Our Team Members
Helping you navigate your business with confidence
Partners
Jeff Stevens - Managing Director
jeffstevens@anacapapartners.comJeff Stevens has 20 years of experience structuring, operating and investing in search fund companies. Jeff has managed three funded searches during the period from 1990-2005, each one culminating in the acquisition of a lower middle market company. Jeff understands the elements of the search fund model that drive success. In addition, Jeff's relationships with other experienced, successful search fund investors and current search fund principals allows Anacapa Partners access to invest in concert with a group that has been participating in this business model for over 20 years.
Prior to founding Anacapa Partners, Jeff was the CEO of three venture-backed buyouts – Balkin Cable Holdings (cable television system operator), Ancora Capital (mail presort), and Liberty Fitness (women's fitness centers). Following these three buyouts, Jeff founded Deeelish! (manufacturer/retailer of ready-to-cook gourmet meals). In each of Jeff's four ventures he has maintained responsibility for all aspects of sourcing acquisition/start-up opportunities, including identifying potential targets, industry analysis, company specific due diligence, and fundraising (debt and equity) to complete the transaction. Following the completion of each acquisition Jeff became the senior executive of the acquired company with direct reporting responsibility to a shareholder group and Board of Directors. Prior to beginning his entrepreneurial path Jeff was an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company. Jeff received his Bachelor of Arts and MBA from Stanford University, and remains actively involved in the Stanford community. He participates in classroom case discussion for entrepreneurship courses at the Graduate School of Business, serves as a mentor for students participating in a two-quarter business planning course, and volunteers in numerous capacities for the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Jeff is also a member of the Ford Committee at DAPER.
Jeff is a member of the Board of Directors of Constellant, the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD), and Dooblo.
Ashley Giesler - Operating Partner, former Managing Director
ashleygiesler@anacapapartners.comAshley has over 15 years of experience advising, operating and investing in high growth venture and private equity backed companies. Serving in corporate development, finance and legal roles Ashley has supported companies through periods of rapid growth by creating and executing business and capital strategies, negotiating complex transactions, building management teams, and managing transformational events in a company's lifecycle. From 2002 to 2011, Ashley was a member of the senior team at Asurion Corporation, the most successful search fund operating company to date, as the Company’s first in-house counsel and later head of Corporate Development. During this time, she led the execution of multiple transformative acquisitions, an equity recapitalization of the company and multiple subsequent leveraged recapitalizations and advised on the Company's international expansion in Asia, Europe and Latin America. More recently, Ashley was Vice President of Transactions and General Counsel at Sunrun, a residential solar company, where she led the project finance and legal teams through the raise of over $500 million in proceeds through equity, debt and project finance transactions and was instrumental in developing the strategy and establishing the infrastructure necessary to support the company's rapid growth. Prior to her operational experience, Ashley was a corporate associate at Venture Law Group in Silicon Valley and Riordan & McKinzie in Los Angeles and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Emilio M. Garza on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Ashley graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC, Santa Barbara and Order of the Coif from UCLA Law School.
Ashley is a member of the Board of Directors of HousingWire, Paragon Legal Group, and Automotive Business Solutions, and is a Board Observer of Tire Disposal & Recycling (TDR).
Vince Vo - Director
vincevo@anacapapartners.comVince is a director with Anacapa Partners and is passionate about helping searchers succeed through all stages of the search process. As part of the investment team, he partners with searchers to identify attractive opportunities, execute investments, and drive operating performance.
Prior to Anacapa, Vince was a management consultant in the San Francisco and New York offices of Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he served senior leaders of Fortune 500 clients in tech, financial services, consumer, and business services. At BCG, Vince completed 15 client engagements with a focus on finance, sales, marketing, and digital. He has significant experience with BCG Digital Ventures, BCG's corporate investment and incubation arm. Vince led teams of 1-3 BCG consultants in addition to matrixed client teams, and was accountable for the end-to-end delivery of workstreams to solve his clients' critical business challenges.
Finance engagements included the development of an investment strategy for a $500M venture investment vehicle, the valuation for the acquisition of a $60M plastic parts manufacturer, and the due diligence of a TV broadcaster.
Sales and marketing engagements included developing lead qualification and conversion optimizations, sales force effectiveness, sales force organization re-design, and the design and execution of growth marketing experiments for acquisition and conversion.
Digital engagements included the launch of two new businesses for clients, one of which was AutoGravity, an auto financing startup which raised $110M from Daimler and Volkswagen.
Vince earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BS in Business Administration from UC Berkeley.
Greg Matthews - Director
gregmatthews@anacapapartners.comGreg has direct experience with the search fund model having previously raised and managed a traditional search fund that focused on opportunities within the financial services industry. He has worked with growing companies across a variety of industries on M&A, raising and allocating capital, and business development focused on strategy and growth initiatives. Greg has also served in operational and management positions within the financial services industry.
