Private Equity Certificate Program

Dr. Burcu Esmer is the Academic Co-Director at Wharton Harris Family Alternative Investments Program and Senior Lecturer of Finance at the Wharton School. Dr. Esmer teaches private equity and corporate finance in Wharton Executive Education and degree programs. She is the recipient of Wharton Teaching Excellence Reward for the academic year 2018-2019. Dr. Esmer works closely with various non-profit organizations that aim to increase diversity in asset management industries. She is the Academic Director of Wharton-AltFinance Institute and Girls Who Invest (GWI) Summer Intensive Program. Dr. Esmer also serves on the Advisory Board of GWI. Dr. Esmer earned her B.Sc. in Economics and Minor in Mathematics from the Middle East Technical University (Turkiye) with Highest Honor (Summa Cum Laude), her M.A. in Economics and Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Iowa.

David K. Musto is the Ronald O. Perelman Professor in Finance and faculty director of the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at the Wharton School, where he has been on the faculty since 1995. He also served as Senior Financial Economist at the Securities Exchange Commission from 2005 to 2007. He has a BA from Yale University and a PhD from the University of Chicago, and between college and graduate school he worked for Roll and Ross Asset Management in Culver City, CA. Most of his work, both theoretical and empirical, is in the area of consumer financial services, mutual funds and consumer credit in particular. He has also published work on corporate and political voting, option pricing, short selling, and cross-border taxation.

Scott Roman has over a decade of experience in financial services across the buy-side, sell-side and strategic advisory. He is the Founder & Managing Partner of White Shark Management, a seed-stage venture capital firm. Prior to founding White Shark, he was a member of the Century Equity Partners team where he served in numerous board-level roles, developed and evaluated investment opportunities in the financial services sector, and provided financial, operational and strategic support to select portfolio companies. Prior to joining Century, Scott was a member of the Technology Services investment banking group at Raymond James where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt financings, and strategic advisory. Scott earned a B.A. with a double concentration in Economics and Government from Bowdoin College and studied International Economics at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

David is Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of the Board. Prior to forming Carlyle in 1987, he practiced law in Washington, D.C. with Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge LLP. From 1977 to 1981, David was Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. Prior to that, he served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. Among other philanthropic endeavors, David is Chairman of the Boards of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Gallery of Art, the Economic Club of Washington, and the University of Chicago and serves on the Boards of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, the Institute for Advanced Study, the National Constitution Center, the Brookings Institution, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the World Economic Forum. David is a magna cum laude graduate of Duke University, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa. Following Duke, he graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review.

Steven Rattner is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Willett Advisors LLC, a Contributing Opinion Writer for The New York Times and the Economic Analyst for Morning Joe on MSNBC. Prior to these roles, Steven served as Counselor to the Secretary of Treasury. He later wrote a book entitled, Overhaul: An Insider’s Account of the Obama Administration’s Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry — a first-hand account of how he led the administration through a restructure of the automobile industry. He founded private investment firm Quadrangle Group LLC in 2000. The firm had over $6 billion of assets under management under his leadership. Prior to this, Steven served as Deputy Chairman and Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Lazard Frères & Co. He served as a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley after launching his investment banking career in 1982 at Lehman Brothers.

Marc has been an investor and operator in the digital infrastructure sector for more than 25 years. He founded Digital Bridge Holdings in 2013 and built the firm into a leading global manager of digital infrastructure assets with more than $20 billion in AUM. reviously, Marc founded Global Tower Partners, which grew to become one of the largest privately-owned tower companies in the U.S. before being acquired by American Tower Corporation in 2013 for $4.8 billion. Prior to GTP, Mr. Ganzi worked as a consulting partner for DB Capital Partners and served as President of Apex Site Management, one of the largest third-party managers of wireless and wireline communication sites in the United States. He has served as an assistant Commercial Attaché in Madrid for the U.S. Department of Commerce and as a Presidential Intern in the White House for the George H.W. Bush administration. He received a Bachelor of Science from the Wharton School of Business in 1993.

