Marc C. Bergschneider, Managing Member, co-founder Starboard Capital Partners, LLC
marcb@starboardcapital.net
Mr. Bergschneider is a Managing Member and co-founder of Starboard Capital Partners. Marc currently serves as a Director of JPC Holdings, LLC, chairs the Board of Managers of CV Properties, LLC and is observing director of Apothecare, LLC. Marc was a past Chairman of WHI Solutions, Inc. and Vice Chairman of Jan-Pro Holdings, LLC. Prior to co-founding Starboard, Marc was Chairman and CEO of National Fairways, LLC. Earlier in his career, Marc was a Managing Director at Drexel Burnham, Lehman Brothers, and Kidder Peabody. Marc graduated with a BA from Brown University and has an MBA from The University of Chicago. He is a steward for the Brown University Crew, and a past Director for both the Brown University Sports Foundation and the National Rowing Foundation.
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Dean E. Fenton, Managing Member, Chairman, Advisory Board, co-founder Starboard Capital Partners, LLC
deanf@starboardcapital.net
Dean E. Fenton is a Managing Member and co-founder of Starboard Capital Partners. Dean currently serves on the Board of Managers of CV Properties, LLC. Prior to co-founding Starboard, Dean was a founding partner of Prime Capital Management. Prior to that, he was a General Partner at Sprout Capital Group Ventures. Dean was the lead Project Manager and a member of the Board of Director for numerous Prime Capital and Sprout Capital portfolio companies. Dean began his career as an investment professional at three Boston based financial institutions including Boston Capital. Dean has a BA from Harvard College and a MBA from Columbia University. While attending Harvard and Columbia, he was a Flyer for eight years in the United States Air Force.
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Edgardo Mercadante – Operating Partner
edm@starboardcapital.net
Ed has led MedOptions as CEO since November 2012 and is also President/Founder of Dante Capital Management which focuses on consulting operations for healthcare turn-arounds. He previously led the early growth of NuScriptRX and was CEO for Partners Pharmacy (the 3rd largest LTC pharmacy in the US). Previously Ed was the CEO and Co-Founder of APP, a pharmacy benefit management company, and COO for the Arrow Pharmacy & Nutrition Center Franchise System. Additionally, Ed has deep experience in Wellness and Nutritional Healthcare having been the key idea driver for the buyout of General Nutrition Centers (GNC) from Royal Numico in 2003 by Apollo Global Management, subsequently serving on the GNC Board of Directors and chairing its audit committee.
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Brian E. Stern, Operating Partner
brians@starboardcapital.net
Brian is an Operating Partner at Starboard Capital Partners.
Prior to joining Starboard, Brian spent 35 years at Xerox Corp. He joined Xerox in 1976 at its corporate headquarters, where Brian held finance and product development positions. From 1992 to 1994, he headed Corporate Business Strategy of the firm. He was a Senior Vice President and President of Xerox Technology Enterprises from 1999 to 2001, Senior Vice President from 1996 to 1999, and President of the Office Document Products Group of Xerox from 1994 to 1999. He was the President of the Xerox Supplies Business Group, where his organization focused on an array of products for document processing, such as paper, toner, inks, and cartridges.
Throughout his career at the firm, Brian held various positions at the firm including that of the Chief Strategy Officer. Other positions held included Senior Vice President of Fuji Xerox Operations of Xerox Corp., Corporate Vice President of Xerox Corp., and Corporate Senior Vice President.
Brian began his career with the Boston Consulting Group. He has been an Independent Director of HNI Corp. since 1998 and Mr. Stern was previously on the Boards of Esselte AB, New England Business Services, Integic, Fuji Xerox, Inxight Software, and was the Chairman of
Mondus.com.
Brian earned a Bachelor's degree from the University of East Anglia, and has a M.B.A. from Harvard.
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Nicholas DiCarlo, Operating Partner
nickd@starboardcapital.net
Nick DiCarlo is an accomplished investor, board director, and operating executive with over 30 years of experience in middle market privately held companies and public multinationals. Prior to joining Starboard he was a longtime Managing Director at Brynwood Partners, a top-quartile middle market control investor in Greenwich, CT. At Brynwood he was engaged in every aspect of the investment process and provided active, hands-on oversight of portfolio companies to accelerate growth. In addition, Nick served as a strategic advisor to Blake’s All-Natural Foods before its successful sale to ConAgra and is currently CEO of a SaaS start-up in the sports marketing business.
