David A. Riley, Garvey Schubert Barer

David Riley represents private investment fund managers and investors on a wide variety of fund formation, portfolio investment, regulatory and commercial matters, both within the United States and abroad. In addition, Mr. Riley counsels corporate and institutional clients on all aspects of public and private debt, equity and structured financings, including SEC-registered offerings, Rule 144A and Regulation S offerings, private placements, debt offerings, mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions.

Mr. Riley’s fund clients come from across the spectrum of asset classes, including venture capital funds, private equity funds, hedge funds, real estate funds, funds of funds, and distressed asset funds. He also represents a number of U.S. and international corporate clients and financial institutions on domestic and cross-border financings and other transactions, with a particular focus on the resources, energy, transportation and clean technology industries.

A regular speaker at investment management, clean technology and private equity forums, Mr. Riley is a member of the Institutional Investors Committee of the ABA’s Business Law Section and the Cleantech & Climate Change Committee of the ABA’s Science & Technology Law Section, among other committees.

Christopher Seel, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Chris Seel is a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers Asset Management practice and has a broad and deep base of experience from which he leverages to a variety of provide professional services to his clients.

Chris began his career as an auditor of both start-up and public technology companies in Coopers & Lybrand’s Seattle office in the mid-1990’s.  In 2000, Chris transferred to into PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Transaction Services practice in London for a four year tour, providing merger and acquisition, initial public offering, SEC reporting, International Financial Reporting Standards adoption and other consultation services to financial services and other clients throughout Western Europe.  Most recently, Chris serves as the audit engagement partner and business advisor to alternative investment fund clients ranging from emerging investment advisors to registered investment advisers with $100+ billion in assets under management.  Fund products that he services include domestic and offshore hedge funds, venture capital funds, private equity funds, fund-of-funds, and their related investment advisor entities.  Chris currently lives in Seattle with his wife, Lynsey, and daughter, Ella Grace, and serves clients in the San Francisco, Seattle and San Diego markets.

Chris received a BA in Business Administration and Accounting from the University of Washington.  In addition, he is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Washington State and also carries privileges to practice in the state of California.  Chris is a member of both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (“AICPA”) and the Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Jeffrey Watts, Managing Director, Thomas Capital Group

Jeff Watts’ primary responsibility is sales and marketing of client funds. Jeff has 32 years of management experience including over 25 years of private equity experience in both direct and limited partnership investing and marketing. Over the course of his career, he has managed various private equity investment portfolios aggregating over $3.2 billion in commitments with over 100 funds and 25 operating companies, as well as participating in organizing, structuring, and marketing over $2 billion in international sponsored funds.

Jeff was recently with Russell Investment Group and was one of the founding members of its Private Equity group, Frank Russell Capital. At the time, Russell Investment Group managed over $100 billion in fund of funds assets while it advised clients with assets of over $1.5 trillion. Frank Russell Capital focused on private equity, managing over $3 billion in assets including $700 million in private equity funds of funds. Jeff led, managed, and was a co-founder of the overall private equity fund of funds investment effort for Russell. His most recent position was Managing Director, Private Equity Worldwide where he recruited, built, and led a team of seven investment professionals for Russell’s inaugural and first five private equity fund of funds.

Prior to joining Russell, Jeff was the Senior Investment Officer of the then $2.7 billion private equity investment program at the Washington State Investment Board which, at the time, was one of the five largest private equity institutional investors in the world. Jeff served on the advisory boards of six of WSIB’s portfolio funds. While at WSIB, Jeff developed what became the discretionary venture capital investment program.

Before joining WSIB, Jeff was President of Union Venture Corporation, the venture capital subsidiary of Union Bank of California. During his ten years with Union Venture, he invested in early-stage and expansion-stage direct equity financing of small businesses and managed a portfolio of over two dozen direct investments. He served as a director for six portfolio company boards and was a board member of NASBIC, the SBIC venture capital trade association. While a NASBIC Board Member, Jeff was chairman of its education committee and the NASBIC/NVCA Venture Capital Institute. Jeff was also President of WRASBIC venture capital association. Prior to Union Venture Jeff worked as a loan officer to small business at Northern Trust Co. and as a management consultant and staff accountant at Arthur Andersen & Co. in Chicago.

Jeff has a CPA (inactive) and is a member of AICPA, as well as the Los Angeles, and Seattle CFA Societies. He serves as a board member of the non-profit Greater Lakes Mental Healthcare Agency, a board member of the non-profit Franke Tobey Jones continuing care retirement community, and a trustee of the Tacoma Art Museum.

Jeff received his B.S. in Cellular Biology and Chemistry and his M.B.A. from the University of Michigan. He holds series 7, 63, 79 and 24 registrations.

Brian Rowe, CFA, Director of Manager Research, Wurts & Associates

Mr. Rowe, Director of Manager Research, leads the firm’s analysis and evaluation of a broad mix of investment managers and strategies. Mr. Rowe began his career at Weyerhaeuser Realty Investors underwriting mezzanine debt and joint venture equity investments in third-party real estate deals.  He held various positions over a ten year career, helping to grow the company’s national presence from $200 million assets under management to over $2 billion.
Mr. Rowe graduated from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) with both a B.S. and MBA.  He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is an active member of CFA Institute and CFA Society of Seattle.

 

Chris Carsley, CFA, Operational Due Diligence / Senior Research Analyst, Benchmark Plus

In his 13 years in the investment industry Chris has experience with securities research, portfolio management, securities finance, and arbitrage trading.  Chris joined Benchmark from Paloma Securities, where he was the manager of a regional trading desk and a senior trader working on the Canadian and European trade book analyzing and managing global arbitrage opportunities.  He was also the head of the Hedge Fund security finance team that performed due diligence of hedge funds to assist in enhanced finance/margin treatment and short coverage cost.  Prior to that Chris was a portfolio manager for the investment division of Key Asset Management.  He managed institutional and private client discretionary accounts and was responsible for sales, asset research/valuation, and portfolio allocation.  Chris co-founded the Northwest Hedge Fund Society in 2004.  He earned his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 1998 and holds a BBA from the University of Portland.

More speaker biographies posted soon....