Martin Brand is Head of North America Private Equity and Global Co-Head of Technology Investing. He also serves as a member of several of the firm’s investment committees. Martin was involved in Blackstone’s investments in Refinitiv, Bumble, IntraFi, Paysafe, Vungle, Ultimate Software, Liftoff, Blue Yonder, Optiv, Kronos, Ipreo, Knight Capital Group, Lendmark, Exeter Finance, Viva, NCR, First Eagle, BankUnited, PBF Energy, Performance Food Group, Travelport, New Skies, Cine UK, NHP, Kabel BW, Kabelnetz NRW, Primacom, and Sulo. Before joining Blackstone, he worked as a derivatives trader with Goldman Sachs in New York and Tokyo, and with McKinsey & Company in London. Martin received a BA/MA in Mathematics and Computation, First Class Honors, from Oxford University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He is a director of Tradeweb Markets, London Stock Exchange Group, UKG Software, Exeter Finance, IntraFi, and First Eagle.

Ed Brandman is the Founder and CEO of ToltIQ, a generative-AI driven platform focused on the private equity due diligence process that enhances analysis while identifying hidden opportunities and risks. Before founding ToltIQ, Ed was a Partner and the Chief Information Officer at KKR from 2007-2018 where he had responsibility for global technology, data strategy and operations supporting all firm-wide activities. While at KKR, Ed was also a member of the Operations/Risk management committee and served on the Boards of Ipreo and Artivest. Prior to joining KKR, Ed served as Managing Director in the Financial Services Advisory group at PwC, where he focused on best-in-class technology strategies to support capital markets and trading activities for clients.
Prior to PwC, Ed was a Managing Partner at OMT Partners, a consulting firm focused on servicing the brokerage industry; co-founder and CEO of Renaissance Trading Technologies, a tech firm that developed trading software for NASDAQ market makers; Chief Information Officer, Head of Electronic Trading and Director of Operations at Robertson Stephens; and head of trading technology at JP Morgan.

Dina Said Dwyer is the Managing Director of Eden Capital, a PE firm focused in the professional & business services, education & training, and healthcare services sectors. Ms. Said has spent over 20 years in the private equity industry. She has served as a managing director at Unifund SA, an Analyst at the Blackstone Group in New York, and trained at the Carlyle Group in London. She also currently leads Brighter Vision, her family Foundation, dedicated to providing education and economic empowerment to women in Egypt through partnerships with Ashoka, Education for Employment and other prominent groups and sits on the Advisory Board of the Children’s Rights Division for Human Rights Watch. Ms. Said completed her MBA at Columbia Business School, and her undergraduate degree at the Wharton School of Business.

Carl Chan is a Senior Vice President on the Growth team at Thoma Bravo. Based in San Francisco, he joined the firm in 2013 as an Associate, and today focuses on supporting and growing the firm’s infrastructure and cybersecurity software practices. Prior to joining Thoma Bravo, he worked in investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Carl holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Commerce degree with Distinction from the University of Calgary.

Paul Condra is the Global Head of Private Markets Research at PitchBook, leading the EMEA, APAC, custom research, and U.S. VC teams. Paul has nearly 11 years of equity research experience. Prior to joining PitchBook, he served as vice president and head of payments and fintech research at Credit Suisse. Before that, Paul covered payments and fintech companies at BMO Capital Markets. He has frequently been cited in top-tier media outlets including Bloomberg, CNBC and Reuters. Paul holds an MBA from the Baruch College Zicklin School of Business and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington.

Marc has been an investor and operator in the digital infrastructure sector for more than 25 years. He founded Digital Bridge Holdings in 2013 and built the firm into a leading global manager of digital infrastructure assets with more than $20 billion in AUM. reviously, Marc founded Global Tower Partners, which grew to become one of the largest privately-owned tower companies in the U.S. before being acquired by American Tower Corporation in 2013 for $4.8 billion. Prior to GTP, Mr. Ganzi worked as a consulting partner for DB Capital Partners and served as President of Apex Site Management, one of the largest third-party managers of wireless and wireline communication sites in the United States. He has served as an assistant Commercial Attaché in Madrid for the U.S. Department of Commerce and as a Presidential Intern in the White House for the George H.W. Bush administration. He received a Bachelor of Science from the Wharton School of Business in 1993.

