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Carter McClelland
Chairman
Carter McClelland
Chairman
Carter McClelland is the Chairman of, and a Partner at, Union Square Advisors. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. McClelland most recently served as President of Bank of America New York Market and Chairman of Banc of America Securities. Previously, he was President and Chief Executive Officer and member of the board of directors of Deutsche Bank North America. Mr. McClelland’s Wall Street career spans more than 40 years, including 21 years at Morgan Stanley, where he was Chief Administrative Officer and a member of the firm’s operating committee.
Mr. McClelland was formerly Chairman of the Board of the United Way of New York City and is currently a member of the board of directors of Echoing Green. He holds a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering and an MBA from Stanford University.
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Edward (Ted) R. Smith
President
Head of Software
Edward (Ted) R. Smith
President
Ted Smith is a Partner, co-founder and the President of Union Square Advisors. With nearly 30 years of experience executing transactions totaling many tens of billions of dollars in value, Mr. Smith has worked with several of the largest and most influential technology companies – including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Google, VMware, EMC, Informatica, SAP, Citrix, Nuance and Guidewire – as well as a wide range of high-growth public and private technology companies. Mr. Smith also has worked with many of the most important venture capital, growth equity and private equity firms in the technology ecosystem. Mr. Smith began his career at Morgan Stanley & Co., where he was an early member of the firm’s technology investment banking group. Prior to co-founding Union Square Advisors he was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse, where he headed the global software investment banking practice. Mr. Smith also served as a corporate executive at Novell, including as Vice President of both Corporate Development and Business Development.
Mr. Smith received both his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and is a member of Eta Kappa Nu. During 2015 Mr. Smith was selected as a member of the first-ever class of Presidential Leadership Scholars (www.presidentialleadershipscholars.org), a partnership between the presidential centers of George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Lyndon B. Johnson. This unprecedented program brings together a select group of leaders who share a desire to create positive change across our nation and the world, and enables them to enhance their leadership skills to help face the toughest challenges of the 21st century. Mr. Smith also is a board director for Assurance Health System, serves as the Chairman of the Rife Scholarship Fund, and is the past Chairman of the Performing Arts Advisory Council for the University of Notre Dame.
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Dean Riskas
Partner
Head of Capital Markets
Dean Riskas
Partner
Dean Riskas is a Partner at Union Square Advisors. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Riskas was Managing Director and President, North America of TriplePoint Capital, where he leveraged long relationships with top-tier venture capitalists in Silicon Valley to originate and manage a several hundred million dollar portfolio of venture loans and leases. Prior to TriplePoint Capital, Mr. Riskas founded Atherton Vista Capital, where he developed and marketed a tax-oriented, leveraged purchase-leaseback structure to privatize US municipal infrastructure assets. Before Atherton Vista Capital, Mr. Riskas co-founded Trinity Advisors, which provided advisory services to institutional investors in connection with highly structured, domestic and cross-border leveraged lease transactions, project financings and buyouts. Prior to Trinity Advisors, Mr. Riskas was a Partner and SVP at Comdisco Financial Services where he headed the leveraged lease equity placement group.
A lifetime resident of the Bay Area, Mr. Riskas served for 18 years as the Treasurer of the COPF Foundation. He also served on both the UCLA Foundation Board of Governors and the Board of Directors of the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford. Mr. Riskas is a past President of the Menlo Circus Club, a former member of the Board of Trustees of Menlo School, and Elder of the Menlo Park Church.
Mr. Riskas is a published author of articles on tax-oriented leveraged leasing. He received both his BA in Economics and his MBA in Accounting and Finance degrees from the University of California – Los Angeles.
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Wayne Kawarabayashi
Partner
Head of Mergers & Acquisitions
Wayne Kawarabayashi
Partner
Wayne Kawarabayashi is a Partner and Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at Union Square Advisors. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Kawarabayashi was a Managing Director in both the Global Mergers and Acquisitions and Global Technology groups at Barclays and Lehman Brothers (which was acquired by Barclays in 2008) working in both New York and London since 1993. Mr. Kawarabayashi has 24 years of investment banking experience executing over $190 billion in technology mergers and acquisitions with an emphasis in software, enterprise IT, financial technology and IT services. Throughout his career, Mr. Kawarabayashi has worked with public and private corporate clients and private equity inside and outside of the technology sector, executing sell-sides, buy-sides, corporate divestitures, IPO carve-outs, cross-border, leveraged buyouts, and Reverse Morris Trust transactions, as well as rendering fairness opinions, advising special committees and providing hostile and defensive advisory services. He has advised on transactions for clients including Automatic Data Processing, Alliance Data Systems, AT&T, Blackstone, Carlyle, Cognos, EMC, General Atlantic, Guidewire, Hellman & Friedman, HP, IBM, Interactive Intelligence, KKR, L-3 Communications, Lionbridge, Permira, Siris, SunGard and Vista.
