Our strategic advisors are all distinguished economics majors and graduates of Pomona College. The company they represent is shown after their name in parentheses.

Alan L. Boyce '84 (Bear Stearns)
Senior Managing Director, Investment Strategies
Countrywide Bank
Calabasas, California
Alan Boyce is Senior Managing Director of Investment Strategies for Countrywide Bank, FSB, one of the largest national banks in America, and a member of the Countrywide Financial Corporation family of companies. Boyce is responsible for management and leadership of the bank's investment and funding strategies that produce the highest risk-adjusted returns and the lowest cost of funds. He also oversees securities and loan purchase activities, trades and strategies, as well as investment portfolio performance. He joined Countrywide in March 2007.

Prior to joining Countrywide, Boyce served as Director of Special Situations at Soros Fund Management LLC. During his tenure with Soros, he managed a portfolio of assets of the Quantum Funds and had principal operational responsibilities for the bulk of Soros' investments in Latin America. Boyce coordinated the establishment of Glacier Re, a Swiss Domicile reinsurance company in 2004. Boyce also served as chief executive officer of Absalon, a joint venture between Soros and the Danish financial system, which assisted in the organization of a standardized mortgage-backed securities market for Mexico. Before joining Soros Fund Management, Boyce served as Managing Director, in charge of Fixed Income Arbitrage with Bankers Trust for 14 years. Prior to that, he worked for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C.

Boyce holds an MBA degree from Stanford University and a B.A. in Economics from Pomona College.

David Cho '00 (Callaway Golf)
Team Leader
Bain and Company
New York City
David Cho is Case Team Leader at Bain and Company out of its office in New York City. After graduating from Pomona, he joined Bain as an Associate Consultant. In addition to his current assignment, David has spent time in the Los Angeles, Singapore and Hong Kong offices of Bain and Company. David has worked across a number of different industries, including consumer packaged goods, shipping/logistics, semiconductors, PCs, telecommunications, IT services, and large-scale ship repair and manufacturing. David is currently leading teams working in the health insurance and reinsurances spaces. David received his B.A. in Mathematical Economics from Pomona College and his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

Kent Fisher '87 (JetBlue)
Vice President, Market Analysis
Boeing Aircraft
Redmond, Washington
Kent Fisher is a Vice President at Boeing where he has responsibility for the firm's understanding of the future of commercial aviation - where demand for commercial aircraft and services will come from, what business models, trends and political factors will be most important, and ultimately where and how passengers and freight of the future will want to move. His team's analyses serve as the basis for forming of Boeing strategy, product decisions, marketing communication, and sales tactics. He took this position in June 2002. Prior to this, Kent directed the programs of Boeing's Air Traffic Management unit, with broad responsibility for leading the company's efforts in developing effective, affordable solutions to increase global air traffic capacity. Kent previously served as director, Commercial Airplane Group Sales where he managed several high-visibility accounts, including American Airlines, Atlas Air, WestJet and Midway Airlines.  From 1996 to 1998, he was responsible for assisting Commercial Airplanes customers with their financing needs as a director in Customer Financing. Before joining Boeing, Kent held various positions at Price Waterhouse in its litigation and bankruptcy-consulting group in Los Angeles and Seattle. Kent has a bachelor's degree in economics from Pomona College and a master's degree in business administration from UCLA. 

Tim Forest '95 (Amgen)
Director, Schwab Institutional
Charles Schwab & Company
San Francisco, California
 Following graduation from Pomona in economics, Tim worked at McKinsey & Company as a Business Analyst in their Los Angeles office. He then earned his MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and returned to McKinsey in San Francisco for two more years as an Associate. While at McKinsey, Tim worked on strategy projects in the sectors of financial services, technology, healthcare, and not-for-profit. Since 2001, Tim has been in strategy roles with Charles Schwab & Company, managing projects forwarding the retail brokerage business, and currently the Schwab Institutional business. As a personal interest, Tim recently co-founded Bruce Cass Wine Lab, a wine school offering evening classes in the San Francisco Bay Area (www.brucecasswinelab.com).

Peter Harding '07 (Research in Motion)
Associate
Technology Crossover Ventures
Menlo Park, California
Peter Harding is an Associate at Technology Crossover Venture, a leading provider of growth capital to technology companies, providing funds to expansion, late-stage private, and public companies throughout North America. Founded in 1995, with $3.3 billion under management, the firm is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Before going to Stanford business School for his M.B.A., Peter worked at DCM focused on enterprise applications and wireless software companies. DCM is an early stage venture capital firm that invests in the communications, networking, wireless, software and storage systems sectors. Prior to joining DCM, Peter worked as an Associate for Epoch Partners which was sold to Goldman, Sachs in 2001. Before Epoch, Peter was with Merrill Lynch in London as an investment banking analyst in the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals group. He began his career with the Merrill Lynch in Los Angeles working with technology and healthcare companies on both M&A and convertible financing transactions. He majored in economics at Pomona College and graduated in the class of 1997.

Philip B. Hathaway '00 (Mattel)
Business Development Manager
Microsoft Corporation
Seattle, Washington
After graduating from Pomona in 2000 with a major in economics, Phil worked as an investment banker in Los Angeles for Barrington & Associates for four years focused exclusively on M & A. In 2004 he left banking for business school and received his M.B.A. in 2006 from the Kellogg School of Management. He began working at Microsoft in August 2006 as a Business Development Manager, splitting his time equally between M & A and strategy/business planning for the Microsoft Office division.

