The cue ball team

Tony Tjan, Cue Ball’s co-founder and leader, is an entrepreneur and counselor at heart. He has led multiple “ground-up to scale-up” ventures and served as a strategic advisor to several CEOs. Tony’s career started at McKinsey where he founded ZEFER, one of the earliest Internet advisory and development firms. He also co-founded MiniLuxe, an ethical nail care and beauty brand seeking to change an entire industry. For 15 years, Tony was Vice Chairman of The Parthenon Group and also served as a senior strategic advisor for Thomson Reuters, helping to lead its transformation into the largest media information company.

Tony has written over 100 articles for Harvard Business Reviewand is the author of Good People and the New York Times best-seller, Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck. He is a World Economic Forum Global Leader for Tomorrow and recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Tony holds AB and MBA degrees from Harvard and was a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. He sits on the Advisory Council for the MIT Media Lab and the Board of the Tory Burch Foundation.

John is a co-founding General Partner of Cue Ball and brings an extensive track record of investing and operational experience to our firm. Prior to Cue Ball, John led his own entrepreneurial ventures and served as a trusted technology adviser to many senior executive teams. Additionally, he was also a co-founder of our firm’s founding investment, MiniLuxe. After college, John returned to his high school alma mater to serve as a chemistry, physics, and computer science teacher and
helped modernize the school’s technology systems. John also worked for Answerthink, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANSR) for eight years where he developed his passion and knowledge for business intelligence and big data. He was an also early technology advisor for ZEFER, one of the nation’s first internet consultancies, which was founded by Tony Tjan.

As a first generation Italian-American, John enjoys dual citizenship. He serves his hometown community as a director of the Revere Beach Partnership and chair of its International Sand Sculpting Festival.  He also serves as a trustee of Boston Harbor Now.  John holds an AB in biology from Harvard College.

Brian Chu is one of Cue Ball’s General Partners. He brings a long track record of investing and management operating experience to our firm and has played leadership roles helping to direct the firm’s strategy and investments. Brian is also a Senior Advisor at HighVista Strategies, which he co-founded and previously served as Managing Partner. Prior to co-founding HighVista, Brian was a Managing Director at Vulcan Capital and also a member of the founding investment team at Highfields Capital. Earlier in his career, Brian worked for Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Company.

Christine Mastrangelo is a Partner and serves as the firm’s Chief of Staff. Joining Cue Ball as the first operational hire to support fund administration and communications, Christine has driven firm priorities and played multiple key roles in the fund and portfolio companies since Cue Ball’s inception. She served as the interim Brand and Marketing Lead for MiniLuxe, Cue Ball’s founding investment, and has also contributed creative direction for On Cue, Cue Ball’s annual ideas festival. She currently leads Cue Ball’s efforts to invest in women-focused businesses.

Prior to Cue Ball, Christine was an educator, freelance writer, and worked in operational roles at ICON, the sustainable architecture firm. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Boston Book Festival and is an active mentor for entrepreneurial students at Boston University, where she received her undergraduate degree. Christine is a mom of two and a certified Kundalini Yoga instructor.

Ali Rahimtula is a Partner at Cue Ball, managing Cue Ball’s deal origination process and leading many of our firm’s enterprise, SaaS, and financial technology deals.

Prior to joining Cue Ball, Ali was a Principal at the private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners where he oversaw several financial technology and financial services investments. Before going into venture and private equity, Ali was a Vice President in the Financial Institutions Group at Goldman Sachs where he worked on over 40 capital raising and announced merger transactions with values aggregating to over $60 billion. Earlier in his career, Ali worked in the Technology Group at Credit Suisse First Boston.

In addition to his depth of investment experience, Ali was one of the earliest employees at ZEFER, an early Internet consultancy and development firm founded by Tony Tjan. He also worked for the Canadian House of Commons in Ottawa, Canada. Ali met Cue Ball’s co-founder, Tony Tjan, during their formative educational years in Newfoundland, Canada. Ali received a gold medal (highest academic achievement) at Memorial University of Newfoundland and also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He blogs at rahimtula.com

James Walker is a Partner of Cue Ball and brings a long track record of investing across all major asset classes and relationship building globally. James was most recently Managing Director and Global Head of Investments for J.P. Morgan Private Bank, where he spent over 20 years. James oversaw all investment solutions including brokerage and managed platforms across a wide breadth, both discretionary multi- and single asset-class strategies, as well as traditional and alternatives manager selection platforms. James was responsible for overseeing over $400 BN in client assets and particularly focused on private investment relationships. James was also a member of both the Wealth Management Operating Committee and the Asset & Wealth Management Operating Committees. ​

