About Sand Hill East

Services we are providing

Business plan creation

Helping founders/executives to create formal business plans, delivery roadmaps, business and operating models

Strategic Introductions

Making meaningful introductions to key influencers, providing assistance developing and structuring resulting relationships.

consulting

Covering a wide range of product assessment, market positioning, security review and business optimization deliverables.

Acceleration

Making meaningful strategic introductions to key industry players that can rapidly change the trajectory of a growing firm

go to market

Working with management teams to better understand critical market segments, refine products, and develop business plans

Risk Management

Assessing risks to security, privacy, operations, scalability and delivery, providing practical and implementable solutions to mitigate risks (...)

advisory

Serving as a trusted advisor to the CEO/founders’ we work with, helping them navigate inevitable early stage challenges

WHO We are

Andy Brown

CEO and Co-Founder

Andy Brown currently serves as CEO of Sand Hill East, LLC, which provides strategic management, advice and marketing services to emerging companies. Mr. Brown is also a member of the boards of directors of Guidewire inc. a public traded company in the PNC insurance business, Zscaler, Inc., a publicly traded company providing cloud security services, Pure Storage, Inc., a publicly traded software-defined data storage solutions company, Digital Asset, a company providing solutions in the DeFi and Digital Ledger workflow world, Moogsoft, a next generation AI-Operations company, Skyhive, a company providing Digital Reskilling & Education.

He is also CEO and co-owner of Biz Tectonics LLC, a privately held consulting company. From September 2010 to October 2013, Mr. Brown served as Group Chief Technology Officer of UBS, an investment bank. Prior to that, Mr. Brown served in a variety of executive management and leadership roles at a variety of leading banking companies including Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse. Mr. Brown holds a BSc Honors Degree in Chemical Physics from University College London.

Roseann Palmieri

President

Roseann Palmieri is a highly respected advisor, senior executive, entrepreneur and data-management expert in the Financial Services and Securities Industry. Roseann has over 25 years experience in successfully leveraging information to drive business growth, shape strategy, manage data, deliver information, improve performance, maximize information value and amplify intelligence. Working with the world’s most prominent banks, as well as the two largest financial information providers, Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters, Roseann successfully implemented many of these strategic initiatives that drive business value and increase revenue.

Roseann is formerly the Managing Director of Bloomberg Enterprise Information Management (EIM) which included the acquisition of PolarLake. Roseann joined Bloomberg from Thomson Reuters where she led their $200M Enterprise Content business. Before entering the financial market data vendor space, Roseann co-founded Element22, a boutique data management advisory company that specialized in strategic data business advisory engagements with financial institutions and service providers. Prior to this, Roseann held senior management positions at Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley creating their overall information strategy and leading their Enterprise Data Management efforts.

Nanette Di Tosto

Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer

Nanette is Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Sand Hill East. She oversees the business and operational aspects of Sand Hill East and its affiliates and advises portfolio companies. In addition Nanette is COO of Ninth Wave, Inc., former CAO of T-REX Group and Beacon Platform Inc., and former COO of Modelshop Inc. and Galactic Fog, IP. She has built and managed operational functions that allow portfolio companies to scale.

Prior to Sand Hill East, Nanette was Vice President of CertCo where she managed strategic relationships, led strategy and delivery teams, defined and promoted e-commerce and cryptographic policies, and represented CertCo views to governments. Multinational corporations elected Nanette to Chair of BIAC’s Cryptography Committee, where she represented business views on the development of the OECD International Guidelines on Cryptography. Before CertCo, Nanette was Vice President at Bankers Trust Company’s e-commerce division where she managed strategic relationships and its international policy program. Nanette was formerly Director at the U.S. Council for International Business, representing the views of multinationals to inter-governmental organizations and in the international policy arena. Nanette holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Gettysburg College and Master of Arts in Economics from Penn State.

