Rich Lawson
Chairman of the Board
Chairman of the Board
Rich Lawson is the Chairman of Pathfinder Acquisition Corp. He is Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of HGGC, where he has been involved in all phases of the firm’s development since its formation and directs the firm’s strategy and investment decisions, governance and investor relations. Since HGGC’s inception, Rich has overseen hundreds of completed transactions representing tens of billions of dollars in aggregate transaction value. Prior to leading HGGC, Rich established predecessor private equity funds Huntsman Gay Capital Partners in 2007 with industrialist Jon M. Huntsman and Robert C. Gay, as well as Sorenson Capital in 2002 with medical products pioneer James LeVoy Sorenson. Rich also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of enterprise software company Found, Inc. and worked at Morgan Stanley in its mergers and acquisitions department. Rich received his MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Amherst College.
David Chung
CEO & Director
CEO & Director
David Chung is the Chief Executive Officer of Pathfinder Acquisition Corp and a member of its Board of Directors. He is an Executive Director of HGGC where he has led the extension of HGGC’s core middle-market private equity strategy to include public/private crossover strategies such as take-private transactions, PIPEs and toehold investments in publicly traded companies. He has over 25 years of experience as a private equity, public equity and crossover public/private investor and dealmaker, through which he has developed a distinctive wide-angle experience set and expertise as an engaged financial sponsor and partnership-oriented investor across the public-private spectrum. He has led or actively participated in a large number of transactions and investments involving private and public companies at different stages of growth across a wide range of industries, including Technology, Software, Technology-enabled Products and Services, Business Services and Consumer. Prior to joining HGGC in December 2016, David was an independent crossover private equity and public market investor through Arrowhead Holdings LLC, a Partner at Blum Capital Partners (a hybrid private equity and public equity investment firm), Managing Member of Perspective Value Partners (startup public/private hybrid investment firm), a Partner at Standard Pacific Capital (a global long/short hedge fund), and a Director at KKR (a global private equity firm). Earlier in his career, he was a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company and an investment banker at Hambrecht & Quist Inc., which specialized in IPOs, follow-on offerings and M&A transactions for emerging growth Technology and Healthcare companies. David is a graduate of Harvard College, where he graduated magna cum laude, and Harvard Business School, where he graduated with high distinction as a Baker Scholar.
Lindsay Sharma
CIO & Director
CIO & Director
Lindsay Sharma is the Chief Investment Officer of Pathfinder Acquisition Corp and a member of its Board of Directors. She is a Managing Director of Industry Ventures, where she leads the Industry Ventures Tech Buyout strategy and concentrates on originating, valuing and managing primary fund commitments and direct co-investment opportunities for the Industry Ventures Tech Buyout Fund. She serves on the investment committee for the Industry Ventures Tech Buyout Fund and is actively involved in helping to enable successful exit scenarios in older venture-funded technology companies. Lindsay also brings four years of experience as part of the Industry Ventures secondary team, purchasing secondary direct investments and limited partner interests, and assists in valuing companies. Prior to joining Industry Ventures, Lindsay was a Principal in corporate strategy and development at Intuit, leading merger and acquisition activities for the company. Earlier in her career, Lindsay was an investment professional at Great Hill Partners, a tech focused private equity firm and started her career as an investment banker at Bear Stearns in New York as a member of the Technology, Media and Telecom team. Lindsay received her MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in business administration in finance and accounting from Indiana University, graduating with distinction.
CIO & Director
Lindsay Sharma, Chief Investment Officer and Director Nominee, is a Managing Director of Industry Ventures, where she leads the Industry Ventures Tech Buyout strategy and concentrates on originating, valuing and managing primary fund commitments and direct co-investment opportunities for the Industry Ventures Tech Buyout Fund. She serves on the investment committee for the Industry Ventures Tech Buyout Fund and is actively involved in helping to enable successful exit scenarios in older venture-funded technology companies. Ms. Sharma also brings four years of experience as part of the Industry Ventures secondary team, purchasing secondary direct investments and limited partner interests, and assists in valuing companies. Prior to joining Industry Ventures, Ms. Sharma was a Principal in corporate strategy and development at Intuit, leading merger and acquisition activities for the company. Earlier in her career, Ms. Sharma was an investment professional at Great Hill Partners, a tech focused private equity firm and started her career as an investment banker at Bear Stearns in New York as a member of the Technology, Media and Telecom team. Ms. Sharma received her MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in business administration in finance and accounting from Indiana University, graduating with distinction.
Lance Taylor
CFO
CFO
Lance Taylor is the Chief Financial Officer of Pathfinder Acquisition Corp. He is a Partner and Chief Financial Officer of HGGC, where he leads the firm’s finance and accounting operations. Prior to joining HGGC, Lance was Managing Director, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer at Calera Capital, a middle-market private equity firm with offices in San Francisco and Boston. At Calera, Lance oversaw the operations of the firm including investor relations, financial reporting, human resources and facilities. Prior to Calera, he was Chief Financial Officer of Legacy Venture, a venture focused philanthropic fund-of-funds with over $1 billion of assets under management. Lance also worked at Lightspeed Venture Partners as their Director of Finance from 2000 to 2004. He was a Senior Audit Manager at Ernst & Young and began his career in the audit practice of Arthur Andersen in San Jose. Lance earned an MBA from Duke University and a Master of Accountancy and B.S. in Accounting from Brigham Young University.