Prior to entering the private equity business, Nick was Executive Vice President & CFO at Village Voice Media, where he doubled earnings and improved margins by over 30% before overseeing the sale of the business to a group of private equity investors. Earlier in his career, as Vice President of Finance for Harmon Publishing Company, he integrated numerous acquisitions as part of a roll-up strategy and created the financial systems infrastructure for the newly formed entity. He later served as the firm’s Vice President of Production responsible for multi-site prepress operations for more than 150 controlled circulation specialty magazines.
Nick began his career at McGraw-Hill where was a Financial Analyst at Standard & Poor’s and later a Controller at McGraw-Hill Book Company. His board experience encompasses nine companies in the manufacturing, business services, consumer products, and media sectors.
Nick earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Connecticut
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William M. Aron - Consumer Products and Services
Bill Aron has been building, managing and funding middle market businesses for most of his professional career, most recently as founder of Paisley Holdings LLC., formed to invest in, acquire or manage assets in the consumer products industry. Currently, he is involved in the re-launch of Ellesse USA, the iconic sports apparel brand, and a lead investor and director of Health to Happiness Inc., maker of The Swedish Diet.
Bill has been an advisor to several emerging brand businesses including: Rooster Neckwear, Seda France Candles, Veronica Brett Swimwear, XMI Accessories, Edelman Leather, and Lillian August Home Furnishings.
Prior to forming Paisley Holdings, Bill was Chairman and CEO of The Aron Group, a New York-based apparel manufacturer where he fueled the Company's growth through a combination of tactical acquisitions, entrance into new markets, and a deep understanding of the design, sourcing, and manufacturing processes.
Bill received his A.B. from Princeton University and an MBA from Cornell University's Johnson School of Management. He serves on several profit and non-for profit boards. He is currently Board President of the Stamford Museum & Nature Center.
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Parthi Damodaraswamy – Advisor –Manufacturing and Distribution
Parthi, Co-founder and CEO of ILS, is responsible for providing vision and leadership to grow ILS into a premier partner to its clients by transforming their business using Lean Philosophy. Parthi has extensive experience in transforming companies in a variety of industries, most notably health care, wood products, glass products, plastics, food processing and distribution. He has worked with several private equity companies as transformational partner and helped create value for their portfolio companies and investors.
Parthi has a B.S. and M.S. in manufacturing systems engineering and an M.S. in bio-medical engineering.
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Theodore (Ted) M. Davis - Software and Tech Enabled Legal Services
Theodore (Ted) M. Davis brings over 30 years of success as an entrepreneur and leader in thecomputer, software, and technology enabled service industries. Ted has founded, built and sold two companies successfully in the document management and legal services industries.
Ted started on Wall Street in finance. His initial entrepreneurial venture was in real estate, where he developed some of the earliest relational data base analysis and 3 dimensional financial modeling techniques. This firm evolved into a first generation PC based computer systems, networking and integration company to the legal and financial industries in New York City. Ted designed one of the first PC based imaging systems to scan and store documents, which work led to the creation of Executech, Inc. in 1990. As President, Ted directed the firm’s growth to over 125 employees providing imaging services, software and systems management to such firms as The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the CIA, Deloitte and Touche, Am Law 20 law firms and Fortune 100 corporations. In addition to overall profit and loss responsibility, Ted led the firm’s sales and marketing efforts. Executech was acquired by the Merrill Corporation in 1998. For the next two years, Ted served as Vice President of Imaging Services for Merrill where he grew the business at a 50% growth rate, introduced the next generation product line and guided the integration of the companies.
Upon expiration of a non-compete, Ted identified the next phase of technology in the document management industry and entered the E-Discovery legal services business with the introduction of his latest company – Docuity LLC. Docuity initially focused on the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) based software to extract objective (bibliographic) and subjective (analytical) information from any type of document without human intervention. This new technology was incorporated in Docuity’s electronic discovery offerings. Docuity became a specialty provider of e-discovery extraction, hosting and review services to the government, legal and financial industries. As CEO of Docuity, Ted again had overall profit and loss responsibility, led its marketing and sales efforts, and built the firm’s hi-intensity data center to provide cloud based services to its customers. In 2008, Ted negotiated the sale of Docuity to Stroz Friedberg Inc., a computer forensics company located in New York City. He then served as Managing Director of E-Discovery Services.