John Bruno

Operating Partner

John G. Bruno is a senior strategy, technology and business leader. John joined Aon in September 2014 as Executive Vice President of Enterprise Innovation & Chief Information Officer. John has served in several other leadership positions with increasing responsibility including Chief Operations Officer & Head of Aon Business Services. In 2019 John was named Chief Operating Officer as well as Chief Executive Officer of Aon’s Data & Analytic Services business unit that includes the firm’s Affinity/Small Business, Human Capital Management, and Digital Client Solutions revenue segments globally.

Prior to joining Aon, John was President, Industry & Field Operations and EVP of Corporate Development for NCR Corporation, where he was responsible for NCR’s global salesforce and business lines inclusive of Financial Services, Retail & Hospitality, Travel, Telecom & Technology, and NCR Small Business. Additional responsibilities included Corporate Development, Marketing and Enterprise Risk Management.

Throughout his 30 plus year career John has held senior strategy, technology, and business unit leadership positions with Fortune 500 companies including United Parcel Service, Cisco Systems, Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs. John currently serves on the Board of Directors for Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) and is chair of the Compensation Committee as well as member of the Technology Committee.

Andrew Dubois

OPERATING PARTNER

Andrew Dubois is an entrepreneurial technology executive experienced in successfully delivering transformation initiatives through the combined application of technology innovation and operational efficiencies. Andrew has co-founded and sold three technology startups and held numerous technology leadership positions within Financial Services. Most recently, Andrew was an executive at Tulco Holdings, where Andrew served as Chief Operating Officer for Tulco Labs, BlueNote AI, and Altway Insurance, directly managing the artificial intelligence, machine learning, engineering, and data science divisions delivering transformative change to the insurance, medical apparel, physical security, and recycling industries.

Prior to Tulco, Andrew held numerous executive positions at UBS AG during his 15-year tenure with the firm. Andrew has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and serves on the CMU School of Computer Science Alumni Advisory Board.

Neil Chinai

OPERATING PARNTER

Neil Chinai is recognized in financial services and fintech community as a thought leader and disruptor.

Neil is currently advising several early stage fintech firms andFinancial Service Software providers on product strategy, business plans, IT infrastructure and fund raising. Additionally,through his extensive network, he facilitates product sales and client engagements.
Neil has over 25 years' IT experience working with Tier 1 Banks driving business growth, IT and Operational transformation,Delivery on Regulatory mandates and evolving Organizational models. He brings a depth of product knowledge across Capital Markets, Investment Bank, Security Services, Lending and Structured products. Neil led the adaption of technology enablers for front office applications, analytics, data science, digitalization, blockchain, and cloud integrations.
Neil is formerly the Managing Director and CIO of Global Fixed Income and Americas Capital Markets and Banking at HSBC. Neil previous experience spans Barclays Capital, Merrill Lynch and UBS. Neil’s vast experience covers overseeing Technology function across growth initiatives, costs optimization, risk control, offshoring into India and China and delivering on IT strategy.
Neil in his early days worked in the Front Office IT functions where he learned the front office in Capital Markets and dealing with complex pricing, risk management, electronic trading,devops, operations, and derivatives workflow functions. Thought out his career Neil has had a passion for innovation,industry standardization through his work on FPML, FIX and Common Domain Model and promoting adaption through strategic partnership with market infrastructure providers and fintech.

Dean Di Tosto

Vice President of Business Development & Finance

Dean is a Vice President of business development and finance with deep experience working with management teams and sponsors in financial budgeting, modeling, and forecasting. Dean also has experience in business optimization projects and scenario analyses to assist stakeholders in their evaluation of strategic alternatives and short-term and long-term projections across a variety of industries including, but not limited to, the consumer discretionary, manufacturing, and software as a service (“SaaS”) industries. In addition, Dean has organized and facilitated workshops with key company stakeholders to review and assess companies’ current and future operating targets, key performance indicators (such as retention ratios, same-store-sales, and customer concentration), liquidity and potential business risks. Dean has experience tracking companies’ financial performance and liquidity and preparing company financials and performance metrics for board presentations.