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In prior roles, James was responsible for investment advisors globally. Before that, he served as J.P. Morgan Private Bank’s Head of Investments for Europe and Israel, and earlier in his career he was the Private Bank’s Head of Investments for the Western and Southern Regions of the United States. James joined the firm in 1996 as an Analyst on the Self- Directed Municipal Trading Desk for J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc. and also served as a J.P. Morgan Investment Management Fixed Income Portfolio Manager in 1998. Since retiring, James has been active private investor in the start-up entrepreneur space, assisting early stage companies with their growth strategies and raising investment capital. He is a Board Member of Israeli firms Cymptom and New Era Capital. A native of Virginia, James earned his B.A. in History from the University of Virginia.

Mats Lederhausen was a founding General Partner of Cue Ball and now serves as an Operating Partner. He is also the founder of his own private holding company, BeCause, a pioneer in
purpose-driven investing. Mats has been instrumentally involved with Cue Ball since our inception and focuses on our portfolio’s consumer and lifestyle brands. Previously, he led McDonald’s Ventures where he oversaw ground-breaking investments in concepts including Chipotle Mexican Grill, Redbox DVD (which he co-founded), and Pret A Manger. As Chairman of Chipotle from 2003-2006, he led what became one of the most successful restaurant IPOs in history. More recently, he co-founded and serves as chairman of Roti Mediterranean Grill.

Mats started his career at the Boston Consulting Group before becoming an owner-operator of more than 170 McDonald’s restaurants in Sweden. In 1999 he was asked to serve as Global Head of Strategy at McDonald’s where he co-architected the corporation’s turnaround. Mats is a World Economic Forum Global Leader of Tomorrow and served for nearly a decade as Chairman of the non-profit Business for Social Responsibility. He also serves on the global board of Ronald McDonald House Charities. Mats holds a Master’s degree from the Stockholm School of Economics.

As Partner & CFO, Eric Kuchova oversees Cue Ball’s finance and operations functions, including portfolio company valuations, fund administration, investor relations, financial and performance reporting, and regulatory compliance. Eric is a member of our firm’s investment committee and plays an active role in deal evaluation, term sheet development, and portfolio company investment and realization activity. Prior to joining Cue Ball, Eric was a finance manager in the private equity group at Bain Capital, where he principally focused on fund operations, financial reporting, and investment valuation.  He began his career working with alternative investment managers in the assurance practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Eric graduated magna cum laude from Western New England University, where he currently sits on the Accounting Advisory Council, and is a Certified Public Accountant. He resides in Norfolk, Massachusetts, with his wife, Stephanie, and their daughter.  His other true loves are barbecue and the Miami Dolphins.

Dave Giller is a Principal at Cue Ball where he brings an extensive background in the application of data to consumer purchasing and media/entertainment. He primarily focuses on our portfolio of digital media and consumer companies and is responsible for identifying and evaluating new investments and supporting portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Cue Ball, Dave was a Manager of Business Analytics for the Cleveland Browns where he oversaw internal strategy projects across business functions as well as the implementation of data infrastructure systems. Dave earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated summa cum laude in Economics from Vanderbilt University. At Vanderbilt, he was a starter for the varsity football team and was selected to try out for several NFL teams. He is actively involved with Best Buddies International in Boston.

Lauren Simon is an Associate at Cue Ball, where she draws on her experience conducting investment analysis across a wide range of asset classes and geographies. Her background in public policy and linguistics also allows her to bring a unique perspective to the table. Lauren is responsible for identifying and evaluating new investments and supporting portfolio companies.

Before joining Cue Ball, Lauren was an Investment Associate at Bridgewater Associates, a systematic macro-focused hedge fund. She graduated with distinction from Oxford University, earning a master’s degree in Linguistics. Her undergraduate degree is from Duke University, where she majored in Public Policy and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies. Her policy work has focused on how the choice of language in the reform of NYPD stop and frisk policy affected the likelihood of achieving justice through community policing. Lauren is an avid runner and reader, and has also enjoyed being a vocalist in various musical groups over the years.

Amy Tan is an Associate at Cue Ball where she brings a passion for retail, data analytics, and inclusionary ventures. She is excited about brand platforms that have a deep understanding of their superfan customers and founders driven by a passion for social good. At Cue Ball, Amy identifies and evaluates new investment opportunities and works to support portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Cue Ball, she was a consultant at Mastercard, where she worked with clients in the retail, CPG, financial institution, and airlines industries to leverage Mastercard and client data to make data-driven decisions. Outside of her client work, she worked with Mastercard’s products team to scale one of Mastercard’s fastest growing platforms.