Ted Davis graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA and earned an MBA from Columbia University. Ted and his wife Susan live in Westport Connecticut and have two college age children.
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Jeffrey B. Kindler, Advisory Director
jeffk@starboardcapital.net
Jeff is a Director of Starboard Capital Partners. Prior to joining Starboard in 2011, he was formerly the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer, the world's largest research-based biopharmaceutical company, which he joined in January 2002 and from which he retired in December 2010. He joined Pfizer as Executive Vice President and General Counsel and, prior to his appointment as CEO in July 2006, he served as a Vice Chairman of the Company. In 1990, Jeff joined the General Electric Company, where he was Vice President of Litigation and Legal Policy. In 1996, he joined McDonald's Corporation as Executive Vice President and General Counsel, responsible for both legal and corporate affairs, and then moved into line management as President of Partner Brands, which included several restaurant brands such as Boston Market, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Donato’s Pizza, and Pret a Manger. He began his career as an attorney at the Federal Communications Commission and served as a law clerk to Judge David L. Bazelon of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the D.C. Circuit and later as law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. He practiced civil and criminal litigation at the firm of Williams & Connolly, where he became a partner. Jeff currently serves as a Director or Advisor to a number of companies and institutions including Chipotle Mexican Grill, Lux Capital, Paragon Pharmaceuticals, AgaMatrix, Intrexon, Sheridan Healthcare, PPD, Tufts University, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, and the Manhattan Theatre Club. He is a member of President Obama’s Management Advisory Board. Jeff earned his BA from Tufts University and his JD from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
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Bryan Murphy - eCommerce and Automotive Aftermarket
Bryan Murphy is a senior executive with consistent success delivering revenue, profit, and business growth objectives within start-up, turnaround, and rapid-growth environments. He has extensive experience in eCommerce, SaaS and two sided marketplaces; and a deep understanding of critical business drivers in multiple markets and industries. Bryan has led and motivated global teams comprised of more than ~500 employees and managed businesses exceeding $2 Billion in annual revenue.
Most recently, Bryan was President of Yapstone, Inc. where he led a global team with staff of ~300 and $240M in annual revenues. Yapstone is a full stack payment platform changing the way the world makes mobile and online payments. Processing over $18B in payments globally for Multifamily, Vacation Rental, HOA, Storage, and Non-Profit Verticals with offices in San Francisco, Walnut Creek, Santa Monica, and Dublin, Ireland.
Prior to Yapstone, Bryan was a Vice President of eBay, Inc., responsible for leading Verticals; the $29B managed business in North America as well as planning, strategy and execution globally. Verticals include; Fashion, Consumer Electronics, Home & Garden, Motors, Collectibles & Art, Business & Industrial, and Daily Deals. He led a management team consisting of Vertical teams, Product, Creative Services & Marketing.
Previously, Bryan was head of eBay Motors, after serving as managing director of WHI Solutions, Inc., an eBay company. Prior to eBay’s acquisition of WHI in April 2012, Bryan served as WHI’s CEO from 2002 to 2012 and COO before that (1999 to 2002). While leading WHI, Bryan grew the company’s On Demand eCommerce, eCatalog, and distribution management solution to #1 in their respective markets.
Bryan currently serves as an Advisor for Starboard Capital Partners and as a director of Prevent Patch; and is a former director for The Make a Wish Foundation of the Hudson Valley, Part Source, and Told Ya. Bryan has been recognized for his leadership excellence, being named a Winner of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Bryan holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Miami of Ohio University and resides in Darien, CT with his wife and two sons.
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D. Chris Parker - Niche Manufacturing & Automotive
Chris Parker is currently President of the Americas & Executive Director for the Oetiker Group (Horgen, Switzerland). He has served in this role since July of 2005. Previously, Chris has held the positions of President/CEO of WBI, a Florida based chemical and additives business in the Automotive Aftermarket; VP/General Manager of Autospecialty Inc. (Aftermarket Brake Parts Division of TRW); and VP/General Manager of NCCi (Subsidiary of Home Shopping Network). Prior to that, he held various sales, marketing, and operational roles of advancing responsibilities.