Prior to joining Sand Hill East, Dean served as Vice President at Accordion Partners within their turnaround and restructuring practice. Dean was formally a Private Equity and Credit Assistant Vice President for IHS Markit, a global information services and financial and business intelligence firm, where he performed company financial analysis and analysis, developed valuation assessments and reviewed transaction and buyout structures for private equity and credit investors. Dean started his career at Ernst and Young as a Financial Services Assurance Professional where he planned and managed audit projects and conducted and reviewed business and investment valuations for key audit clients.
Dean is a Magna Cum Laude graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the Villanova University School of Business in Villanova, PA. Dean also earned a Master of Accounting and Professional Consultancy from Villanova.
Dean is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of New York.

Executive Advisory Network Executives with a broad array of expertise and experience who work on our team to advise clients

Jill Denham

SENIOR ADVISORY PARTNER

Gillian (Jill) Denham is a partner of Authentum Partners that invests in technology and related businesses and provides advisory services. Ms Denham currently serves on the board of directors of Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, Kinaxis Inc. and National Bank. Ms Denham spent her career at Wood Gundy and CIBC. She has held senior positions in investment banking, was President of Merchant Banking/Private Equity and had regional responsibility for CIBC in Europe. She was also head of the Retail Bank for CIBC. She holds an Honours Business Administration (HBA) degree from the Ivey Business School, Western University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Andy Honess

SENIOR ADVISORY PARTNER

Andy is a seed investor and advisor to the software industry. In his 30 year career, he has held UK and international senior sales and Managing Director positions in the enterprise software space, including IBM and Siebel Systems and helped take QLIK from start-up to a NASDAQ IPO for $749m in 2010. He specializes in guiding tech start-ups to high-speed growth and is a mentor and Entrepreneur-in-Residence for over ten incubation and accelerator programs across the UK. He reviews and mentors over 200 companies a year.

Andy has built the Business Alignment Management™ methodology designed specifically for start-up and scale-up businesses, with value selling principles at its core. Andy holds an honours degree in Business Information Systems.

Drew Rayman

SENIOR ADVISORY PARTNER

Drew is a passionate marketer with more than 20 years of digital experience and a track record for building results-driven marketing practices. His agencies were designed to serve one purpose: understand the customer, be closer to existing customers, and find the next new customer. He founded Tenthwave Digital, which was acquired by Wire Stone (part of Accenture Interactive). He has spent much of his career helping businesses (from startups to large multinational companies) drive growth - by adapting to disruption, exploiting technology, and harnessing changes in consumer behavior.

Drew helps the world’s leading brands articulate their purpose, fostering deeper connections to their customers and incorporate digital experiences and social into the core of their operations. He’s worked with the world's greatest companies, including Google, Facebook, eBay, Boeing, BlackRock, HP, Microsoft, Zoetis, Duncan Hines, Snyders Lance, Campbells Soup, Prudential, and many others. Drew’s an award-winning designer, entrepreneur and sought-after industry expert - appearing in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, Ad Week, The New York Times and Forbes.

Julie Lyle

SENIOR ADVISORY PARTNER

Julie Lyle has built and led market-leading brands, teams and businesses in highly competitive environments worldwide. From startups to Fortune 1, she has served as an executive, corporate officer, trusted advisor, and Board Director helping companies shape their vision, exceed their targets and dominate markets globally. Julie’s 25 year corporate career includes Chief Marketing, Chief Revenue Officer, and Chief Merchant roles for Walmart, Raytheon, Prudential plc, and Barnes & Noble among others. She has led government affairs for Fortune’s Most Admired and Top Ranked retail and financial services companies across 4 continents, including both communist and democratic regimes. Julie has played an integral role in numerous multi $B M&A deals and has advised and guided companies through IPOs, ICOs and listings on SGX and HKG exchanges.