Amy graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Economics. While at Harvard, she was involved in Harvard’s International Relations Council and Women in Business. Outside of work, Amy enjoys trying new food, yoga, and meandering around the many lakes of Minnesota, where she’s originally from.

Karina Kossler is an Associate at Cue Ball, where she harnesses her love for all things personal wellness, clean beauty, and sustainability. At Cue Ball, Karina identifies and evaluates new investment opportunities and drives M&A and corporate development efforts for portfolio companies.

Before joining Cue Ball, Karina was an Investment Associate at Oak HC/FT, where she focused on evaluating early-stage and growth equity venture opportunities in healthcare. Prior to that, she spent significant time as a consultant at Trinity Life Sciences, working with clients across the pharmaceutical and biotech industries to assess new product planning and brand launching initiatives. Karina attended both Amherst College and Dartmouth College as part of a dual-degree program, earning bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and Biomedical Engineering, respectively. As a two-sport college athlete in both softball and volleyball, naturally, her passion for health and fitness stretched into her engineering work, which focused on building new devices to improve consumers’ fitness experience. A California native, outside of the office Karina enjoys yoga, getting out in the sun for bike rides around the city, walking dogs, and trying new local coffee shops and breweries.

Kaitlyn Higgins is the Executive Assistant to the CEO at Cue Ball – where she draws on her previous experiences as a Personal Assistant and Event Producer to help manage and coordinate Cue Ball schedules and relationships.

Prior to joining Cue Ball, Kaitlyn graduated from Bryant University with a degree in Business Administration/Marketing.  From there, she spent five years working for the Kraft Group organization in Marketing and Events, where she was able to have a hand in coordinating Superbowl trips, concerts, and everything in between. Most recently, Kaitlyn served as a Personal Assistant to a local family where she managed a team coordinating all personal events, travel, and day-to-day activities.

Kaitlyn is a Massachusetts native who enjoys planning her own travel to destinations both near and far, while attempting to try all of the new local Boston restaurants on the weekends.

As Finance Manager, Taylor assists the CFO in overseeing Cue Ball’s finance and operations functions, including fund administration, financial reporting, and portfolio company valuations.

Taylor also assists in the term sheet development and portfolio company investment and realization process.

Before joining Cue Ball, Taylor was a Fund Accounting Manager at OpenView Venture Partners where she focused on fund reporting, valuations and investor relations.

Taylor started her career as a Senior Tax Associate at Ernst & Young LLP, performing tax compliance services for clients across the retail and oil and gas industries. Taylor attended Villanova University, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and Accounting, and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Shazi Visram is an entrepreneur and mother committed to bettering the world through business that is socially, financially, and environmentally enlightened. She is the Founder of Happy Family Brands, which she led to become the #1 organic baby food company in the US market with disruptive innovations that have democratized organic food for new families, despite her very humble beginnings.

Shazi is also the Founder and CEO of Healthy Baby, which is the culmination of a life’s work dedicated to protecting children’s neurological health. Healthy Baby is a safe space for families to find the knowledge, community, and products to build connected minds and bodies during baby’s early years, a time when they are making one million neural connections every second.

As an advocate of social entrepreneurship, Visram is actively engaged as an investor and advisor to companies innovating for a brighter future. Visram serves on the board of Environmental Working Group (EWG), the Board of Overseers at Columbia Business School and Columbia College, in addition to being a Founding Member of Columbia’s Alumnae Legacy Circle.

In 2013, she was acknowledged by President Barack Obama as “not only an outstanding businesswoman, but also a leader that all of us can emulate.” In 2018, Visram proudly received Columbia University’s University Medal of Excellence “for her gifts as a leader, her optimistic spirit, and determination”.

Hilario Bango is Cue Ball’s Creative in Residence at Cue Ball and also Co-founder and Creative Director of Martian Arts, a creative brand and storytelling agency.  At Cue Ball, Hilario brings the art and power of storytelling and design to our firm and our portfolio companies.  As a retained resource available to our portfolio businesses, Hilario has helped founders better shape their brand purpose and better share the narrative of their vision. The range of his work has included everything from the visual expression of a firm’s identity to the development of content pillars of their story.

Born in the city of Buenos Aires, where he studied Audiovisual Design, he honed his theatrical talents by producing and directing a large body of material working in advertising, television, and film with various brands such as Disney, Nickelodeon, and Coke-Cola. In 2011 Hilario moved to Boston to start his storytelling and brand development firm, Martian Arts and he joined Cue Ball as a Creative-in-Residence in 2013. Since then he’s has worked as a creative advisor to brands such as TB12, MiniLuxe, Virgin Pulse, ianacare and more. Fascinated by the power of the story to open minds and even shape whole cultures, he exercises that muscle daily at Cue Ball during the day and bedtime stories to wife, Kirsten and their son, Kai in the evening.

