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Antonio is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Investment Officer of Valor. Antonio founded Valor in 1995. He has over 25 years of experience in private equity investing. Antonio was a Director of Tesla from 2007 to 2021. During his tenure, he served as Lead Independent Director for eight years, and helped take Tesla public. He is a Director of several Valor portfolio companies, including Space Exploration Technologies. He is a member of all Valor Investment Committees.
Antonio is actively involved in philanthropic activities. He is a trustee of The Aspen Institute, a member of the board of visitors of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and a member of the board of visitors of the University of Chicago Law School. Additionally, he is a member of the board of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and a member of the University of Chicago Board of Trustees.
In 2015, Antonio was appointed to the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship Program, chaired by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. The program was a first-of-kind collaboration among the White House, entrepreneurs, the Department of Commerce, the Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. He is a 2009 Henry Crown Fellow, an Aspen Institute program designed to engage the next generation of leaders in the challenge of community spirited leadership. In 2008, Antonio received the Immigrant & Refugee Contributions Award for Entrepreneurial & Business Leadership from Changing Worlds, an educational arts non-profit organization.
Prior to founding Valor, Antonio was the Founder and Managing Member of MG Capital where he acquired and acted as Chief Executive Officer for a number of manufacturing and technology related companies. At MG Capital, together with the team that is still together at Valor today, he developed the operational skills that Valor uses to help its portfolio companies achieve scale and enhance their value. Prior to MG Capital he was at Goldman Sachs.
Antonio holds a joint B.S. and M.S.F.S. (Honors Degree) in International Finance and Economics from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. He also studied corporate structures and economic development at Waseda University in Tokyo. Prior to completing his Masters, Antonio returned to Japan as a Nikko Securities Fellow. Antonio holds a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.
Jon is a Partner and Co-President of Valor and the Fund Manager for Valor Siren Ventures (VSV). He serves as a member of all Valor Investment Committees. Jon has over 20 years of experience in private equity investing. Jon’s responsibilities include fund management for VSV I and II, as well as investment prospect generation, due diligence of potential investments, investment structuring and execution, and capital raising for Valor’s growth funds and VSV. Jon oversees Valor’s Operations, Finance, and People Teams.
Over the years, Jon has focused on investment opportunities in the food and retail technology sectors. Jon began this focus with Valor’s 2006 acquisition of Sizzling Platter. Currently, Jon is a Director of several Valor growth fund and VSV portfolio companies, including Gopuff, Misfits Market, Fooda, Wow Bao, and Atmosphere.
Prior to Valor, Jon was part of MG Capital’s Investment and Portfolio Team. During his tenure at MG Capital, Jon worked on acquisition teams focused on executing transactions in the electronic connector industry. Jon served in operational roles at MG Capital’s portfolio companies, including Chief Operating Officer of Connector Service Corporation’s Plating Division, where he managed the business through 100% growth over a 12-month period. Jon also served as President of Electronic Plating Service and Chief Operating Officer for Amax Plating, Electronic Plating Service, and Associated Plating Company. Prior to joining MG Capital, Jon worked with Bain & Company as an Associate Consultant. At Bain, he worked on assignments for various Fortune 500 clients in Texas and Australia.
Jon has served on the Boards of Directors of several charitable organizations, including the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, the Chicago Children’s Museum, and he most recently co-founded Prosper Chicago. He is the former Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Lycée Français de Chicago.
Jon holds a B.B.A. in Accounting (with honors) from the University of Texas at Austin.
Juan is a Partner and Co-President of Valor and is primarily responsible for its capital raise and client service functions. In addition, Juan focuses on investment prospect generation, due diligence of potential investments, and investment structuring and execution. Juan serves as a member of all Valor Investment Committees and currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Harmony Biosciences and Addepar, and as a Board Observer for Dataminr and BlueVoyant. Juan has been involved with Valor since 2008, initially as an Advisor. He joined Valor on a full-time basis in 2010.