Julie is an entrepreneur and a 3X Founder with one successful exit to date. For the last 7 years she has been an investor and advisor raising products, demand and capital for early stage AI, financial services, data science, CPG and tech companies. companies through IPOs, ICOs and listings on SGX and HKG exchanges.

While Julie is Brazilian by birth, and has lived and worked across APAC, EMEA, LATAM and the Americas regions, she currently resides in Dallas, Texas. companies through IPOs, ICOs and listings on SGX and HKG exchanges.

She has received numerous awards for her professional accomplishments and community contributions, which include having raised over $300M for women’s education, children’s health and disaster relief causes. Julie has spoken at the World Economic Forum on issues important to women in the workforce, and she continues to mentor young female executives who are making a difference in global business and society.

Hilary Park

ADVISORY PARTNER

Hilary is an innovative and experienced leader and advisor with over twenty years of experience in financial services and fintech.

Most recently, Hilary was the CEO and Co-Founder of LMRKTS, an IFC-backed capital optimization company which reduced over 20 trillion USD of foreign exchange notional equivalent from the balance sheets of the world’s largest banks. As such, she has experience with all phases of startup development from conception, to fundraising, to growth, and ultimately to exit and post M&A transition. Prior to LMRKTS, she worked as a proprietary trader and credit analyst at both investment banks and hedge funds. With a background in math, programming, foreign language and fine arts, she offers a unique approach to problem solving and as well as an ability to distill complex technical problems into their fundamentals to facilitate communication with specialists and generalists alike.

JP Rosato

ADVISORY PARTNER

As the former Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CS Technology, Mr. Rosato provided the vision and executive leadership that enabled CST to change the paradigm for technology advisory services delivery that redefined the space and attracted global 2000 customers resulting in the acquisition of CST by Accenture in June 2021

Mr. Rosato has over 30 years of extensive design, engineering and operations experience within large, complex technology environments. In cooperation with his network of C level partners, Mr. Rosato has developed and defined a host of innovative services, monetization strategies for technology assets and investments, and groundbreaking partnerships between enterprises and providers.
Mr. Rosato serves on several corporate advisory boards and industry panels and is a frequent speaker at technology related industry events.

Tim Estes

ADVISORY PARTNER

Tim Estes is a pioneering executive in the Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing domain. He founded and led Digital Reasoning from 2000, an AI leader in the space of unstructured data analytics for 20+ years.. Estes envisioned a means by which computers could learn to accurately interpret language, understand context, and extract critical intelligence. Digital Reasoning secured investments from In-Q-Tel (IQT), Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq, BNP Paribas, Barclays, Credit Suisse, HCA, and others totaling over $120M.

The technology in Digital Reasoning became the market standard for applying AI and Natural Language Processing to communications data across text and voice and was adopted by a majority of the Tier 1 Financial Institutions around the globe.

It’s technology also supported key Defense and Intelligence efforts in the US Government, enabled nationwide cancer screening systems to automate patient detection and prioritization, and created the largest deployed system to support law enforcement in the disruption of child sex trafficking rings in North America. It was merged with Smarsh in November, 2020 to create the market leader in Communications Intelligence for Financial Services. Estes left the acquiring company, Smarsh, at the end of 2021 and is now an active Angel Investor, Advisor, and Mentor to CEOs in multiple industries.

Felix Kühlmann

ADVISORY PARTNER

Felix Kühlmann is a strategic leader with a demonstrated history of building businesses and creating impact in the commercial and life insurance industry. He is adept at integrating complex solution elements into innovative yet pragmatic solutions. He has a proven record of building teams and cultivating relationships and partnerships to execute with urgency enabling profitable growth, better customer experience while reducing expenses in a global context.