Mr. Kawarabayashi received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a B.S. in International Relations from Georgetown University.
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Jace Kowalzyk
Partner
Head of IT Infrastructure
Jace Kowalzyk
Partner
Jace Kowalzyk is a Partner at Union Square Advisors. Mr. Kowalzyk has nearly 20 years of Technology Mergers and Acquisitions advisory experience and has focused the majority of his career on covering the communication and networking equipment and software industries. Prior to joining Union Square Advisors, Mr. Kowalzyk was a Director in the Technology M&A group at ThinkEquity Partners. Prior to ThinkEquity, Mr. Kowalzyk was Vice President in the Technology Investment Banking group at Piper Jaffray & Co., a firm he joined in 2000. Mr. Kowalzyk has extensive U.S. and International transaction experience including buy-side, sell-side, fairness opinions, capital raising, hostile and defense advisory assignments. Earlier in his career, Mr. Kowalzyk worked in the ventures group at Koch Industries. Over the course of his investment banking career Mr. Kowalzyk has worked with several leading technology companies, including IBM, Interactive Intelligence, Dell, Salesforce, ADC Telecom, Sun Microsystems, Hitachi, WPP Group, Interwoven, WebEx, Polycom, US Robotics, Andrew Wireless, Inter-Tel and National Semiconductor among others.
Mr. Kowalzyk received a B.S. in Finance from Kansas State University.
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Paul Inouye
Partner
Head of Internet & Digital Media
Paul Inouye
Partner
Paul Inouye is a Partner at Union Square Advisors, where he focuses on the Internet, Digital Media, and Software sectors. Mr. Inouye has nearly 30 years of technology mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance experience. During his career Mr. Inouye has executed more than 110 M&A and public and private capital raising transactions, representing over $50 billion in value. Prior to his joining Union Square, Mr. Inouye worked at Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Perella Weinberg Partners, and Robertson Stephens. He is a lifetime bay area resident and has worked his entire career on the west coast.
Mr. Inouye earned a BA in Political Science from UC Berkeley and an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He formerly served on the board of St. Matthews Episcopal Day School and the Geary Street YMCA. Mr. Inouye also has been a sponsor of several non-profit organizations, including Kimochi Home, BatteryPowered, the Japanese American National Museum, and UC Berkeley.
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Mike Meyer
Partner
Head of Capital Structure Advisory
Mike Meyer
Partner
Michael Meyer is a Partner at Union Square Advisors, responsible for the firm’s Capital Structure Advisory business. Mr. Meyer has 30 years of experience in Leveraged Finance, Global Credit and Fixed Income. He has been responsible for the execution and oversight of over $200B of leveraged finance transactions and has worked with world class financial sponsors such as Blackstone, KKR & Co., Apollo Global Management, and Bain Capital. Several notable transactions with these financial sponsors include the LBOs of HCA Inc., Alliance Boots, Warner Music Group Inc. and Fidelity National.
Prior to joining Union Square Advisors, Mr. Meyer was responsible for the Global Credit and U.S. Fixed Income businesses at RBC Capital Markets. Mr. Meyer also ran the Leveraged Finance and Global Credit business at Bank of America and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, working both in New York and London. Earlier in his career, Mr. Meyer worked in the leveraged finance and high yield businesses at Morgan Stanley and Citigroup.
Mr. Meyer earned an MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, and a B.S. in Chemistry and Economics from Duke University. He has served on multiple Boards, including; Duke NY, and SIFMA in the U.S. and the UK. Mr. Meyer is also a guest lecturer for the Economics Department at Duke University.
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Devon Ritch
Managing Director
Mergers & Acquisitions
Devon Ritch
Managing Director
Devon Ritch is a Managing Director at Union Square Advisors. Devon has over 15 years of M&A advisory experience primarily focused on the technology sector. During his career, Devon has managed and completed a broad range of public and private M&A transactions including sell-side, buy-side, cross-border, LBO, stock-for-stock, asset purchases, corporate divestitures, fairness opinions and hostile defense advisory. Prior to joining Union Square Advisors, Devon was a Director in the M&A group of RBC Capital Markets having spent nearly ten years at the firm in both its San Francisco and New York offices. Earlier in his career, Devon practiced M&A law as an Associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Devon received a BA in History with High Honors from the University of California at Berkeley where he also served as two-time captain of the nationally ranked crew team. Devon also received a JD / MBA from Duke University / Fuqua School of Business where he was a member of the Duke Law Journal.
