has served on the boards of 16 middle market companies in which he was also a private investor. As a board member, Mr. Dodson has played a role in numerous debt and equity raises as well as ten significant M&A transactions. Prior to his entrepreneurial and private equity career, Mr. Dodson worked for McKinsey & Company. He holds a Bachelors degree from Stanford University (Economics) and an M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

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William P. Egan
Bill Egan, a founder and general partner of Alta Communications, founded Alta’s predecessor firm, Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co., in 1979 and identified and backed several of America’s leading growth companies in the information technology, life sciences and communications industries. Prior to founding Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co., Mr. Egan was a partner at TA Associates. Mr. Egan began his career as a manager of venture capital for New England Enterprise Capital Corporation. He is past president and chairman of the National Venture Capital Association and a member of the Boards of Trustees of Fairfield University and the University of Pennsylvania.   Mr. Egan is on the board of directors of Cephalon, Inc. and also serves on the boards of several privately held communications, cable and information technology companies. Mr. Egan holds an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance and a degree in Economics from Fairfield University.

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Lamont Humber
Mr. Humber is a distinguished pilot, successful real estate investor, and the founder/owner of First Class Estates, a rapidly growing South Florida based mortgage company. In a strategic effort to expand his real estate ventures, in January 2005 Mr. Humber established a partnership to launch FC Development LLC., where he is currently co-owner of a multi-million dollar ($100M+) land development project in Central Florida and owner/developer of a 500 acre property in Northwest  Florida. Mr. Humber received his Bachelors degree, graduating cum laude, in Aircraft Systems Management from Delaware State University. He was a pilot for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Med Jet International, and in 1999, became one of the youngest pilots to fly for American Airlines. Mr. Humber resides in Coconut Creek , Florida and is a devoted single father of 3.

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Brett R. Keith
Mr. Keith is a Principal of RockWood Equity Partners, a private equity firm he co-founded. Earlier in his career, Mr. Keith worked as an investment banker in the Mergers & Acquisitions group of Lehman Brothers’ New York office, and as the Controller of Jacobson Machine Works, a turnaround company owned by the private equity firm of Goldner, Hawn, Johnson & Morrison. Mr. Keith began his career as a financial consultant and Certified Public Accountant at Grant Thornton LLP and Arthur Andersen LLP. Mr. Keith received a Bachelors degree, with dual degrees in finance and accounting, from the University of St. Thomas and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

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David Lazier
Mr. Lazier is the Controller, Vice President of Sales and Co-President of Nelson Nameplate, a rapid prototyping and engineering support company based in Los Angeles, California. Prior to joining Nelson, Mr. Lazier functioned as an Engineer with IBM Corporation from 1982-1984.  He is currently on the board of American Security Products, Columbia Sanitary Products, Glendale Memorial Hospital Foundation and the San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity. Mr. Lazier received his Bachelors degree in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University.

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Michael O’Connell
Mr. O'Connell is currently the Managing Director at M2O Investments - a family investment fund. He was formerly the Managing Director and President of Anhalt, O'Connell & Steffanci, Inc., an investment management firm specializing in debt securities with $1 billion under management. Previously, Mr. O'Connell owned and operated the National Lines Bureau, a ship mooring company for the Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbors. Mr. O'Connell is currently an investor in over 20 private companies. He received his Bachelors, with high honors, from Harvard College, and his M.B.A from Harvard Business School.

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Bob Oster
Mr. Oster started his career as a professional economist and corporate banker with Bank of America in 1967.  He then moved on to positions in corporate finance with a number of Bay Area companies.  In 1983, he joined Oracle Corporation as Vice President-Finance and Administration and was responsible for Oracle's initial public offering in 1986. Since 1987, he has been a private venture investor working with other private and institutional investors in all phases of the venture investing process from incubation and due diligence through building the management team and sale or initial public offering.  He was a founding investor and special advisor to Informatica, Inc. (INFA), a provider of analytic applications and infrastructure software.  He is currently a director of Carillon Partners, LLP, Raleigh, NC, a private assisted living company; iNET Interactive, Dayton, OH, a private internet advertising company; Wind River Environmental, Boston, MA, a private LBO roll-up in the non-hazardous liquid waste industry.  He received a Bachelors degree in Economics with honors from Occidental College in 1963 and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1965 and 1967, respectively.