Scott Graves is the Founder, CEO and CIO of Lane42. Scott also serves as the Chairman of the Lane42 Executive Committee and the Lane42 Investment Committee. From 2017 to 2024, Scott was a Partner, Co-Head of the Private Equity Group, Portfolio Manager and Head of Special Opportunities at Ares Management, a diversified, global alternative investment manager that oversees more than $350 billion in assets. Prior to joining Ares, Scott spent over 15 years in various capacities as a senior executive and investment professional at Oaktree Capital Management, including as Head of Credit Strategies and as a Portfolio Manager in the Multi-Strategy Credit, Distressed Opportunities, Value Opportunities and Strategic Credit strategies. Scott began his career in accounting at PwC and investment banking at Merrill Lynch before moving to the buy-side as a Principal in the Private Equity Group at William E. Simon & Sons.
After attending UCLA, Scott earned his MBA from The Wharton School where he served on the Graduate Executive Board from 2016 to 2023.

Jennifer James joined Thoma Bravo in 2015 with 20 years of experience in private equity/venture capital investor relations, fundraising, and marketing. Today she leads Thoma Bravo’s business operations strategy, efforts to serve the needs of new and existing investors, and the firm’s industry communications programs. Wall Street Journal and WSJ PRO Private Equity named Jennifer one of the Women to Watch in fundraising, and San Francisco Business Times honored her as one of the Most Influential Women in the Bay Area. Before Thoma Bravo, she served as Partner, Investor Relations & Marketing, for Sofinnova Ventures. Previously, she served as Director of Marketing & Communications for Alta Partners. Jennifer earned her MBA from Northwestern University and her AB degree in History from Bowdoin College

AJ Jangalapalli is a Principal on the Discover team at Thoma Bravo. Based in San Francisco, he joined the firm in 2016. Prior to joining Thoma Bravo, he worked as a software investor at JMI Equity from July 2011 to June 2014 and as an investment banker at Deutsche Bank from July 2009 to June 2011. Mr. Jangalapalli currently serves, and has previously served, as a director of several software and technology service companies in which certain investment funds advised by Thoma Bravo hold an investment, including Greenphire, Inc., Riskonnect, Inc., Syntellis Performance Solutions, LLC, and Zipari, Inc. Mr. Jangalapalli holds a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

David Lee is a Corporate partner in Gibson Dunn’s Orange County Office. He structures and negotiates domestic and cross-border transactions on behalf of corporations, venture capital firms, and private equity houses. His practice includes M&A, private placements, IPOs, follow-on offerings, recapitalizations, take-private transactions, hostile takeover defense and other corporate transactions. He has experience in a number of sectors including healthcare, cleantech, energy, and digital media. David advises venture capital and private equity firms on their strategic investments and acquisitions throughout the investment lifecycle. He also handles equity and debt capital markets offerings on behalf of both issuers and investment banks. He earned his Juris Doctor degree, magna cum laude, in 2004 from Northwestern University School of Law, his MBA from Northwestern University and his Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Martins is a senior executive manager at McKinsey & Company, the largest top-tier management consultancy globally, and is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Martins leads globally the firm’s Private Equity industry practice business development, innovation and people function and is a core part of the firm’s global leadership team. Martins consults investor clients in the Middle East and clients in Europe, Asia and Africa, focusing on new business and impact opportunity identification and development across different private market segments. Martins has more than 15 years’ experience in leading investment strategies, pre-investment diligences, portfolio value creations and transformations across industries and has been promoting innovative strategy development and professional company management from active investor vantage point in emerging markets.