Juan has over 25 years of private equity investing and investment banking experience. Before joining Valor, Juan was a Managing Director with Goldman Sachs, in the firm’s Investment Banking Division. As a part of the investment banking team, he held several positions, including membership in the private equity coverage group, the division’s senior management team, and as a coverage and execution banker for clients in Latin America. Following Goldman Sachs, Juan partnered with a law school friend to grow and scale Augeo Affinity Marketing. Together with his business partner, Juan grew Augeo into a leading private company in the affinity and loyalty industry. Juan currently is Co-Chairman of the Board of Augeo and focuses on the company’s efforts in identifying and developing new strategic initiatives.
In addition to his Valor responsibilities, Juan serves on the Boards of Directors of several charitable and professional organizations nationally and in New York City, including The Frick Collection and Lenox Hill Neighborhood House. He also is the Co-President of the Board of The Hewitt School. He sits on the Advisory Board of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and served on the Board of Visitors of Stanford Law School. He was appointed by President George Bush to the President’s Advisory Council on the Arts for the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center. He also is a founding member of the Advisory Council of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance (an initiative of the Obama Foundation). Most recently, Juan was appointed by President Joseph Biden to serve as a Member on the Board of Visitors of the United States Military Academy. Juan serves on the Board of the National Association of Investment Companies, which promotes diversity in the U.S. private equity industry.
Juan holds an A.B. in History from Princeton University. He studied history at the University of Oxford, Mansfield College and holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School. He is formerly an officer in the United States Army Reserve.
David serves as an Operating Partner in Valor’s growth fund Operations Group.
David originally joined Valor in 2003 as an Associate in the Operations Group. From 2003 to 2015, he contributed to and led operational improvement projects at Valor portfolio companies across its investment sectors. In 2015, David became Chief Executive Officer of Life Care Partners, a Valor Fund II portfolio company. He led the growth and successful exit of Life Care Partners and rejoined Valor in 2019 following completion of the sale. After rejoining Valor, David served as Chief Executive Officer of Manduka from 2019 to 2020 and currently serves on the Manduka Board of Directors. Prior to joining Valor in 2003, David worked as a research analyst at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory located in Batavia, Illinois.
David received a B.A. in Physics and Applied Mathematics (magna cum laude) from the University of Montana. In addition, David was awarded the CFA charter in 2012.
Chris joined Valor in 2011 and leads Valor’s research function. Chris is an economist with more than 20 years of experience in leading strategy, business, and market research and analysis initiatives across a range of companies and industries.
Chris joined Valor from Pipal Research Corporation, a Chicago-based business research and analytics firm. As part of the founding team of Pipal Research, Chris led the development of the company’s overall research capabilities and infrastructure and was instrumental in growing the company’s Corporate and Professional Services business segments until the company was sold to a unit of Standard & Poor’s in 2010. While at Pipal Research, Chris provided research services to Valor since 2005.
Chris was formerly with McKinsey & Company. During his more than five years with McKinsey, Chris led teams in North America to deliver high-quality, value-added research services and directed global knowledge management and training initiatives. Prior to joining McKinsey, Chris held management and analyst positions with Moore Corporation (now part of RR Donnelley) and Kohler Company, where he was actively involved in providing market analysis and planning, market research, competitive intelligence, and forecasting. He also worked with the U.S. Department of Defense in Washington, D.C.
Chris earned a Master of Management Degree with Distinction from the J.L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, graduating Beta Gamma Sigma. He holds an Honors B.A. in Economics and Political Science, magna cum laude, from Marquette University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. Chris also holds a M.A. in Applied Economics, with a specialization in Financial Economics, from Marquette University.
Chris is active with the Marquette University Alumni Association Mentor Program and previously served as a board member with St. Joseph School (Wilmette, Illinois).
Vivek joined Valor in 2017 and is a Partner. He is a member of the Investment Committees of Valor Funds III, IV, V, and VI. Vivek’s responsibilities include investment prospect generation, due diligence of potential investments, and investment structuring and execution. He also serves as a Board Director or Observer at several Valor portfolio companies, including BitGo, Coalition, Crusoe Energy Systems, Graphite, K Health, Lightning Labs, Premise, Republic, and Zeitview.
