The Investment Advisory Board is comprised of knowledgeable individuals with backgrounds in industry, private equity and restructuring transactions. The members of the Advisory Board assist Sigma in sourcing and evaluating investment and exit opportunities as well as in monitoring the Fund's portfolio companies.
Michael Gray
Mr. Gray is the President and Director of The Gray Insurance Company, a Louisiana-based Property and Casualty Company founded in 1978. Over the past 19 years, Mr. Gray has held other executive and senior-management positions in the insurance industry. In 1996, Mr. Gray co-founded The Gray Casualty Company and in 1998 he co-founded The Gray Oil & Gas Company. Along with his roles at the Gray Insurance Company, Mr. Gray serves as a Director of Delta Title Corporation, the largest Title Insurance Agency in the state of Louisiana and as Director of the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association.
Robert Growney
Mr. Growney is a Partner at Edgewater Growth Capital Partners, a Chicago-based private equity fund. Prior to joining Edgewater, Mr. Growney was President, Chief Operating Officer, and Vice Chairman of Motorola. In addition to his responsibility for Motorola's $30 billion global operation, Mr. Growney oversaw Motorola's minority equity portfolio of 240+ companies, including those in the Motorola Ventures portfolio. After he joined Motorola in 1966, Mr. Growney held a variety of managerial positions during his long tenure with the company. At various times throughout his career, he had direct responsibility for the Radio Technologies Group; Paging and Telepoint Systems Group; Paging and Wireless Data Group; and the Messaging, Information, and Media Sector. Mr. Growney serves on the Advisory Board of Rudyard Partners, an early stage VC fund established by his son, Matthew Growney (see "Executive Advisory Panel").
Michael Littenberg
Mr. Littenberg is a Corporate Partner at New York's Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, a full service law firm with over 350 attorneys. Michael represents clients in connection with investment transactions (including private placements in public entities and venture capital), mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, joint ventures and strategic alliances. His clients include investment funds, investment banks and boutique advisory firms, smaller high growth as well as large cap companies, special committees and shareholders.
Ameet Shah
Mr. Shah is a co-Chairman and a Director of the Astonfield Group, a provider of world-class infrastructure services to growing nations. In addition, Mr. Shah is the Managing Partner and Founding Partner of Mosaic Capital, the Chairman of Advanced Financial Applications and a Director of Real Time Radiography, Inc. Previously, Mr. Shah worked with two international asset management firms. He began his career in fund management with HSBC Asset Management and worked in various roles in Hong Kong, London and New York. Mr. Shah subsequently moved to Salomon Brothers Asset Management and was co-manager of the Salomon Brothers Asia Growth Fund from 1997-1998.
Akiva Shmuelov
Mr. Shmuelov is an IT executive with over 18 years in the financial services industry and is the Founding Partner of Technology Advisors. Prior to founding Technology Advisors, Mr. Shmuelov was the Director of Infrastructure and Architecture for Deutsche Bank's Investment Banking Group located in New York and London. Prior to his role at Deutsche Bank, Akiva served as technology director for Merrill Lynch's International Private Banking Group and also served as Chief Information Officer for International Technology Security. He was the lead architect responsible for designing and implementing a broker workstation used by 3,000 financial consultants located in 26 countries. Mr. Shmuelov was also responsible for architecting and implementing Merrill Lynch's first client accessible web site - Merrill Lynch Online.
Zinovia Spezakis, CFA
Ms. Spezakis was a Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer at Allianz Global Investors where she was primarily responsible for the daily operations, trading, risk management, compliance, technology and sub-advisor relationships. Prior, Ms. Spezakis was a Vice President at Robert R. Meredith, a start-up asset management firm, where she was responsible for structured products and marketing. She holds an MBA in Finance and Business Economics from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a Masters of International Relations, concentrating on the Russian Oil Industry, from the University of Chicago. She also holds a BA from Cornell University in Economics and Government and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.