Felix has more than 15 years of experience in consulting and the insurance industry across the full value chain. He set up and was the Chief Executive Officer for Everly launching the first permanent life insurance product Direct to Consumer in the US. Before he was the Chief Operating Officer for Zurich’s North American Commercial Insurance leading strategy development and driving digital transformation and innovative service development for mid-market and large corporate customers including international programs, captives, and complex casualty solutions. Felix had joined Zurich as one of the partners of the internal consulting unit in Zurich and moved to the US to successfully build the American hub.
Previously Felix was a Principal and Recruiting Director at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Munich and Berlin. He was a member of the insurance and corporate development practice and led projects for insurance clients in Distribution, Asset Management and Risk Management across Europe. As a recruiting director he drove the talent acquisition from U.S. and European universities with a specific focus on Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, and Harvard.
Prior to BCG, Felix was a European Counsel at Nestlé in Vevey, Switzerland, handling merger filings across the globe and advising clients on antitrust aspects of major commercial agreements.

Gil Shaked

ADVISORY PARTNER

Over the past 30 years, Gil Shaked has been a technology leader in various capacities, including being the CTO of a large public company, a senior executive at hedge funds & big banks and a CEO of a Fintech startup. Gil is an angel investor specializing in startup companies with focus on advanced technologies and innovative solutions.

As the Chief Technology Officer at Dun & Bradstreet, Gil pioneered the transformation of a legacy platform to a simplified and modern one. Gil has built a strong and capable organization that is well- positioned to accelerate growth.
Prior to D&B, as a Managing Director at Citadel, Gil initiated, managed and led the sale of the Omnium Platform to Northern Trust.
Prior to Citadel, Gil was a Managing Director and a divisional CIO at Morgan Stanley. Gil led the development and implementation of a global technology strategy with the goals of enabling business growth and reducing operational expenses and risk through innovation. In addition, Gil led a significant cost-cutting program resulting in savings of over $100M.

Gil was the CEO of Correlix, a product and managed services firm that provided latency information to High Frequency trading shops, Investment Banks and Hedge Funds. As the CEO, Gil was responsible for all aspects of running a company, including Sales and Marketing, Business and Product Development, Operations, Finance and Client Services. He led an Equity funding round as well as securing debt financing. Gil was a member of the Board, comprised of Sequoia Capital, other VCs, and independent board members.

Prior to Correlix, Gil was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse responsible for the technology organizations covering Global Prime Services, Alternative Investment and Equity Research.

David Bauer

ADVISORY PARTNER

His primary responsibilities include building out C-Suite-as-a-Service capability and, privacy and security consulting. David’s most recent position was with Asurion Insurance Services, a provider of mobile device protection and insurance services. David held a variety of executive positions with Asurion for 9 years including Global Chief Technology Officer, Chief Information Officer for Asia, and Chief Operating Officer for Asurion Australia.
Before Asurion, David was First Vice President and Chief Information Security and Privacy Officer for Merrill Lynch, for which he was named a Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leader in 2004. Other positions include Global Head of Engineering for Deutsche Bank, based in London, Head of Security and Internet Services for Morgan Stanley, and Director of Computer Security Technology for Bell Communications Research. David began his career as a programmer in the areas of computer graphics, language design, and network management at AT&T Bell Laboratories.
David holds Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Computer Science from Rutgers University.

Matthew Boskin

ADVISORY PARTNER

Matthew Boskin is a Managing Partner at Sand Hill East LLC. Prior to joining Sand Hill, Matt was Co Head of institutional Sales/Institutional Salesperson at Susquehanna International Group and a successful Institutional Equity Salesperson at both Bulge Bracket Investment Banks and Investment Banking Boutiques for over 25 years.
In addition, Matt founded the New York Technology Sales Force at Merrill Lynch (the first ever specialty sales team at Merrill) and was transferred to London to expand the product globally.
He represented Tech Sales and Merrill Lynch in a number of technology investment banking pitches and has successfully raised capital for Initial Public Offerings, Secondary Stock offerings, and Private Company fund raises. Matt has personally invested in a number of private transactions and is both a current as well as a former Board Member for a few of those companies. Matt holds a BS/BA from Boston University and an MBA from Fordham University. Matt continues to maintain all of his Securities Licenses

Ed Corneiro

ADVISORY PARTNER

Ed has 30+ years of Technology Finance experience having served as Global CFO of Technology for firms such as Accenture, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, UBS and Morgan Stanley. He has deep expertise in Technology Finance where he has partnered with Global CIO’s to implement strategic initiatives, provide insightful analytical finance guidance on trends, lowered expenses and developed world class finance teams.