Carl Press is a Partner on the Explore team at Thoma Bravo. Based in San Francisco, he joined the firm in 2015 as a Vice President. Today, Carl is responsible for co-leading the firm’s Explore platform, which focuses on investing in high growth lower middle-market software and technology companies. Previously, he was a Senior Associate at HighBar Partners, an Associate in the Special Situations Group at Oaktree Capital Management, and an Analyst at UBS Investment Bank. GrowthCap named Carl to its list of Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors for 2021. Carl holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Palmer Scholar, and a BS degree with Honors in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Steven Rattner is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Willett Advisors LLC, a Contributing Opinion Writer for The New York Times and the Economic Analyst for Morning Joe on MSNBC. Prior to these roles, Steven served as Counselor to the Secretary of Treasury. He later wrote a book entitled, Overhaul: An Insider’s Account of the Obama Administration’s Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry — a first-hand account of how he led the administration through a restructure of the automobile industry. He founded private investment firm Quadrangle Group LLC in 2000. The firm had over $6 billion of assets under management under his leadership. Prior to this, Steven served as Deputy Chairman and Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Lazard Frères & Co. He served as a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley after launching his investment banking career in 1982 at Lehman Brothers.

David is Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of the Board. Prior to forming Carlyle in 1987, he practiced law in Washington, D.C. with Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge LLP. From 1977 to 1981, David was Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. Prior to that, he served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. Among other philanthropic endeavors, David is Chairman of the Boards of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Gallery of Art, the Economic Club of Washington, and the University of Chicago and serves on the Boards of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, the Institute for Advanced Study, the National Constitution Center, the Brookings Institution, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the World Economic Forum. David is a magna cum laude graduate of Duke University, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa. Following Duke, he graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review.

Ruban is a client-focused leader with over two decades of experience in the alternative investments and financial technology sectors.
As Managing Director, Head of Strategic Projects & Change Management at Ares Management from 2021 to 2023, Ruban spearheaded initiatives to optimize operational efficiency and technology integration across the firm. At KKR, he served as Director for nearly 8 years, where he led strategic technology implementations and managed the US/APAC Credit & Public Markets Operations team, overseeing $130B in assets and liabilities. Ruban co-founded G2 FinTech, a software company, where he was COO & CFO until its successful acquisition by KPMG. He was also COO & CFO of G2 Systems, an alternative investments operations and technology consulting company, which he sold to GFT.
His career foundation was built on roles in financial strategies at Countrywide Financial, quantitative research and trading at Carlson Capital, and software engineering in the technology sector.
Ruban holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Cornell University.

David Schuppan is a Senior Partner and Co-Head of Healthcare at The Vistria Group, a middle market private equity firm focused on the healthcare, education, and financial services industries. David started his career in the healthcare investment banking group at Bear Stearns in New York before moving to the buy side and joining Thoma Cressey Equity Partners at inception, where he focused on healthcare and technology investing. In 2007, David was a Founding Partner of Cressey & Company, a middle market private equity firm focused on healthcare services, providers, facilities, and information technology.
David has been working with leading healthcare teams for over 25 years and he earned his MBA, with honors, from The Wharton School.

Nizar Tarhuni leads the institutional research and editorial departments at PitchBook. He is responsible for managing the firm’s investment strategy, fund performance and emerging technology research offerings, in addition to a daily news product tailored to private market investors and advisors. Tarhuni is credited for developing PitchBook’s first institutional-grade research product and under his leadership, the team has grown to include over 60 global analysts and journalists. He also serves on PitchBook’s senior leadership team. He has been a featured speaker at various industry conferences and is regularly cited in top-tier publications including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Bloomberg and the Financial Times. Tarhuni received a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance from Linfield University.

Vanessa leads Oliver Wyman’s Private Capital Practice in the Americas and co-heads its Education & Training Practice globally. She has over 15 years of advisory experience and specializes in helping private equity investors with diligence education and training assets, and working with education companies to accelerate their growth. Her teams lead partners who work on deals and post-transaction at the intersection of Private Equity and Financial Services, Insurance, Aerospace and Defense, Industrial Products, Communications, Media, and Technology, Telecommunications, Healthcare, as well as Operations and Commercial Effectiveness. Vanessa holds a BA with honors from Duke University, and an MBA from The Wharton School. Before her career in consulting, she played tennis professionally on the WTA Tour.

Larry is Co-President of Cowen and Company and Head of Investment Banking. Under his leadership, the Investment Bank has emerged as a leading strategic advisor, offering a broad array of solutions both within Advisory (M&A, Private Capital Solutions, Sponsors) and Underwriting. Prior to joining Cowen, he was COO and Head of Merchant Banking at Roundtable Investment Partners, a Multi-family Office and Registered Investment Advisor. Prior to that, Larry was with Barclays and its predecessor, Lehman Brothers. During the majority of his 17-year tenure, he was the Head of Global Finance and Risk Solutions. He also served in a variety of senior roles including Co-Head of Markets and Chief Strategy Officer for the Corporate and Investment Bank.