Prior to joining Anacapa, Greg successfully raised capital from institutional and individual investors to search for a business to acquire and operate utilizing the search fund model. In this role, Greg was responsible for sourcing deals, negotiating transactions, performing investment due diligence, and communicating with his investors. Before pursuing a search fund, Greg gained additional entrepreneurial and operational experience having been part of the early team that scaled an institutional broker-dealer and investment bank. Greg started his career at Merrill Lynch in the firm's fixed income sales and trading business.
Greg earned his MBA with distinction from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and he holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Lehigh University, where he graduated with High Honors. Greg is also a CFA Charterholder.
Mike Mahre - Director
mikemahre@anacapapartners.comMike has been an investor in Anacapa since its formation in 2010 and has served in an advisory capacity since 2013 and a principal member of the investment team since 2017. Mike has over 25 years of experience in finance, strategy, M&A and operations as a C-suite executive, investor, advisor and banker, primarily for privately held middle market businesses.
Mike was COO and CFO of Spavia, a rapid growth franchise concept in the health and wellness industry, and President and COO of RePower, a VC-backed, 40-unit national chain of rooftop solar system providers. He served as head of corporate development, strategy and acquisitions for Building Materials Holding Corporation, a multi-billion dollar public company and ProBuild, a multi-billion dollar private company for whom he acquired and operationally integrated nearly 30 companies, accounting for over $500 million revenue, for these two platforms. He also created a new subsidiary company that he grew to nearly $2 billion annual revenue in eight states over a five-year period as its CEO and President. Mike was also previously engaged by Devonshire, the private equity arm of Fidelity, to develop investment opportunities in energy and renewables and was a co-founder and principal of The Cambria Group, a lower middle market buyout firm. Mike started his business career with Citibank, structuring debt for leveraged buyouts.
Prior to his business career, Mike was a Submarine Warfare Officer and Nuclear Engineer in the U.S. Navy. He drove a nuclear powered submarine and supported classified subsurface assets conducting special operations missions under direct tasking from US intelligence agencies. He worked with Dr. Ballard's team at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on a deep ocean project that included a dive to 13,000 feet on the first manned expedition to the Titanic. After leaving active duty, he joined the naval intelligence community as a reservist and attained the rank of Commander.
He earned an MBA from Stanford University, a BS in Mechanical Engineering with distinction from the US Naval Academy, and a certification in Nuclear Engineering from the Department of Energy. Mike volunteers his time as a Trustee of the Naval Academy Athletic and Scholarship Programs and with veteran transition organizations, the Station Foundation and the COMMIT Foundation.
Mike is a member of the Board of Directors of Risk Mitigation Consulting, Lion Industrial Resources and Spivey Rentals. He previously served on the board of Recruit Military (exited).
Warren Chan - Director
warrenchan@anacapapartners.comWarren has over 10 years of experience investing in people (managers, operators, and search funds), companies, and real assets. He is passionate about responsible stewardship and growth of small private businesses. He draws on his family’s investment and operating experience as well as their extensive network cultivated over multiple generations to assist with the business sale and transition/succession process for searchers and business owners/entrepreneurs.
Prior to Anacapa, Warren was a search fund investor at Relay Investments, where he opened their San Francisco office and oversaw half of their search fund portfolio. He entered the search fund space investing for his family and out of all his investment activities, he found the most joy backing high-potential searchers acquiring small businesses and figuring out how best to grow them.
Warren has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Earth Development and Lerner Solutions and an observer on the Board of Directors of Quick Soft. He also recruits individuals to serve as members of the Board of Directors of other search fund companies.
Warren earned his MBA from Columbia Business School and his SB in Mathematics from MIT, where he was a Burchard Scholar and an Alan Michaels Scholar.
Kathryn Parten - Analyst
kathrynparten@anacapapartners.comKathryn is an analyst with Anacapa Partners. Her work helps entrepreneurs and business owners meet their objectives and goals of acquiring, running, and/or exiting their company. In the evaluation of acquisition targets, markets, financial, and portfolio analysis, Kathryn supports all Anacapa team members in creating value across the entire portfolio.
Prior to joining Anacapa, Kathryn began her corporate career working in Mergers & Acquisitions for SAP (Palo Alto)—a Fortune 500 corporation and one of Europe's largest technology companies. In this role, her work provided strategic data and insights to the office of the CEO, SAP executives, and to the SAP investment committee and helped to influence corporate acquisition and investment decisions. Additionally, outside of the traditional corporate setting, Kathryn worked as an entrepreneur in the music industry as a professional singer—leading a team of musicians in songwriting, recording, and performing throughout the state of California.
Kathryn is a graduate of the Department of Economics at Stanford University and an MBA candidate at The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania.