Most recently Ed was President of Accent, a Division of Intrado owned by Private Equity firm Apollo Global Management, where he developed and implemented firmwide strategy, operations, due diligence, sale and post sale integration.

John Killeen

ADVISORY PARTNER

John Killeen is a seasoned financial services technology executive with over 30 years of experience leading enterprise-level technology organizations in the United States, Europe and Asia. He is a highly effective integrator of systems and people with deep experience leading through mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and organizational change initiatives. He operates with the highest level of ethics and integrity. John is a strong and charismatic leader with a proven track record of delivering pragmatic, value-added solutions to complex business challenges.
John is President and Founder of Latitude Strategies providing management consulting services pertaining to technology and organizational effectiveness.
John was the CIO for the Corporate Technology organization at JPMorgan Chase. Immediately prior to that, he was CIO for TD Ameritrade where he was responsible for the execution of strategic technology plans and managing executive relationships across all business lines.
John began his career at Merrill Lynch where he spent 22 years with increasing responsibilities culminating by serving as the CTO for the Global Wealth Management Division.
John received his Bachelors of Business Administration degree in Operations Management and Mathematics from Pace University.

Jon Robson

ADVISORY PARTNER

Jon Robson is an entrepreneur and global growth-driven business leader in the financial technology industry. Jon has a successful track record building start-ups and leading global multinational companies, driving significant revenue expansion for content, risk solutions and analytics software, and pioneering trading technology for global Capital Markets. Jon brings experience of setting strategic direction, identifying market opportunities, and developing operating teams, strategies and partnerships.

Leveraging a global network of C-suite relationships, Jon brings actionable insight drawn from 25 years of financial services in USA, Asia Pacific, and Europe. He has Board and Executive Committee leadership experience with public and private companies, and has led large scale mergers, consortium creation, product and sales management, and regulatory response.

Jon was Founder and CEO of MoneyLine Telerate, CEO of Reuters America, President of Thomson Reuters Enterprise Division, CEO of NYSE Technologies, President of First Derivatives plc, and President of DXC Luxoft ‘s Capital Markets division. He has served on the boards of MLT, ICAP plc, First Derivatives plc, Relationship Science, Privitar, Omgeo, Fixnetix, The Partnership for New York and the British American Business Institute."

Kelly Kamm

ADVISORY PARTNER

Kelly is a technologist and executive with decades of experience in the design, implementation and support of applications and platforms in the IT and medical software industries. Most recently, he was the Chief Technology Officer of Sitehands where he was the principal architect and designer of the Sitehands Platform, which managed IT field service activities at scale for global financial institutions, insurance companies and other large enterprises.

Kelly is an experienced advisor who has assisted clients in scaling their businesses through use of technology in the domains of ecommerce, cloud migration strategy and application architecture. He has also been heavily involved in regulatory compliance activities (HIPAA, Part 11, SOC 1/2, ISO 27001).

Lisa Nelson

ADVISORY PARTNER

Lisa Nelson is an executive leader with extensive experience in leadership roles within financial services. She brings global expertise in corporate strategy, post M&A integration, change management, governance and cultivating client partnerships to Boards and C-suite executives. Lisa co-founded KWT Advisory and serves as President offering market insights, strategy creation & execution, operating model development, social impact programs, mentoring and pricing strategy. Projects have spanned SME engagements with asset management and global consulting practices as well as Fintech advisory.