Susan V. Helfrey '92 (Tiffany)
Director of Finance
PayCycle, Inc.
Palo Alto, CA
Susan V. Helfrey is Director of Finance at PayCycle, Inc. in Palo Alto, California. PayCycle is a leading provider of web-based payroll services for small businesses. PayCycle started in 1999 with the vision of using the Internet to provide an easy and low cost way for small businesses employers to handle their payroll. At PayCycle, Susie is responsible for all finance functions: planning, analysis, cash management, and accounting. Prior to joining PayCycle in 2002, Susie worked as VP Operations for NextMonet, a direct marketer of fine art, where she was in charge of all customer service and framing operations.  Before NextMonet, she worked with IBM in supply-chain logistics and finance. Prior to IBM, she worked in the treasury department of Exxon Corporation and in economic research for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.  Susie graduated from Pomona College in 1992 with a concentration in economics and she holds an MBA from Stanford University. 

Kristin Fix Horne '93 (Circuit City)
Principal
TPG Capital
San Francisco, CA
Kristin Fix Horne '93, is a Principal in the fundraising group at TPG Capital, a global private equity firm with over $30 billion under management. After graduating from Pomona with a double major in economics and mathematics, Kristin was a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton, where she focused on business strategy and operations for marketing-intensive industries. She spent half a year in marketing at Intuit before attending Stanford Business School for her MBA. After Stanford, she spent ten years in San Francisco at Morgan Stanley where she became vice president and managing director of the investment banking division. She was responsible for covering private equity clients on the west coast. Kristin's projects involved sourcing and financing new acquisitions as well as working with portfolio companies on equity and debt financings and mergers and acquisitions advice. Currently, at TPG Capital, she leads fundraising for the firm's large-cap buyout fund as well as other funds the firm manages. TPG Capital is a private equity investment firm with  offices in Fort Worth, San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tokyo, Melbourne and New York City.

Dragan Manoev '99 (Applied Microcircuits)
Associate
Lazard Freres & Co. LLC
San Francisco, California
A native of Bulgaria, Dragan has worked in investment banking since his graduation from Pomona College. While at Lazard, he has participated in a number of mergers & acquisitions and restructuring assignments for clients including Microsoft, SBC Communications and others. Dragan currently focuses on the enterprise software, IT services, telecommunications/ broadband sectors, and has also completed transactions in networking equipment (including the sale of VPN technology vendor Compatible Systems to Cisco).
 
Erik Nierenberg '97 (Starbucks)
Salesforce.com
San Francisco, California
In 2008 Erik joined Salesforce.com, the worldwide leader in on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) services. Prior to that he was a portfolio associate for Enterprise Partners Venture Capital in La Jolla. Earlier he worked as a product manager at Netscape Communications, a web division of AOL Time Warner. Prior to Netscape, he was a consultant for Bain and Company in their Los Angeles and San Francisco offices. While at Bain, Erik advised clients primarily in the technology (broadband and software) and retail sectors, with a large focus on growth strategy and customer loyalty. Erik also worked in Bain's Private Equity Group doing M&A and due diligence in the technology sector. In addition, Erik was one of the first employees at The Bridgespan Group, which has now grown to 60 employees with offices in Boston and San Francisco. He graduated with a B.A. in economics from Pomona College and  completed his MBA at Stanford University in 2003.

Jeffrey Parks '02
Cofounder
Riverwood Capital
Jeff Parks co-founded Riverwood Capital (formerly known as Bigwood Capital) with Michael Marks and Nic Brathwaite in 2007. Riverwood is a growth equity firm focused on international opportunities in the middle market. Today, Riverwood has approximately $200mm of capital under management, and is led by four partners with a total of over 80 years of relevant experience. Prior to Riverwood, Jeff was an investment executive at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co ("KKR"), where he focused on a variety of private equity investments in the technology sector. While at KKR, Jeff was involved in many of the largest technology buyouts ever completed, including SunGard Data Systems, Avago Technologies (formerly Agilent Semiconductor Products Group) and NXP (formerly Philips Semiconductor). Prior to joining KKR, Jeff was an investment professional in the Principal Opportunities Fund at Oaktree Capital Management, where he focused on private equity opportunities in distressed companies. While at Oaktree, Jeff helped oversee the successful restructuring a technology services business, moving operations offshore and rationalizing product lines. Previously, Jeff was with UBS Investment Bank in Los Angeles, where he was involved in a variety of mergers & acquisitions, as well as financing transactions across several industries. Jeff received his dual B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Pomona College. He was a member of Carnegie Consulting, the very first of the Pomona College senior seminars in corporate strategy. He headed up the project on Ford Motors.

Matt Thompson '96 (Viacom)
Director of Sony TV International Business Development
Sony Pictures
Culver City, California
Matt performs global strategic planning, business development and M&A analysis for television and new media platforms .before Sony, Matt was a Senior associate at Alvarez and Marsal, a turnaround consulting firm, where advised troubled healthcare and technology companies with financial and operational restructuring. Prior to A and M, Matt was Manager in the Telecom Corporate Finance practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Matt was also Manager of strategic planning at Flashcom, a startup broadband company, where he worked on business development and corporate finance Matt is a graduate of Pomona college, where completed double majors in economics and biology. Matt has an MVAS from Stanford Business School and is a CFA Level III candidate.