Dr. Burcu Esmer is the Academic Co-Director at Wharton Harris Family Alternative Investments Program and Senior Lecturer of Finance at the Wharton School. Dr. Esmer teaches private equity and corporate finance in Wharton Executive Education and degree programs. She is the recipient of Wharton Teaching Excellence Reward for the academic year 2018-2019. Dr. Esmer works closely with various non-profit organizations that aim to increase diversity in asset management industries. She is the Academic Director of Wharton-AltFinance Institute and Girls Who Invest (GWI) Summer Intensive Program. Dr. Esmer also serves on the Advisory Board of GWI. Dr. Esmer earned her B.Sc. in Economics and Minor in Mathematics from the Middle East Technical University (Turkiye) with Highest Honor (Summa Cum Laude), her M.A. in Economics and Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Iowa.

Ayo is a Private Equity Instructor with Wall Street Prep and the Founder and CEO of AllStreet, a private fund marketplace. Prior to joining Wall Street Prep and founding AllStreet, Ayo was a Summer Associate at Apex Digital. Prior to Apex, Ayo was an associate in the Blackstone Group’s Strategic Capital Group, the business that acquires minority GP stakes in alternative asset management companies. Prior to joining Blackstone, Ayo was an analyst at Citigroup, where he focused on Municipal and Project Finance investment banking and capital markets origination. Ayo is an incoming MBA Candidate at Harvard Business School and earned a B.A. in Political Science from Williams College, where he was also a member of the football team.

Matan is Wall Street Prep’s Founder and CEO. His responsibilities include business development, development of courses, and overseeing training programs. Matan has overseen training programs for clients including Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Raymond James, Stifel Nicolaus, FBR Capital Markets, Sagent Advisors, Giuliani Capital Advisors, JP Morgan, Cerberus, Wharton Business School, London Business School, Kellogg, Booth, Stern (NYU), and Cornell. Prior to founding Wall Street Prep, Matan served in several capacities on Wall Street — first as an Analyst in Chase Manhattan Bank’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group in New York, and subsequently as an Associate within JP Morgan’s Equity Research Group, covering Food & Drug Retail Equities.

Zach is a Senior Private Equity Instructor at Wall Street Prep. Prior to joining Wall Street Prep, Zach was an associate at Bernhard Capital, an energy services private equity firm where he focused on evaluating investments, building valuation models, conducting financial analysis, diligence and managing portfolio companies within the energy services space. Before Bernhard Capital, Zach was an associate at Goldman Sachs in the TMT Investment Banking Group. Zach majored in Math at Duke University

Jessica is a Senior Instructor with Wall Street Prep and the Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Ours, a relationship wellness company. Prior to Wall Street Prep and Ours, Jessica was an associate in the Carlyle Group’s U.S. Buyout Consumer & Retail group, where she focused on evaluating investments, building valuation models, conducting financial analysis and diligence and managing portfolio companies within the consumer and retail space. Before Carlyle, Jessica was an analyst in the Financial Sponsors Group at Morgan Stanley, where she advised private equity clients on buy-side, sell-side, public offerings and refinancing opportunities. She majored in finance and accounting at Georgetown and earned an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Marc Howland’s experience spans investment banking advisory, private equity buyout, minority investing and capital raising across various industries and transaction types and sizes. While at Goldman Sachs and The Carlyle Group in New York City, Marc helped execute $70 billion worth of global M&A and financing transactions in the technology, media, telecom, infrastructure and sports facility finance markets. He earned his M.B.A., with Honors, from Harvard Business School and his B.A. in Business Economics, Magna Cum Laude, from Brown University.