Prior to this, Lisa championed operational leadership roles in her 24 years at ICAP; an interdealer broker servicing the largest global banks, investment banks and financial organizations across the spectrum of financial instruments. This led to a broad portfolio of responsibilities as the company was evolving including two Board positions, $800+ million P&L management, business development, organizational restructuring and strategic planning. She restructured global business units and steered the business through numerous transformations and acquisitions. Transformations involved the migration to hybrid and electronic execution, data monetization, process improvement, operational consolidation and cost reduction. She managed the integration of numerous acquisitions across the US and Latin America. Throughout her career, Lisa supported the execution of strategic change management, governance and served as a driver of corporate ethics and culture.

Lorne Mitchell

ADVISORY PARTNER

Lorne Mitchell is an executive leader with extensive experience in leadership and consulting roles in the Telecoms, Media and Technology industries. He has experience dealing with a range of different sizes of client from start-ups to large multinationals - mainly in the US, Europe, Africa and Asia. This includes the successful execution as part of the management team of over ten mergers and joint ventures.

After a successful career in line management in the telecoms industry, followed by ten years as an executive in PwC and IBM, he founded Objective Designers in 2008 where he has served a broad range of clients in adapting and refining their operating models to cater for changes in strategy and market conditions.
Lorne has been a thought leader in the roll-out of full-fibre broadband in the UK and Europe and has pioneered different ways to consolidate and trade voice and data traffic between operators.
Lorne brings to Sandhill East a keen eye for strategic opportunities to expand into new international markets, combined with a wealth of connections to make things happen fast.

Philip Brittan

ADVISORY PARTNER

Philip Brittan has worked in the FinTech industry for over 30 years as an entrepreneur, CEO, CTO, business leader, innovator, Board member, and adviser. Philip founded and managed 4 software start-ups: FX options specialist Fenics (now part of BGC), financial risk management software developer Spheresoft, Droplets which developed expansive IP foundational to the interactive Web, and most recently Crux Informatics, a data delivery and engineering platform and managed service for the financial industry and which is backed by Goldman Sachs, Citi, Morgan Stanley and hedge fund Two Sigma.

Philip also ran the Foreign Exchange and Economics business unit at Bloomberg, the Google Finance business, and was the Chief Technology Officer and Head of Platform for Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk division (now Refinitiv/LSEG), where he oversaw all product development and managed a globally-distributed team of 6000. Philip is an inventor on 6 patents, writes a variety of technology and business blogs and articles, is a frequent speaker at financial technology events, and he sits on several company Boards.
Philip has an AB degree in Computer Science from Harvard, where he focused on AI/NLP. He is a certified Financial Risk Manager and a PADI SCUBA Rescue Diver. He grew up on a ranch in Montana and is passionate about outdoor sports and making music.

Sean O’Donoghue

ADVISORY PARTNER

Sean is an innovative business technology executive and experienced leader with 25+ years’ experience developing and executing market leading technology and digital strategies with technology and operating roles ranging from COO for InsurTech leader Trōv (overseeing all of Engineering, Insurance Product & Regulation, Finance, Analytics, Operations and Investor Relations), CTO for Madison Square Garden, CIO for DreamWorks Animation SKG, and leadership roles at Oracle Corporation. Also, an experienced finance executive and CFO in the London Insurance Market, working also at Lloyds of London.

A creative and transformational leader with a demonstrable track record of execution. A decisive, collaborative and highly effective communicator who creates deep and wide relationships with senior management, employees, business partners and clients to transform business operations, increase business agility, improve customer experience and enable long term sustainable growth.

Steve Milunovich

ADVISORY PARTNER

Steve recently retired as a sell-side stock analyst after following the technology sector for 34 years. He is versed in financial and strategic analysis for both public and private companies. He is known as a thought leader, applying models such as Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation and job to be done; Trout & Ries' principles of marketing; and Hamilton Helmer's 7 Powers of differentiation. He has helped investors understand platforms and new technologies such as IoT and AI through a series of webcasts with industry experts.