Chris has 40 years of management experience in general management, manufacturing, distribution, global sourcing, brand management, sales & marketing, and finance. Further he has significant M&A and consolidation experience participating in several successful transactions.
In addition, he currently serves the automotive aftermarket through the Automotive Sales Council where he was previously a member of the board of governors, and has previously served as the Chairman of the AWDA sales & marketing committee, Chairman of the PERA government affairs committee, and served 6 years in AWDA University as both a faculty member and advisor, following his graduation from there with his AAP degree.
Chris’ Board experience includes prior Directorships for Navigator Communications LLC and WBI; as well as Education On-Line Inc. He was a past member on the Board of Directors of the Heart for the Arts Foundation, a charitable organization providing aid to chronically ill children, and currently is very active in efforts to support the “cure SMA foundation”. Chris and his wife are also active in efforts to support the endowment for Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St Petersburg Florida.
Chris is a graduate of Ohio State University with a degree in Economics. His Graduate studies were conducted at Xavier University, University of Memphis, and University of Oxford – where he completed the GKN Sr. Executive Management program. He and his wife of 40 years, Debi, reside in St Petersburg, Florida.
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L. Scott Perry - Technology, wireless, broadband services
L. Scott Perry, currently runs a consulting company called Cobblers Hill Group, which has engaged in a number of strategy development, operational, marketing, business development and business plan/fund raising projects for client companies. Recent projects include building a Sales/Market-entry and competitive positioning plan for a SMB cloud services startup business, leading the acquisition of a $50M wireless technology implementation services company, and building a structure and growth strategy for a fast growing private technology services company.
Prior assignments include 12 years as ATT Vice President and corporate officer, with corporate executive leadership roles in Strategy/Business Development, New Services Marketing/ Sales. While at ATT, he was one of the executive leaders of ATT’s network outsourcing business and authored and led the $5B acquisition of IBM’s Global Network services business. Prior to that, he spent 15 years as an IBM senior executive with assignments in General Management, Marketing, and Sales management.
He currently serves on the board of and audit committee for Zanett, Inc., a public IT services company. He is a former chairman and board member of the ITAA (now called TechAmerica), a major IT industry policy advisory organization influencing public policy, and was the sole private sector member of Internet2 policy advisory board. He is an expert on the evolving structure of the service provider industry from communication services to managed services to software as a service (SaaS) business models.
Mr. Perry holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Cornell University and a Masters in Management from Stanford University. He was a Sloan Fellow at Stanford University. He was a U. S. Naval Officer before joining IBM.
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Robert J. Petisi - Advertising and Marketing Services
Robert Petisi is the President of Tween Waters Marketing Alliance, a strategic growth and turn-around consultancy, specializing in deal flow, growth coaching and strategic guidance for digital media, publishing, private equity, in-store marketing and the marketing services industry. Tween Waters completed over 30 engagements since 2004.
Bob was one of the founders
www.storeboards.net, the largest entryway in-store media company in the US,
www.ClubStore.org, the leading e-commerce company for private clubs in golf, and
www.charityblooms.org, a unique donation platform in partnership with
www.800flowers.com.
Bob’s most recent position prior to his founding Tween Waters was with The Thomson Corporation, where he assumed the role of Chairman of Drake Beam Morin (DBM) in July 2001, and continued in that role through 2004. As Chairman, Bob was responsible for DBM’s worldwide operations and overall strategy and direction. DBM is one of the leading HR consulting companies in the world with sales doubling to $270 million during the three years.
During 1999 and 2000, while at The Thomson Corporation, Bob worked with executive teams at Thomson Corporate, The Globe and Mail (Globe Interactive), Thomson Learning, and Thomson Healthcare providing strategic assessment and recommendations of current and future business opportunities. Bob’s areas of focus included brand positioning, strategic partnerships and potential acquisitions.