Vivek has over 10 years of experience in investment banking and private equity investing. Prior to joining Valor, Vivek was a Director at Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP). He originally joined MDP as an Associate. Prior to MDP, he worked as an Investment Banking Analyst in the Financial Sponsors Group at Goldman Sachs.
Vivek holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School where he graduated as a George F. Baker Scholar. He holds B.A. degrees in Economics and Statistics from the University of Chicago, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
Brad joined Valor in 2005. His responsibilities include investment structuring and execution, due diligence of potential acquisitions, and investment prospect generation.
Brad has over 15 years of experience in investment banking and private equity investing. Prior to joining Valor, Brad worked at J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc. in its New York-based Syndicated & Leveraged Finance Group, providing LBO financing for various private equity firms. Brad also structured and originated high yield bond and leveraged loan transactions for corporate clients.
Brad received a B.A. in Political Science, summa cum laude, from Tulane University’s honors program, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and as a member of the William Wallace Peery Society, which includes Tulane College's top 15 graduating seniors. Brad has studied abroad in Seville, Spain, and at the College of Arts & Letters in Havana, Cuba.
Brad serves as a Board Observer for Valor portfolio companies Cloud9 and Roti, as well as on the Board of Directors of Changing Worlds, an educational arts nonprofit organization.
Tim serves as an Operating Partner in Valor’s growth fund Operations Group. He focuses on active management of portfolio companies in conjunction with existing management teams. His additional responsibilities include investment prospect generation and due diligence of potential investments.
Tim has over 30 years of operational change management and private equity investing experience. Prior to joining Valor, Tim served as a Vice President at MG Capital. During his tenure at MG Capital, Tim specialized in operational due diligence and implementing post-closing operational improvements. He also provided consulting support, implementation of metrics, implementation of lean manufacturing systems, and implementation of QS and ISO approved quality systems. He served in various operational roles within MG Capital’s portfolio companies as required.
Prior to joining MG Capital, Tim served as a Principal Consultant for Westworks, a consulting organization providing operational systems support to manufacturing organizations. Clients ranged from middle market companies to members of the Fortune 500, including Ford Motor Company and 3M. Tim was responsible for projects in Asia, the U.S., and Europe. He specialized in providing consulting support to internal teams designing and implementing systems in the fields of quality, IT, and lean manufacturing.
Prior to his consulting work, Tim held manufacturing and engineering management positions at Robinson Nugent, a leading connector manufacturer, and Renishaw, a UK-based manufacturer of machine tool systems.
Tim holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (1st Class Honors) from Bradford University and an M.S. in Industrial Robotics from the Cranfield Institute of Technology, Great Britain. Tim is a Chartered Professional Engineer.
Anne joined Valor in 2019 and serves as its Chief Financial Officer, overseeing all aspects of the firm’s finance and accounting functions.
Prior to joining Valor, Anne was an Assurance Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Chicago for over 12 years, serving asset management clients, including hedge funds, corporate advisors, fund of funds and SEC-registered mutual funds.
Anne earned her Bachelor’s in accountancy and Master’s in accountancy from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Illinois.
Anni joined Valor in 2020 and serves as Principal on the Operations Team of Valor Siren Ventures.
Prior to joining Valor, Anni worked at Starbucks Corporation within the retail operations and corporate strategy teams. Most recently Anni was responsible for re-engineering the supply chain for over 250 stores in New York City and developing the company’s global strategic plan alongside the Chief Strategy Officer. Anni has also worked within the operations groups at The Engine (VC at MIT focused on early-stage technology companies) and ZX Ventures (Corporate VC at Anheuser-Busch), as well as within the strategy group at Union Square Hospitality Group in New York City.
Before that, Anni spent six years as a management consultant focused on transforming human capital practices at luxury retailers and managing the development of security software for US federal agencies.
Anni earned a BBA in Management from The George Washington University and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.