He covered names such as Apple, IBM, Cisco, and Tesla at Morgan Stanley, Bank America (Merrill Lynch), and Wolfe Research, where he finished as Wall Street’s sole tech strategist. Steve is one of only 60 analysts in the Institutional Investor Hall of Fame, which recognizes analysts ranked first in their category as voted by investors for at least ten years. He has been a go-to analyst for the media, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, The New York Times, and CNBC.

Venkat Chalasani

ADVISORY PARTNER

Venkat Chalasani is an entrepreneurial executive with a strong interest in the intersection of technology, data, and finance. He has 20+ years in financial services experience with in-depth knowledge of Global Fixed Income (credit, rates, FX, securitized products) and Global Equity products. He has expert knowledge of financial regulations (FRTB, Basel IV, CCAR, Volker, Risk Data Aggregation), decision support/capital optimization analytics, front to back risk and finance infrastructure strategy, and electronic trading. Venkat’s led agile innovative solutions working collaboratively with the business, leveraging advances in Big Data (databases), machine learning/AI, and risk computing (cloud, in memory).

As an entrepreneur, Venkat has a rich mix of experiences as COO, in trading, risk management, and technology. He successfully designed an enterprise risk management platform for C-level executives at a Tier 1 US Bank and a regulatory capital /data analytics platform for a European investment bank.
Venkat previously worked at JP Morgan Chase (rate derivatives technology); FIS (FX trading and risk system), followed by Deutsche Bank (credit /rates derivatives technology), Global Credit Trading, Digital Markets and risk management at Merrill Lynch/Bank of America; Credit Suisse (Global Markets, COO-Regulations/Platforms) and Entrepreneurial /Private Equity experience in India /US (Commercial Real Estate, Risk Data Analytics).
Venkat holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree from New York University (Tandon School of Engineering).

Whit Thiele

ADVISORY PARTNER

Whit Thiele is the founder of Bannockburn Developments Ltd. a software consultancy and product development company based in Canada. Whit is a seasoned technology veteran and thought-leader in the enterprise software and communications space. Whit has worked with a wide variety of technology platforms and systems for over 20 years consistently building progressive experience delivering proven, solid and scalable products and solutions.

Whit has brought his experience and perspective to many engagements across a number of verticals with many industry-leading companies. Some notable companies include FICO, Infor, Ribbon Communications, France Telecom, Vidyo, Cisco, Mobistar, Orange Telecom, Comverse, IBM, Wolters Kluwer, HCSC and Pernod-Ricard.

Whit holds several degrees including a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Computer Science and completed the course requirements for a Masters of Applied Computer Science from Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS.

Philip R. Gilligan

ADVISORY PARTNER

Phil Gilligan is a Managing Partner at Sand Hill East LLC. He is a new addition, joining the partnership from his most recent role at Deutsche Bank as Head of Innovation & Americas Chief Information Officer in the COO Group.
Phil has held numerous senior technology leadership positions within Financial Services including UBS, Merrill Lynch, Moody’s, Morgan Stanley and EBS Dealing Resources/ICAP. Phil is highly regarded as a decisive, strategic & innovative leader with extensive experience executing large transformational programs and souring new technologies in support of strategic business initiatives. At Deutsche Bank Phil was accountable for designing and developing a formal Innovation platform to establish the Bank as a thought-leader within key innovation ecosystems around the world. He led the design and launch of the “DB Labs” centers in Berlin, London, Silicon Valley and New York to accelerate the adoption of new technologies into the bank. Phil also took on the additional responsibility of Americas CIO, overseeing the major regulatory programs in the region.
Phil holds a bachelor’s degree in Zoology from Kings College London, and a Master of Science degree in Biological Oceanography from the University of Southampton,