From 1980-2000, Bob founded, built, and ran several marketing services and consulting businesses including Saatchi & Saatchi Promotion Worldwide, his own agency, Dryden and Petisi, and Marketing Corporation of America, where he was President and CEO of the Agency@MCA until 1999, when Interpublic Group acquired the firm.
Bob received his BS in Marketing from the University of Rhode Island where he is a Board Member of the College of Business and a Trustee at the University. Bob has been involved with and provided marketing advice to charitable organizations in Connecticut including The Pequot Library, Near & Far
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Peter (PJ) H. Smith, Jr., Advisory Director
pjsmith@efc2.com
Peter H. Smith, Jr. was formally a Managing Director at Starboard Capital Partners. PJ currently serves on
the Board of Directors of Apothecare Pharmacy, Theraplay, and PureRED. Prior to joining
Starboard in 2009, PJ was President and Founder of Canwell Capital, LLC. Before that, he
worked at the asset management firm Birinyi Associates. PJ began his career by spending
seven years in corporate finance at Bear Stearns, holding several positions in Debt Capital
Markets and on the Investment Grade Debt Syndicate desk. PJ graduated with a BA from
Middlebury College.
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John Stephen - Public Healthcare
John Stephen is the founder and managing partner of The Stephen Group, a business and government consulting firm, focusing on assisting business and governments in healthcare and social services intelligence, public sector growth strategies and innovation. In addition to his experience consulting with business and government, John has the benefit of heading two large state agencies through a period of major change.
Among his many accomplishments, John assisted Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri in drafting and negotiating a landmark Medicaid Waiver that was the first Medicaid Waiver ever to provide a state with unprecedented flexibility from federal regulations. According to a report by The Lewin Group in December of 2011, the Waiver has generated savings of over $100 million in its first two years. Governor Carcieri called John’s work “an unqualified success” and one that his state is “tremendously grateful for.” John also led a team that reviewed the South Carolina Medicaid system for Governor Nikki Haley and provided the state with recommendations on rebalancing long term care by offering an integrated Medicaid managed care solution. John had earlier drafted a report for Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s Taxpayer Action Board, which recommended over $2 billion dollars in health and human service savings over a 5-year period. A number of these recommendations have been implemented.
John also recently led The Stephen Group team in assessing the State of Florida’s Program Integrity Office, Benefits Recovery Unit in which his team identified over $125 Million in additional welfare and Medicaid fraud and overpayment recovery opportunities for Florida. John has also assisted the State of Mississippi in enhancing its social services eligibility system and he recently was to assist both the States of Illinois and New Hampshire in developing legislation that would require enhanced social service eligibility verification solutions. These efforts have led to both states passing laws that will save an estimated $300 Million. John was also asked to provide expert consulting services to the State of Maine Governor’s Policy office, in its efforts to find over $100 million in health care cost efficiency savings during the 2013 session.
In addition, John completed a project in 2011 for the State of Florida, Department of Children and Families, where he assisted the Secretary in developing the state’s future strategic vision in child health and welfare. The project known as the Child Protection Transformation project will recognize the State of Florida as being a world class child health and welfare agency.
John served from 2003 to 2007 as Commissioner of New Hampshire’s largest Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, where he was in charge of a $1.8 billion dollar annual budget, and was able to contain Medicaid cost to less than a 1% growth during his four year term. As Commissioner, John led the Department through a period of major innovation, including improving Medicaid operations and engaging families on assistance in work activities. He developed and implemented a nationally recognized Health Care Reform program that focused Medicaid on prevention, wellness and rebalancing long term care. John initiated disease management and care coordination programs that transitioned New Hampshire Medicaid away from treating the sick to keeping people healthy. Through John’s efforts, Medicaid long term care home and community placements increased 23%, replacing more expensive nursing home placements, which dropped 11%. Moreover, during each of the four years John was Commissioner, New Hampshire ranked first nationally in the Kids Count survey. During that same period, the enrollment of low income, uninsured children into the State’s Medicaid and SCHIP program increased by 7500. John also oversaw the state’s welfare program, Special Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) program. In this role, John was able to transform welfare in New Hampshire, reducing the rolls by 20 percent and dramatically increasing work participation rates by bringing accountability to the program.
John received his BA in 1984 from the Whittermore School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire, and his JD in 1987 from the Detroit College of Law.
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