FAQS

Peter Clarke joined Accel in 2013 and leads Accel’s talent efforts where he’s focused on building high-value relationships across our network of amazing people and helping our entrepreneurs build high-performance teams.

Prior to Accel, Peter was VP of Executive Talent at Greylock. He joined Greylock from True, a boutique retained executive search firm, where he was a founding partner.

Before shifting into the world of entrepreneurs and executive talent, he was a software architect for Boeing, and one of the last projects he worked on was the comprehensive services system that would support Boeing's newest airplane.

Peter is a native Californian who also spent a good chunk of his life on the East coast. He graduated from SUNY Brockport with a degree in Computer Science, and he holds a Master’s in Software Development from CMU.

Tosh Ernest is Head of Access to Innovation, SVB’s signature initiative to advance women, Black and Latinx individuals to positions of influence in the innovation economy. SVB’s Access to Innovation program works to address the innovation sector’s biggest diversity opportunities by unlocking greater access to capital, professional relationships and career opportunities for women, Black and Latinx individuals. In this role, Ernest leads the expansion of SVB’s Access to Innovation program in broadening opportunities across SVB’s core businesses: Silicon Valley Bank, SVB Capital, SVB Private and SVB Securities.

Ernest joins SVB after more than 10 years with JPMorgan Chase & Co., where she founded the wealth division of Advancing Black Pathways, a global initiative focused on bridging the racial wealth gap. In this role, Ernest’s team drove JPMorgan’s multibillion dollar commitment to racial equity, serving as a strategic advisor to senior management and community leaders on issues of economic opportunity for underserved communities.

Prior to leading the Wealth division of Advancing Black Pathways, Ernest led large-scale change management and transformation initiatives for JPMorgan in asset and wealth management, and investment banking. Before JPMorgan, she held roles at consulting firms Navigant, Capco and Accenture, specializing in post- merger and acquisition systems integration. Ernest graduated from the University of Reading in England with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and management.

Julius Winfield Erving, internationally recognized as Dr. J, was the dominant basketball player of his era, and a true innovator who revolutionized the way the game was played. Widely heralded as one of the all- time greats, he is often considered to have been the catalyst for the ABA-NBA merger in 1976. Erving’s strong leadership skills led his teams to championships in both leagues while his authentically thrilling high-flying style on the court captivated millions of fans from all over the world along the way. A gracious, dignified and disciplined man, Erving was an ideal ambassador of the sport. He was the epitome of class and humility, and no one was more respected both on and off the court. This is the essence of who is and what he still brings to any role he serves in.

Currently serving as Founder/Managing Member of Erving Global Opportunity LLC, Julius brings to the table close to 40 years of experience as a Hall of Fame player, executive and entrepreneur. Erving Global Opportunity (EGO) is engaged in managing the ownership, business development, commercial utilization, merchandising, television, film, social media and philanthropic involvement of the Julius “Dr. J“ Erving brand. Dating back to 1979, Mr. Erving’s business affiliations have generated close to 2.5 billion dollars in revenues and brand value for partners and other high profile clientele.

The overarching business model consists of leveraging the name, likeness and intellectual
property of Mr. Erving primarily through endorsements, personal appearances, strategic partnerships, equity participation and worldwide licensing programs.

Erving holds a degree in Business Management from The University of Massachusetts, as well as Honorary degrees from Temple University and Philadelphia University. He has served on various Boards of Directors including; Converse (6 years), Darden Group, (8 years) Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (3 years), Meridian Bank (5 years), Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Commission (3 years), Saks Fifth Avenue (8 years), The Sports Authority (8 years), The University of Massachusetts (2 years), Widener University (1 year) and Williams Communications (4 years). 

Erving played professionally for 16 years, having scored 30,026 points in his combined ABA and NBA career, and left as the third highest scorer in professional basketball at the time behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain. Erving scored more than 22.0 points per game in his 11 NBA Seasons with Philadelphia and 28.7 points per game in his 5 ABA seasons with Virginia and New York. In 1993, Erving was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and was also named to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-time team. In 1994, Erving was named by Sports Illustrated as one of the 40 most important athletes of all time. In 2017, GQ Magazine selected him as part of the 50 Greatest Living Athletes, a true testament to his staying power of remaining generationally relevant some 30 years after his playing career ended.