Advisory Board Members
Jim Ellis - Advisory Board Member
Jim Ellis is a Lecturer in Management at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He is currently teaching two strategic management courses that center around the early stages of the entrepreneurial process. These courses include Formation of New Ventures (S353), and Managing Growing Enterprises (S355). Jim takes a personal interest and enjoys participating in and contributing to the learning process faced by each of his students. Prior to coming to Stanford, Jim held a number of positions with both large and small companies. In 1995, Jim cofounded Asurion with Kevin Taweel to provide value-added solutions for the wireless communications industry. Previously responsible for Asurion's sales and marketing efforts, Jim is an active member of the company's board of directors. Jim has also held positions as a research associate at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and as a consultant with IMG and Cresap, McCormick, and Paget. He is a member of a number of Boards of Directors including BUILD, Asurion, Service Source Inc., Memento Press, Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, and Southern California Risk Management Associates. Mr. Ellis holds an MBA from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree with high honors in economics from Dartmouth College. He is also a recipient of Ernst and Young's prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Bob Oster - Advisory Board Member
Bob 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. Bob 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.
Kevin Taweel - Advisory Board Member
Kevin Taweel is the CEO of Asurion, the leading global provider of technology protection products. Since co-founding Asurion in 1994, the company has grown from a small 40 person operation to become the leading global provider of technology protection products with over 10,000 employees worldwide, partnering with many of the world's top companies and brands. Prior to founding Asurion, Kevin served as Chairman of Mill River Corporation, an investment company. He also worked with many Fortune 500 companies to develop and execute corporate strategies and financial plans while working in Mergers & Acquisitions for the investment bank Salomon Brothers. He earned an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and holds a Bachelor`s degree in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University. Kevin currently serves on the board of ResponseLink. Kevin is also a former recipient of the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Operating Executives
Rick Taketa - Senior Operating Executive
Richard H. Taketa (Rick) is the President of Taketa Capital, a small family office, where he partners with public and private high-growth companies in a variety of capacities including board director, investor, advisor and coach. Immediately prior to founding Taketa Capital, Rick was the President and CEO of York Risk Services, one of the nation's largest third-party administrators to the insurance industry. In this role, Rick had overall responsibility for capital, strategic, financial, operational, governance, sales and client activities. With approximately $800 million in revenue and 5,500 employees, York grew under Rick's leadership from a regional player to be a leading provider of tech-enabled, integrated services to the insurance market.
Rick originally joined York after the acquisition of Southern California Risk Management Associates (SCRMA), where he was CEO. Through a search fund called Eventide Capital, Rick and a small group of investors had acquired SCRMA two years earlier when the company had less than $15M in Revenue and 150 employees. Driven by rapid growth, early investors received MOICs ranging from 7x - 11x in less than two years.
Prior to Eventide, Rick was a venture-focused corporate securities lawyer in Silicon Valley with Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich after having spent four years in Washington, D.C., working with non-governmental organizations focused on environmental and public health issues.
Rick currently serves as an Independent Director on the Board of Directors of Palomar Holdings, Inc., Veritone, Inc., as well as a number of other private equity backed companies. Rick also currently serves on the Board of the Hoag Hospital Foundation.
In 2017, Rick was named Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year for the State of New Jersey, where he and his family resided prior to returning to California. He has been a recurring guest lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is a member of the California Bar Association (inactive status). Rick earned his BA from Colgate University and JD from Stanford Law School.
Doug Tudor - Senior Operating Executive
Doug is an active investor with diverse experience in operating, acquiring and scaling high-growth businesses. He is Managing Partner of Ravenscourt Partners, a private investment firm focused on teaming with executives to build leading middle market, technology-enabled service companies. Ravenscourt invests in businesses with compelling value propositions, sustainable business models, strong growth potential and top management teams. Doug's functional areas of expertise include high growth scaling, sales and marketing strategy and tactics, pricing, corporate strategy and acquisitions. He currently serves on the boards of eCompliance (safety SaaS), RIA in a Box (outsourced business services), Colovore (data colocation), Prialto (outsourced sales administration) and Education Services Group (education revenue management).
He spent nine years in various roles as a senior executive at Asurion Corporation, the leading global provider of technology protection services, which grew from $225 million to $4.8 billion in revenue during his tenure. Initially Doug served as head of Corporate Development, and his team closed four acquisitions, including the merger with lock/line and the buyout of Warranty Corporation of America (“WaCA”). Following the acquisition, he served as President of WaCA, an extended warranty service provider with over $100 million in revenue and 400 employees. Finally, he was Senior Vice President of Client Services managing a critical Asurion client relationship. Prior to Asurion, Doug raised a search fund and was co-founder and President of Clear Creek Environmental, LLC which was sold to Wind River Environmental in 2002.
Doug received a Bachelor of Arts in History from Brown University and a Masters of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.