Adam is a Senior Instructor with Wall Street Prep. Adam’s diverse career in finance includes investment banking, corporate finance and transaction advisory services consulting. Adam has held senior corporate strategy and transaction advisory positions at Cisco, Capgemini and C&S. Prior to Wall Street Prep, Adam was a Vice President at McNamee Lawrence & Co., a technology boutique investment bank, where he specialized in M&A and private financings. Adam was also a Senior Financial Analyst at one of the top 10 largest private companies where he assisted the company with its first debt offering. Adam has consulted numerous senior management teams and boards of directors on their M&A strategies. Adam holds Series 7 and Series 63 licenses. Adam received an MBA from Yale, a Master’s of Engineering from MIT and a BS from Virginia Tech.

David K. Musto is the Ronald O. Perelman Professor in Finance and faculty director of the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at the Wharton School, where he has been on the faculty since 1995. He also served as Senior Financial Economist at the Securities Exchange Commission from 2005 to 2007. He has a BA from Yale University and a PhD from the University of Chicago, and between college and graduate school he worked for Roll and Ross Asset Management in Culver City, CA. Most of his work, both theoretical and empirical, is in the area of consumer financial services, mutual funds and consumer credit in particular. He has also published work on corporate and political voting, option pricing, short selling, and cross-border taxation.

With over 15 years of valuation experience, Lidia specializes in the valuation of businesses, intangible assets, and equity securities for financial and tax reporting, M&A, and litigation support purposes. Before joining CFGI, Lidia was a Manager in the Transaction Services practice of PwC. She was a leading advisor to clients on valuation principles, methodologies, and assumptions used in the valuation of debt and equity securities, complex instruments, inventory, customer relationships, technology, IPR&D, and trade names. Lidia has extensive experience working with Big 4 auditors and possesses the ability to anticipate expected concerns presented by the audit review process and offers pro-active solutions prior to the review stages of an engagement.

Zach is a Private Equity Instructor with Wall Street Prep and the Founder and CEO of RAIZE, an online bakery for healthy, gluten-free desserts. Prior to joining Wall Street Prep and founding RAIZE, Zach was an associate at Warburg Pincus in the Industrial & Business Services group where he focused on evaluating investments, building valuation models, conducting financial analysis, and managing portfolio companies. Zach is an alumnus of The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School where he graduated Summa Cum Laude and Beta Gamma Sigma with a B.S. in Finance and Economics.

Scott Roman has over a decade of experience in financial services across the buy-side, sell-side and strategic advisory. He is the Founder & Managing Partner of White Shark Management, a seed-stage venture capital firm. Prior to founding White Shark, he was a member of the Century Equity Partners team where he served in numerous board-level roles, developed and evaluated investment opportunities in the financial services sector, and provided financial, operational and strategic support to select portfolio companies. Prior to joining Century, Scott was a member of the Technology Services investment banking group at Raymond James where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt financings, and strategic advisory. Scott earned a B.A. with a double concentration in Economics and Government from Bowdoin College and studied International Economics at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Christopher Reilly is a Denver-based M&A and FP&A Contractor and finance course creator. He began his career with FTI Consulting, Inc. and focused on Bankruptcy and Restructuring, then worked at Hilton Worldwide in its Corporate Finance and Treasury Departments, and then spent several years in Middle Market Private Equity before starting his own Contractor and Education business in 2020. Chris is a 2009 graduate of the Villanova School of Business.

Michael is currently the Chief of Staff at DICK’S Sporting Goods and Founder of Bokeh Partners, a boutique financial advisory firm. Prior to DICK’S, Michael was a Senior Private Equity Instructor at Wall Street Prep. Prior to Wall Street Prep, Michael was Director of Product Development at DICK’S Sporting Goods, Inc. Prior to attending business school, he was an Associate at Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm with more than $44 billion in assets under management. He began his career at PJ Solomon, a boutique investment bank, as an analyst advising clients primarily on M&A transactions. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Alex is a Senior Private Equity Instructor with Wall Street Prep. Alex has 13 years of investment banking experience, with a main focus on mergers and acquisitions and the oil & gas sector. Alex began his career at Lehman Brothers in New York (later acquired by Barclays), before moving to Goldman Sachs in their Houston and London offices. Currently, Alex is focused on investing in growth companies across various sectors, including cryptocurrencies, real estate, healthcare, and technology. Alex has graduated with an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York and is a CFA charter holder.