Executive Officers

R. Grady Burnett, 48
Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

R. Grady Burnett is a seasoned technology executive and investor with deep experience and success in driving sales, growth and impact at several technology companies. Grady was a co-founder of Bow Capital Partners, a $275 million venture capital fund founded in 2016, and was a member of its Investment Committee from June 2016 until 2020. Previously, Grady served as Chief Operating Officer at Flurry, Inc., a mobile analytics, monetization and advertising company, from October 2013 to October 2014 where he helped lead the sale of the company to Yahoo! Inc. Grady also served as Vice President of Global Sales & Operations at Facebook, Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) from June 2009 to November 2013. Prior to joining Facebook, Grady was the Director of North American Sales and Operations at Google from August 2005 to May 2009 and Vice President of Sales at DoubleClick from April 1998 to April 2003. Grady started his career as a professional tennis player on the ATP tour before shifting to a career in technology and media. Grady is an independent director for Kaleido Biosciences Inc (Nasdaq: KLDO) where he is also a member of the Governance Committee and the Audit Committee, which he chaired from 2018 to 2020. Grady is also a member of the Board of Trustees for two non-profits, The Menlo School and East Palo Alto Tennis & Tutoring. Grady has previously been an independent director at Kenshoo.

W. Lance Conn, 53
Co-Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Director Nominee

W. Lance Conn is a seasoned investor, director and former executive, with extensive experience in corporate transactions and strategic growth initiatives across many sectors, with a focus on media, telecom and technology. Lance also has 20 years of experience as a director at dozens of companies. Since 2009, Lance has served as a director on the board of Charter Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: CHTR) as well as the chair of its compensation committee. During that time, he has also managed a private investment portfolio. From July 2004 to May 2009, Lance was the president of Vulcan Capital, the investment arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s family office. While at Vulcan Capital, he chaired the firm’s investment committee and directed the successful deployment of several billion dollars of investments across a range of asset classes, industry sectors and company stages. He oversaw the turnaround of the firm’s legacy investment portfolio, while also serving as the chair of Vulcan Energy Corporation, and a director of the Seattle Seahawks, the Portland Trailblazers, Oxygen Media, Plains All American Pipeline (Nasdaq: PAA), Digeo, Inc. and PAA/?Vulcan Gas Storage, LLC. Lance also managed Vulcan Capital’s investments in Dreamworks SKG, the Sporting News, and the Seattle Sounders, and helped to found two endowment-style investment firms, Makena Capital Management and Global Endowment Management. Prior to his time at Vulcan Capital, Lance was employed by America Online, Inc. from March 1996 to May 2003, where he served in various senior executive roles in the U.S. and Europe, including head of the company’s business affairs unit and leader of a company-wide operational improvement program. From September 1994 to February 1996, Lance was an attorney with Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge LLP in Washington, D.C. Since May 2020, he has served as the executive chair of Common Sense Networks PBC, a for-profit children’s media company he co-founded in partnership with the non-profit Common Sense Media. He holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in history from the University of Mississippi, and a B.A. in history from Princeton University, and is currently a member of the D.C. Bar.

Board of Directors

Gretchen Howard, 47
Director Nominee

Mr. Herring has over 27 years of investment experience and co-founded Tailwater Capital in January 2013. At Tailwater, Mr. Herring’s primary responsibilities include deal sourcing, execution, and monitoring of the Firm’s investments as well as management of the Firm. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Pivotal Petroleum Partners, Copperbeck EnergyPartners, E2 Energy Services, Producers Midstream, Silver Creek Midstream, TopSail Energy, Goodnight Midstream, and Cureton Midstream. Mr. Herring currently serves as an elected Trustee for the Highland Park Independent School District in his hometown of Dallas. Additionally, he serves on the Executive Council for the McCombs School of Business Energy Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to co-founding Tailwater Capital, Mr. Herring was a Partner with HM Capital and served on the Investment Committee. Prior to HM Capital, Mr. Herring worked in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York and San Francisco, where he focused on M&A and financing transactions in the technology sector. Mr. Herring earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Stanford University.

Andrew (Andy) Sheehan, 63
Director Nominee

Andrew (Andy) Sheehan is a technology investor with over 25 years of experience and in-depth technology industry knowledge. Since 2014, Mr. Sheehan has served as the Managing Partner of Tippet Venture Partners, a venture capital firm. Mr. Sheehan was a Partner of Sutter Hill Ventures, a venture capital firm, from 2007 until February 2021. Mr. Sheehan has served on the Board of Directors of Yext, Inc. (NYSE: YEXT), a publicly held technology company, since May 2008 and on the Board of Directors of Quinstreet (Nasdaq: QNST), a publicly held marketing technology company, since February 2017. Mr. Sheehan also serves on the board of directors of a number of privately-held companies in the technology industry. Mr. Sheehan holds a B.A. in English from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School.

Claire Johnson, 49
Director Nominee

Claire Johnson is a technology executive, team builder, investor and advisor with nearly 20 years of experience is sales, product strategy, marketing and operational scaling. Claire has been the Chief Operating Officer at Stripe since October 2014. She is responsible for scaling Stripe’s worldwide operations to meet the needs of its rapidly growing user base. From 2004 to 2014, Claire led various business, product and operations teams at Google, most recently for the Self-Driving Cars project at Google[x]. She also managed the business and operational teams behind the launches of Gmail, Google Checkout, and Google Apps. In 2012 and 2013, Claire led the product, engineering and sales teams of Google Offers. She also served as co-lead and executive sponsor of the Global Women@Google Network, building the organization to over 4,000 active members during her tenure. Before that, Claire worked on Google’s advertising sales team, ultimately leading the Global Online Sales organization. She also created the Consumer Operations team that today supports all of Google’s users. Prior to Google, Claire served in management consulting roles, and began her career in Massachusetts state politics, running state and local campaigns. She served on the board of Hallmark Cards, Inc. from 2012 to 2018 and has been a Trustee of Milton Academy since 2011. She earned a bachelor’s degree with honors from Brown University and an MBA from Yale School of Management.

Obinna Onyeagoro, 45
Director Nominee

Obinna Onyeagoro has been a consultant with Egon Zehnder since March 2019 and is active in the firm’s Financial Services, Technology Enabled Businesses and Board Practices helping clients develop their Leadership Strategy. Obinna’s focus is to build close, trusted relationships advising senior executives on their leadership challenges across multiple sectors including private-equity, private-credit firms, infrastructure funds and technology & media organizations. Prior to joining Egon Zehnder, Obinna was a strategic advisor from July 2017 to February 2019 and headed the Financial Sponsors Group, EMEA at Standard Chartered Bank from December 2013 to June 2017. He previously served as an investment banker with Deutsche Bank Securities in New York on the Leveraged Finance team and began his career as a consultant at Accenture in 1999. Obinna earned a BS in electrical engineering from Boston University, a Master’s in education with a technology focus from Harvard University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.