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Phillip Kim
Managing Director
Mergers & Acquisitions
Phillip Kim
Managing Director
Phillip Kim is a Managing Director at Union Square Advisors. Prior to joining the firm, Phil worked as an Associate in the M&A Group at Greenhill & Co., as an Analyst and then an Associate in the Asia Technology and Korea Coverage Groups at Lehman Brothers, and as an Analyst in the Financial Institutions Group of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. Phil has over 14 years of investment banking experience, primarily focused on executing public and private company M&A transactions, including sell-sides, buy-sides, leveraged buyouts, asset sales, and fairness opinions, within the broader technology sector.
Phil received his B.S. in Finance and International Business from Georgetown University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
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Andrew Atherton
Director
Andrew Atherton
Director
Andrew Atherton is a Director at Union Square Advisors. Mr. Atherton has over 10 years of investment banking and principal investing experience focused primarily on the software, IT infrastructure and financial technology sectors. Prior to joining Union Square Advisors, Andrew was a Vice President in the Technology group of RBC Capital Markets, focused on M&A and debt and equity capital raises. Prior to RBC, Andrew was an Associate in Goldman Sachs’ Special Situations Group providing debt and equity capital to middle market companies. Andrew began his career at Shattuck Hammond Partners, a healthcare investment bank, which was acquired by Raymond James.
Andrew is originally from San Antonio, Texas and received a B.A. in Economics and History and a Minor in Financial Economics from Vanderbilt University.
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Emily Anderson
Director
Head of Sponsor Coverage
Emily Anderson
Director
Emily Todd Anderson is a Director and Head of Sponsor Coverage at Union Square Advisors. Ms. Anderson has over 15 years of investment banking and transaction advisory experience primarily focused on the internet / digital media, software, and consumer retail sectors. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Anderson was a Vice President at Code Advisors, focused on early stage M&A and equity capital raises across the consumer internet and digital media sectors. Prior to Code, Emily was an Associate in Goldman Sachs’ Consumer Retail Investment Banking Group, advising clients on M&A, IPOs, and capital raises. Emily began her career at Ernst & Young in the Assurance and Transaction Advisory Services Groups.
Emily received a BA in Business Economics & Accounting from UC Santa Barbara, where she was also a member of the varsity women’s soccer team. Emily also received an MBA from New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and she holds a CPA in the state of California.
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Will Andereck
Director
Software
Will Andereck
Director
Will Andereck is a Director at Union Square Advisors. Will has over 9 years of M&A advisory experience focused on the technology sector. During his career, Will has completed a range of public and private M&A and private placement transactions including sell-side, buy-side, cross-border, corporate divestitures, restructuring and fairness opinions. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Andereck held positions at Morgan Stanley and Franklin Templeton Investments.
Mr. Andereck graduated with a B.A. in Economics and History from Vanderbilt University, where he was a member of the University club soccer team. He is a native of San Francisco, and serves on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Zoological Society.
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Todd Holman
Director
Internet & Digital Media
Todd Holman
Director
Todd Holman is a Director at Union Square Advisors. Mr. Holman has 10 years of investment banking and finance experience primarily focused on M&A advisory across the technology sector. Prior to joining Union Square Advisors, Todd was a Vice President in the M&A group of RBC Capital Markets, focused on transactions in the Internet, software security, semiconductor, and financial technology sectors.
Todd is originally from Honolulu, Hawaii and received a BA in Economics from UC San Diego and a JD / MBA from UCLA where he captained the graduate rugby team.
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Harriet Britt
Chief Compliance Officer
Harriet Britt
Chief Compliance Officer
Harriet Britt is the Chief Compliance Officer at Union Square Advisors. Ms. Britt brings more than 20 years of experience in compliance operations, and finance experience to Union Square Advisors. She oversees the day to day strategic operational functions of the firm: finance and accounting, operations, human resources, and facilities. Prior to joining Union Square Advisors, Ms. Britt served as a consultant for the past five years working with investment banks and investment advisors, including robo-advisors and other FinTech firms. Previously, Ms. Britt served as Chief Compliance Officer with ThinkEquity LLC and Standard Pacific Capital LLC. Ms. Britt’s early career includes tenures at Robertson Stephens, JP Morgan, Montgomery Securities and Bear Stearns.
Ms. Britt graduated from California State Polytechnic University, earning a BS in Agriculture Business Management.
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Jennifer Hallahan
Director
Communications & Marketing
Jennifer Hallahan
Director
Jennifer Hallahan is the Director of Communications and Marketing at Union Square Advisors. With more than 15 years of experience in public relations, corporate communications and marketing communications, Ms. Hallahan is responsible for public relations and marketing activities for Union Square Advisors. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Hallahan served as a Director of Corporate Communications for CA Technologies and previously was a communications executive at both TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab. She began her career at an investor relations and financial public relations agency.
Ms. Hallahan graduated from SUNY Oswego, earning a BA in Communications.