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Gerald Risk
In his role as CFO of Asurion, Mr. Risk has broad responsibility for all aspects of the company’s financial strategy and operations.  He is also involved in Ausrion’s international growth strategy and the Company's corporate development efforts.  Prior to joining Asurion in 1999, Mr. Risk advised companies in a number of industries on a wide variety of financial and strategic matters as an investment banker with Goldman, Sachs & Co. in San Francisco, Hong Kong and New York. He has also worked for Hambrecht and Quist, LLC, and Toronto Dominion Capital. Mr. Risk holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar and a Bachelors degree in Commerce with honors from Queen's University.

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Howard Stevenson
Professor Stevenson is the Vice Provost for Harvard University. He is also the Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration and has served as Senior Associate Dean, Director of External Relations at Harvard Business School. He has authored, co-authored, or edited nine books, forty-one articles, and over one-hundred-fifty Harvard Business School case studies. Professor Stevenson was a founder and the first president of the Baupost Group, Inc., a $5.5 billion investment management firm that manages partnerships investing in liquid securities, which he grew to over $400 Million in assets while president. Professor Stevenson is an investor and board member in numerous private and public companies. He received his Bachelors degree in Mathematics, with distinction, from Stanford University and his M.B.A., with high distinction, and D.B.A. degrees from Harvard Business School.

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Bill Strang
William “Bill” Strang is President and Chief Executive Officer of NetStar-1, a company created to deliver and support business-critical solutions for Government and commercial clients.  Prior to NetStar-1, Mr. Strang was Chief Executive Officer of Dimension Data North America, a leading technology company representing a new category of systems integrators.  Mr. Strang was responsible for the company’s operations and growth strategy in North America and oversaw the 1100 employees in the region and had revenue responsibilities of $600 Million. Dimension Data acquired TimeBridge Technologies, a $150 Million company created to provide commercial enterprises with consulting, design, integration and support services.  Mr. Strang took the reigns of TimeBridge Technologies in June of 1997 as it spun off from Sylvest Management Systems Corporation, a company he co-founded in 1987. Mr. Strang served for ten years as President of Sylvest, an open-systems integrator providing complete turn-key solutions support to primarily Federal government customers. Sylvest was purchased by FDC Technologies in June of 1997. Mr. Strang is married, has three children and resides in Bethesda, MD.

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Kevin Taweel
As the Chairman of Asurion, a wireless services provider of insurance, warranties and road-side assistance, Mr. Taweel guides the company’s growth and success in close cooperation with executive management and the board of directors. He co-founded Asurion in 1994. Prior to launching the company, he was the president of Mill River Corporation, an investment company. He also has experience in Mergers & Acquisitions investment banking with Salomon Brothers. He earned an M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from McGill University. Mr. Taweel is a recent recipient of the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

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Will Thorndike
Mr. Thorndike was a Founding Partner of Housatonic Partners in 1994 and has been Managing Partner since 1995 as assets under management have grown from $5 million to $275 million. Prior to that, Mr. Thorndike worked with the Walker Publishing Company and T. Rowe Price Associates. Mr. Thorndike is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a Director of Alta Colleges; Continental Fire & Safety Services, LLC; Carillon Assisted Living, LLC; LeMaitre Vascular, Inc.; Rapid Communications, LLC ; The Governance Institute, LLC ; Wind River Environmental, LLC; and a Trustee of the Groton School.

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Steven Wheelwright
Mr. Wheelwright recently retired from his position as the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Professor Wheelwright first taught at Harvard from 1971-79 and was the Thomas Henry Carroll-Ford Foundation Visiting Professor from 1985-86. He rejoined the Harvard faculty in 1988. In his years away from Harvard, he was the Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers Professor of Management at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Professor Wheelwright has a B.S. degree in Mathematics from the University of Utah and an M.B.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. In addition to his Harvard and Stanford positions, Professor Wheelwright served on the faculty of INSEAD (European Institute of Management) in Fontainebleau, France. He was Vice President of Sales in a family-owned printing company and has consulted in the areas of business/operations strategy and improving product development capabilities. Professor Wheelwright currently serves as Chairman of the Board of HBS Publishing, and as a Board member at O.C. Tanner Company (service awards) Quantum Corporation (data storage), at Zions Bank (banking), and at CheckSum (circuit board testing equipment).

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Housatonic Partners
Housatonic Partners is a private equity investment firm founded in 1994 with over $350 million in capital under management. We invest in profitable companies in the business services, media and communications industries.

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RockWood Equity Partners, LLC
RockWood Equity Partners is a private equity firm based in New York and Cleveland that makes controlling investments in companies having revenues between $10 million and $100 million. RockWood believes that companies in this size range offer the best opportunity to create long-term value because of their inherent revenue growth potential as well as the potential to increase earnings through operational improvements.

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