Marty Flanagan is President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Invesco, a position he has held since August 2005. He is also a member of the Invesco Ltd. Board of Directors and serves as trustee and Vice Chair of the Invesco Funds.

Mr. Flanagan joined Invesco from Franklin Resources, Inc., where he was president and co-chief executive officer from 2004 to 2005. Previously, he held numerous positions of increasing responsibility at Franklin – co-president, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and senior vice president – from 1993 to 2003. Mr. Flanagan served as director, executive vice president, and chief operating officer of Templeton, Galbraith & Hansberger, Ltd. before its acquisition by Franklin in 1992. Before joining Templeton in 1983, he worked with Arthur Andersen & Co.

Mr. Flanagan serves as a trustee of Southern Methodist University (SMU) and as a member of the executive board at the SMU Cox School of Business. He is a member of the International Advisory Council of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. He serves as chair of Engage, an innovation platform bringing together Atlanta-based corporations to support startups. Mr. Flanagan sits on the executive council for the Metro Atlanta Chamber and served as the 2020 MAC chair. He serves as a board member of the Atlanta Committee for Progress and is a former ACP chair. He formerly served as chair, vice chair on the executive committee, and on the board of governors for the Investment Company Institute. Mr. Flanagan is a Chartered Financial Analyst®️ (CFA) charterholder and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He earned BA and BBA degrees from Southern Methodist University (SMU).

Jeff Immelt joined NEA in 2018 as a Venture Partner working with innovative, growth companies in healthcare, industrial automation, clean tech and IoT. His primary focus is to help founders grow and win. He is the author of HOT SEAT, a memoir of leadership in times of crisis, and teaches a course on leading through disruption at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Jeff served as chairman and CEO of GE for 16 years where he revamped the company’s strategy, global footprint, workforce and culture. During his tenure, he led several innovative transformations that doubled industrial earnings, reshaped the portfolio, re-established market leadership, grew a strong share position in essential industries, and quadrupled emerging market revenue.

Jeff has been named one of the “World’s Best CEOs” three times by Barron’s. During his tenure as CEO, GE was named “America’s Most Admired Company” by Fortune magazine and one of “The World’s Most Respected Companies” in polls by Barron’s and the Financial Times. He has received fifteen honorary degrees and numerous awards for business leadership and chaired the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness under the Obama administration.

Jeff earned a B.A. degree in applied mathematics from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from Harvard University. He currently serves on the board for NEA portfolio companies: Collective Health, Radiology Partners, Tri Alpha Energy, and Transfix. In addition, he is on the public boards of Bloom Energy, Desktop Metal, Bright Health, Hennessy Capital V, and Twilio. He is also on the private board of Sila Nanotechnologies. Jeff is a member of The American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He and his wife have one daughter.

Vanessa Larco joined NEA as a Partner in 2016 and focuses on Enterprise SaaS and Consumer Services investing. She is passionate about technology, services and products that enable people to be more productive and efficient at work and at home. Vanessa has led investments in EvidentID, Cleo, Greenlight Card, Feather, and Lily AI. She is also a board observer at Robinhood and OmniSci.

Prior to joining NEA, she was the Director of Product Management at Box (NYSE: BOX) where she worked on building the next generation of productivity apps across web and mobile. Her passion for design and analytics stems from her experience in the gaming industry, which includes leading the Speech Recognition Experience team at Xbox Kinect v1, and building a top grossing gaming studio at Disney Social.

Vanessa holds a BS in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dennis Lockhart is the former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In that capacity he served on the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee. His tenure spanned the financial crisis, the Great Recession, and several years of recovery. He retired in 2017. He is currently a distinguished professor-of-the-practice in the Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech. He also sits on several for-profit and non-profit boards. His earlier career comprised international and domestic banking, private equity investment, and teaching at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins.