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Kimberly Hecht
Vice President
Human Resources & Administration
Kimberly Hecht
Vice President
Kimberly Hecht is the Vice President of Human Resources and Administration at Union Square Advisors. With more than 9 years of experience in Human Resources, Ms. Hecht is the Manager of Human Resources and is responsible for the day to day duties of Finance and Facilities.
Prior to joining the firm, Kimberly worked in Human Resources for Hectic Digital, the City and County of San Francisco and the Ritz Carlton Hotel.
Kimberly graduated from University of San Francisco, earning a BS in Business Administration.
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Ubaid Dhiyan
Vice President
Software
Ubaid Dhiyan
Vice President
Ubaid Dhiyan is a Vice President at Union Square Advisors. Ubaid is a technologist, engineer, and investment banker with over 14 years of experience working with companies ranging from startups to large publicly traded entities. Prior to joining Union Square, Ubaid was a member of J.P. Morgan’s Technology Investment Banking team based in San Francisco, where he focused on M&A advisory, debt and equity capital raises for Software and IT Infrastructure companies. Prior to J.P. Morgan, Ubaid spent several years at Juniper Networks and Force10 Networks in sales and engineering roles.
Ubaid graduated with an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business with a focus in Finance and Strategy. He received a Masters in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California and a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from the University of Mumbai.
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Jake Lin
Vice President
Jake Lin
Vice President
Jake Lin is a Vice President at Union Square Advisors. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Lin worked as an Associate at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Previously, Mr. Lin worked at Bloomberg in their Hong Kong office and Bank of America in their Los Angeles office.
Mr. Lin received his B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Chicago. Mr. Lin also received his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
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Dior Saliev
Associate
Dior Saliev
Associate
Dior Saliev is an Associate at Union Square Advisors. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Saliev worked as an Associate at Deutsche Bank in the Mergers and Acquisitions group both in New York and San Francisco, where he advised clients on a number of buy-side and sell-side M&A transactions across Technology, Media, Telecommunications, Consumer, Industrials and Real Estate verticals.
Mr. Saliev received a BA in Economics from the Tashkent State University of Economics, MA in Economics from the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
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Tony Chen
Analyst
Tony Chen
Analyst
Tony Chen is an Analyst at Union Square Advisors. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Chen interned at private equity firm Teachers’ Private Capital and the Equity Derivatives Desk at TD Securities. Mr. Chen graduated with B.Math from University of Waterloo and B.B.A in Finance from Wilfrid Laurier University. He is a native of Toronto, Canada.
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Nina Gerson
Analyst
Nina Gerson
Analyst
Nina Gerson is an Analyst with Union Square Advisors. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Gerson interned with Nomura in their Tech investment banking group. Ms. Gerson graduated with a BSBA in Finance from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, where she was a goalkeeper on the University soccer team. She is a native of Berkeley, California.
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Maxwell Ash
Analyst
Maxwell Ash
Analyst
Max Ash is an Analyst with Union Square Advisors. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Ash interned with Ancestry.com in their FP&A department. Mr. Ash graduated with BA in Economics and a minor in Business Management from Brigham Young University in Provo Utah, where he played defense on the University men’s lacrosse team. In his spare time, Mr. Ash enjoys skiing and fly fishing. He hails from Kansas City, Kansas.
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Muiz Ashiqali
Analyst
Muiz Ashiqali
Analyst
Muiz Ashiqali is an Analyst at Union Square Advisors. Mr. Ashiqali was previously an intern with the firm before returning in a full-time capacity within his current role. Prior to joining the team, he interned at Q1 Capital Partners, a tech-focused boutique investment bank. Mr. Ashiqali graduated with an HBA from Ivey Business School, Western University. He is an avid hockey fan and a native of Toronto, Canada.
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Valerie Morrison
Analyst
Valerie Morrison
Analyst
Valerie Morrison is an analyst with Union Square Advisors. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Morrison interned at Hover Inc. in its Finance Group and the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Global Markets Office. Ms. Morrison graduated with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Russian Language from the University of California— Los Angeles, where she ran for the University women’s cross country and track & field teams. She is a native of Bila Tserkva, Ukraine.
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Jordan Vanderstoep
Analyst
Jordan Vanderstoep
Analyst
Jordan Vanderstoep is an Analyst with Union Square Advisors. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Vanderstoep interned with BlackRock in their Private Equity group. Mr. Vanderstoep graduated with a BA in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley where he was a member of the Men’s Rowing team. He was also a member of the U.S. Men’s 8+ that won a silver medal at the 2017 World Rowing Championships. He is from Soquel, California.
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Austin Hollan
Analyst
Austin Hollan
Analyst
Austin Hollan is an Analyst at Union Square Advisors. Mr. Hollan joined Union Square after completing a summer internship with the firm in 2018. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Hollan worked with several technology startups and venture capital firms. Mr. Hollan graduated with a B.S. in Finance from the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He is a native of Orem, Utah.