CFO
Lance Taylor, Chief Financial Officer, is a Partner and Chief Financial Officer of HGGC, where he leads the firm’s finance and accounting operations. Prior to joining HGGC, Mr. Taylor was Managing Director, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer at Calera Capital, a middle-market private equity firm with offices in San Francisco and Boston. At Calera, Mr. Taylor oversaw the operations of the firm including investor relations, financial reporting, human resources and facilities. Prior to Calera, he was Chief Financial Officer of Legacy Venture, a venture focused philanthropic fund-of-funds with over $1 billion of assets under management. Mr. Taylor also worked at Lightspeed Venture Partners as their Director of Finance from 2000 to 2004. He was a Senior Audit Manager at Ernst & Young and began his career in the audit practice of Arthur Andersen in San Jose. Mr. Taylor earned an MBA from Duke University and a Master of Accountancy and B.S. in Accounting from Brigham Young University.
Steve Young
Director
Director
Steve Young is a Director of Pathfinder Acquisition Corp. He is the President and Co-Founder of HGGC, where he leads and manages the business and co-heads the Investment Committee together with Rich Lawson. Steve serves as Chairman of the Board of four HGGC portfolio companies: Idera, Inc., Integrity Marketing Group, Dealer-FX and AutoAlert. Prior to their sales, he also served as a member of the Board of Directors for the firm’s exited investments in hybris Software (acquired by SAP AG (NYSE: SAP)), Serena Software (acquired by Micro Focus International plc (NYSE: MFGP)) and Sunquest Information Systems (acquired by Roper Technologies (NYSE: ROP)). Prior to the inception of HGGC, Steve’s professional football career spanned more than fifteen years in the National Football League (the “NFL”), primarily with the San Francisco 49ers, where he received numerous accolades, including Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XXIX, Sports Illustrated and Sporting News' Player of the Year from 1992 to 1994 and the NFL's Most Valuable Player for 1992 and 1994. In 2005, Steve was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Steve founded and chairs the Forever Young Foundation, which is actively involved in children's charities worldwide. Steve earned a JD from the J. Reuben Clark Law School and a BS in Finance and Political Science from Brigham Young University.
Hans Swildens
Director
Director
Hans Swildens is a Director of Pathfinder Acquisition Corp. He is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Industry Ventures, where he leads and manages the overall business. As an early pioneer of the modern secondary market for venture capital, Hans created new ways to get liquidity for venture capital investments prior to an IPO or M&A event. Additionally, he was early to support the development of a new class of venture capital partnerships focused on seed and early stage investing during the last decade. He directs the firm’s investment processes, operations and limited partner relationships. Earlier in his career, Hans was a successful entrepreneur who co-founded and acted as President of Microline Software, which was acquired by Blaze Software (IPO) and was subsequently acquired by Fair Isaac. He also helped start Speedera Networks (acquired by Akamai) and provided board advisory services to Discovery Mining (acquired by Interwoven), nCircle Network Security (acquired by Tripwire), and StepUp Commerce (acquired by Intuit). Hans also helped finance Lowercase Capital. Hans holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA with distinction from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Steven Walske
Director
Director
Steven Walske is a Director of Pathfinder Acquisition Corp. He led Parametric Technology Corporation (NASDAQ: PTC) as its CEO from 1986 to 2000. Steven guided PTC from its start-up phase through its initial public offering to its position as the market leader in mechanical design automation software. Through Myriad Investments, LLC, he has advised private companies (several of which have gone public) such as Medallia (NYSE: MDLA), Endeca Technologies, Platfora, BladeLogic (NASDAQ: BLOG), Synopsys (NASDAQ: SNPS) and ClearCare on growth and go-to-market strategies as a value-added Board member. Steven has extensive relationships in the venture capital and growth equity communities as well as with executives in the technology arena. Steven holds a BA in Economics from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Omar Johnson
Director
Director
Omar Johnson is a Director of Pathfinder Acquisition Corp. He is a marketing innovator in the art of building world class brands. As former CMO of Beats by Dre and VP of Marketing at Apple, throughout his career, Omar has led all facets of marketing, ranging from brand development and positioning, to advertising and global digital marketing. Under Omar’s tenure, Beats grew from $20 million to a $2.0 billion dollar category leader, becoming the #1 premium headphone in over 25 countries, which led to the subsequent purchase by Apple for $3 billion in 2014. Adweek named Omar a “Brand Genius,” and Business Insider named him one of the “Most Innovative CMOs” in 2016. Additionally, Omar has worked on hundreds of winning marketing campaigns while at international brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, and Campbell Soup. Since Apple, Omar has founded ØPUS United, a modern brand management company comprised of a multi-disciplined collective of award-winning executives, athletes, strategists, creatives, and musicians, who understand the anatomy of world-class brands. Through his work with ØPUS United, Omar has also been actively involved in developing initiatives, such as We The People and We Got Next, and authored Dear White Corporate America to encourage conversations around racial equity and the empowerment of younger generations to take action through polling, voting, and representation within the government. Omar received a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from Georgia State University and an MBA from Emory University.
Paul Weiskopf
Director
Director
Paul Weiskopf is a Director of Pathfinder Acquisition Corp. He has extensive experience leading strategic transformation initiatives for global businesses, including leading Strategy & Corporate Development at Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) from 2005-2012, Hewlett Packard (NYSE) from 2000-2005, and Corporate Development at Domo (NASDAQ: DOMO) from 2014-2019. As an independent board member and strategic business advisor, he has advised private companies, such as Selligent, Monotype and Power Factors, and public companies, such as Synplicity, on strategy, alliances, successful M&A execution, SaaS models and operational improvement initiatives. Paul has extensive relationships in the software and technology arena. Paul holds a BA in Political Economy from U.C. Berkeley and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley.