Mandy is the Chief Executive Officer of BLCK VC, a 501(c)(3)n organization that equips Black investors with access, education, and community to accelerate their careers in venture capital. Mandy is also an entrepreneur, advisor, Board member, investor, and author. Before joining BLCK VC, Mandy Bynum served as CEO of Camp Equity, a nonprofit organization bringing together students of all backgrounds to learn and talk about social justice. She also consulted various tech companies implementing global Equity and Inclusion strategies. Before transitioning to CEO, Mandy spent over 12 years building sales teams for companies like Yelp, SurveyMonkey, and New Relic and experienced two large IPOs in the process.

Colin Meadows is a Managing Partner and co-founder of o15 Capital Partners, a minority-owned alternatives investment firm with a mission to provide growth capital to companies led by and serving underrepresented entrepreneurs and communities. Prior to o15, Colin was a Senior Managing Director with Invesco where he led several global businesses and functions including Head of Invesco Private Markets, Head of Invesco Global Institutional, Head of Invesco Digital Ventures, and Chief Administrative Officer. Colin also served as a director on the boards of Invesco Mortgage Capital (NYSE: IVR), Invesco’s publicly traded agency REIT, and Invesco Van Kampen closed-end funds.

Colin earned a BA degree in Economics and English Literature from Andrews University, and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

Colin resides in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Zora and youngest son Hamilton. When he’s not spending time with his family or helping grow o15 Capital Partners, you’ll find him cheering on his favorite football teams the Las Vegas Raiders and University of Miami Hurricanes.

Phyllis Newhouse is a serial entrepreneur and investor, retired military senior officer and mentor. She is CEO and Founder of ShoulderUp Technology Acquisition Corp, Founder and CEO of Xtreme Solutions, Inc. (XSI), CEO of Athena Technology Acquisition Corp. and Founder of ShoulderUp, a 501c3.

In 2021, she founded ShoulderUp Technology Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) led by industry veterans seeking to merge with businesses in the technology and cybersecurity space.

In 2020, she also co-founded Athena Technology Acquisition Corp. Athena closed a $250 million IPO in March 2021, making it the only SPAC listed on the NYSE with an African American female CEO. The company announced in July 2021 it was taking concentrated solar power company, Heliogen, public in a $2 billion merger. 

Newhouse is also the Founder of ShoulderUp, a nonprofit she founded alongside Academy Award-winning actress Viola Davis. Dedicated to connecting and supporting women on their entrepreneurial journeys. 

As a pioneer in cybersecurity and business, she is the first woman to win an Ernst & Young (EY) Entrepreneur Of The Year® award in the technology category. She was admitted into the 2013 class of EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women, and in 2019 was inducted into the Enterprising Women Hall of fame.Additionally, XSI received inclusion in the Inc. 5000 list in 2013 and 2014, and has been recognized as one of Women’s Presidents’ Organization’s (WPO) 50 Fastest Growing Women-Owned Companies in the U.S. consecutively for the past seven years.

Passionate about women-led businesses, Newhouse teaches aspiring entrepreneurs to recognize and capitalize on their leadership skills and empowers others to operate in greatness. She has been featured in Today, Entrepreneur, Inc., CNBC, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar News, Bloomberg and more. She received her degree from John F. Kennedy University and currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information, please visit phyllisnewhouse.com.

While Nicole joined Lightspeed in early 2019 to help lead the firm’s executive talent function, she’s been working closely with the Lightspeed team and portfolio for many years—from helping build transformational teams at enterprise companies like AppDynamics and Aerohive to consumer companies such as Rothy’s and Haus Beauty, to name a few.

Before Lightspeed, Nicole spent nearly a decade at executive search firm, SPMB, where she founded the firm’s dedicated consumer practice. It was an exciting opportunity given SPMB’s legacy of building the best enterprise organizations in the world, and a natural challenge for Nicole as she spent the first half of her career working for Korn Ferry International’s Consumer Digital practice. Lyft, Rent The Runway, Coinbase, Capital One, Instacart, Walker & Co., Yelp, Nerdwallet, and Oculus are just a few of the companies she’s successfully served throughout the years.