Rajiv Kumar serves is an Entrepreneur in Residence with Cue Ball where he helps advise our firm on new opportunities and existing portfolio investments, especially in the areas of health and wellness and human capital management platforms. Cue Ball and Rajiv have a long history of working together, as Cue Ball provided the first institutional capital ShapeUp, the employee wellness company that Rajiv co-founded in 2006. ShapeUp grew from a dorm-room startup to a global business with over 800 corporate customers and millions of users. As CEO, Rajiv pioneered the use of social connection and positive peer-to-peer accountability to transform wellness in the corporate workplace.

After ShapeUp merged with Virgin Pulse in 2016, Rajiv took on the role of Chief Medical Officer and President of the Virgin Pulse Institute, providing cutting-edge research on employee health,
well-being, and engagement. Rajiv is active in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, serving as an investor and advisor to start-ups. He mentors students at Brown University, where he holds both an undergraduate degree in business economics and an MD.

Shantell Martin is an Adviser and Artist in Residence at Cue Ball. As part of Cue Ball’s human capital philosophy to promote multi-disciplinary thinking toward forward-thinking solutions, Shantell lends her creativity, vision, and a unique world view to our perspective.

Shantell grew up in London and started developing her artistic style from an early age; she also experimented with performance art while living in Japan. She has had numerous exhibitions and solo shows, including a recent and highly acclaimed collaboration with the New York City Ballet. Shantell is an adjunct professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a fellow at the Brown Institute for Media Innovation at Columbia University. She graduated from Camberwall College of Art and Design and Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design.

Amy Benziger is an Adviser to Cue Ball.  Amy supports Cue Ball’s women-focused ventures across the areas of consumer goods, health and wellness, and workforce engagement. She is currently Head of Projects at Cisco Hyper Innovation Living Labs. Amy previously served as the Chief Marketing and Growth Officer of Parsley Health and the Managing Director of Lovesocial, a creative agency New York known for its award-winning social campaigns.

Amy began her career at Social Capital Markets Conference (SOCAP) and was also part of the team to bring The Hub, an incubator for social entrepreneurs with over 30 locations around the globe, to North America. She is a proud advisory board member of NPR Generation Listen and a graduate of Dartmouth College

Jon Xu is Cue Ball’s Product Officer in Residence. Jon co-founded and was the Chief Technology Officer of FutureAdvisor, a service that makes quality investment management available to everyone. FutureAdvisor was acquired by BlackRock in 2015 where Jon continued to lead Product Design and Engineering as Managing Director in the Digital Wealth Group.

Jon has been an active investor and advisor to startups and focuses his time giving back to the entrepreneurial community. He is a firm believer that technology can be the equalizing force for good in society and proudly mentors students at his alma mater MIT where he holds a degree in Computer Science.

Peter Smith is Cue Ball’s Author in Residence. A former Contributing Editor at O the Oprah Magazine, he is a journalist, novelist and writer who has been involved to date with 10 New York Times bestsellers, on subjects including business, music, sports and celebrity memoir. He has done communications for the World Economic Forum, and his non-fiction and fiction have appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times, New York Times Magazine, New York Times Sophisticated Traveler, New York, Harper’s Bazaar, Fast Company, amongst others.

As a retained resource available to the firm’s portfolio businesses, Peter believes that instead of making writing extinct, the web highlights how rare and critical it is—and works with founders to help uncover and hone the best approach, ideas, voice, sensibility, spirit and language to communicate their overall goals and purpose. A graduate of Milton Academy and Columbia University, he lives in Needham, MA.

Dick Harrington is the Chairman Emeritus and Senior Advisor at Cue Ball. As one of Cue Ball’s founding partners, he has been deeply involved in the firm’s growth and continues to advise portfolio companies. Dick is a renowned industry leader having orchestrated, as CEO, one of the most significant business transformations in history: the shift of a traditional newspaper holding company into Thomson Reuters, which created over $30 billion in value.

Dick started his career in a family business and as a CPA with Arthur Young & Co. He has received many professional honors including the “Legend in Leadership” award from Yale University and the “CEO of the Year” award from the Executive Council. Dick is a New York Times best-selling author together with Tony Tjan on their book, Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck. He is a graduate of University of Rhode Island, where he was also awarded an honorary doctorate degree.