Nicole was a Regent’s Award Scholarship recipient at Seattle University where she received her bachelor’s degree in International Business and studied abroad at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. Born in Brazil and a citizen of the United States, Brazil, and Portugal, Nicole has a deep appreciation and love for different cultures and spends most of her free time riding bikes or building train tracks and "LEGO everything" with her husband and two young children in Marin.

Bill Nussey is a partner with the Engage and Tech Square Venture firms. He has spent most of his career as a tech CEO, helping lead several startups to successful exits including one IPO. He also worked at Greylock as a venture capitalist. After selling his marketing tech company Silverpop to IBM, he was promoted to VP Corp Strategy to help lead IBM’s global strategy for their CEO and SVPs.

Bill’s passion for climate technologies started with a TED talk which grew into the 1 podcast on renewable energy and most recently, a new book called Freeing Energy, which was the 1 new release in energy on Amazon. Bill has a degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University and MBA from Harvard Business School.

Sophie Purdom invests in and supports early-stage climate technology founders and their companies. She is the Founder and General Partner of Planeteer Capital. She also writes Climate Tech VC, a newsletter with 30,000+ subscribers on climate and innovation. Prior, Sophie practiced sustainable business; first from the perspective of state and global policy, then at a major endowment, followed by a few years decking at Bain & Co., published a book on Sustainable Investing along the way, and founded an agricultural technology venture which has raised +$65m.

Rami Reyes is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at NextEquity Partners, a mid-stage venture firm founded by executives from Apple and Elevation Partners. Rami co-leads all investments at the firm, where he’s invested in leading companies, like SentinelOne, Masterclass, Ring, Bridg, and Arctic Wolf.

Previously, Rami was a principal at Elevation Partners, a Silicon Valley venture capital and private equity firm, where he worked on investments in leading companies, like Facebook, Marketshare, Sonos, and Airbnb.

Rami graduated with a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received the Dean's Award for Excellence, the school's top graduation award.

In his spare time, Rami is very involved in giving back and co-founded LatinxVC, a non profit focused on getting more Latinos into venture, and the Leadership Council for the SEO Scholars San Francisco Scholars Program, which helps talented lower income San Francisco high school students get into and through college.

Katie Roof is a reporter at Bloomberg News where she writes about tech and venture deals and appears on TV. Previously, she covered venture capital for the Wall Street Journal. Before that, she was at TechCrunch.

Jon Shieber is the chief editor and a venture partner at FootPrint Coalition Robert Downey Jr.'s initiative focused on accelerating solutions for climate change mitigation, adaptation and planetary restoration. For the last 15 years, he's covered climate tech investment for Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch from Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, and Shanghai.

Gabby’s an HR leader passionate about creating great work environments, scaling culture and finding, growing, and keeping talented people. Many of Gabby’s philosophies were shaped by her time at Google, where she focused on building a culture of openness, autonomy, and transparency. She's used that experience to help organizations big and small build thriving cultures. Currently, Gabby is the Chief People Office for FullStory, where she has led its growth from 50 to 600+ employees.

Gabby has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business. She lives in Atlanta with her husband Morris and sons Lev (7) and Aiden (4). A native NYer, she's on the quest for the best bagel in the ATL.

Melissa works closely with founders and CEOs to build, develop, and retain best-in-class executive teams and boards. She designed the CEO leadership program, Invictus, to foster a community of NEA leaders who support one another and propagate best practices across the portfolio. Melissa brings broad operating experience from the technology and healthcare sectors, along with a passion for building relationships, to cultivate leaders who will build life-changing companies with global reach.

Melissa began her career in technology at Qualcomm (supply chain management), Hewlett Packard (global contract manufacturing strategy) and Netopia (strategic technology alliances). She then transitioned to healthcare as President of Drip Drop, Inc., building an oral-rehydration product and realizing her passion for improving human health through creative technology solutions. She joined Khosla Ventures as an Operating Partner before joining NEA as a Partner in 2015.

Melissa grew up in South Africa before coming to the United States to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of San Diego, where she earned her MBA. South Africa provided her with her guiding philosophy, Ubuntu, which recognizes that we are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye and that we rise by lifting others.