Board
Samuel Hendel
Board MemberSamuel Hendel has 17 years of experience in the Investment Management industry and currently serves as the Portfolio Manager and President of Levin Easterly Partners, LLC the $4 billion AUM value manager, where he has been since 2009. Prior to Joining Levin Easterly, Hendel was Co-Portfolio Manager for risk arbitrage and event-driven strategies at Satellite Asset Management from 2006 to 2009. That position followed 3 years at UBS, from 2003 to 2006, where Hendel was an Associate Director, serving in both the portfolio trading and proprietary trading groups. In addition to his role at Levin Easterly, Hendel is a Co-Founder of Dataminr, the leading company for event and risk detection, which he began with two of his former Yale classmates in 2009. Dataminr’s platform offers the earliest signals of major events to corporations, financial institutions, news media, and the public sector. CNBC recognized Dataminr as one of the world’s “most disruptive technology companies,” which raised $392 million in June 2018 at a $1.6 billion valuation. In his personal capacity, Hendel is an Associate Fellow of Davenport College at Yale University in addition to being Co-Founder of Accelerate Yale, an alumni shared interest group focused on promoting entrepreneurship at Yale. Hendel has board experience serving as the Chairman of OkayMedia, which includes OkayPlayer, a music and lifestyle website founded in 1999 by Ahmir (Questlove) Thompson of the hip hop band The Roots, and OkayAfrica, the leading digital media company focused on African culture. He also serves on the board of ImpaCT, a Connecticut-based charity focused on providing support to underprivileged youth in the local community alongside his wife. Hendel received a B.A. from Yale University.
Peggy Koenig
Board MemberPeggy has over 30 years of investing in, managing and financing media, communications, information and business services companies. She is currently the Chair of Boston-based private equity firm, Abry Partners, where she was involved with starting the private equity practice in 1994 as a Partner. She served as co-CEO from 2010 to 2017, where she had principal responsibility for the firm’s investment strategy, capital formation and investment team. Koenig has originated, supervised and sold numerous companies in Abry’s targeted sectors. Areas of focus have included cable television, marketing services, logistics, business services, tech enabled services, and radio television broadcasting. Prior to joining Abry, she was the President and Founder of Koenig Management Group from 1992 to 1993. Before, Koenig, was a partner and member of the board of directors of Sillerman Communications Management Corporation from 1988 to 1992, a merchant bank making investments principally in the radio industry. She also has extensive media financing experience in industries including feature film production, cable television, and magazine publishing. She is currently the Producing Director of Black Cap Productions, where she is producing a musical inspired by the book “Lives in Limbo.” She is also a member of the National Board of the non-profit Cradles to Crayons, the Massachusetts Women’s Forum, Citi Private Bank North American Advisory Board, and the Advisory Board of the CarrCenter for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School. Koenig received a B.S. from Cornell University, an MBA from the Wharton Business School, and a fellowship in Advanced Leadership from Harvard University. She is currently a Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Cornell University, where she is Chair of the Research and Innovation Committee as well as a member of the Executive Committee of Cornell University. She is also a member of the Cornell Tech Council of Cornell’s NY Tech Campus and a member of the Board of Advisors at the Millstein Program in Technology and Humanity.
Alan Masarek
Board MemberAlan has over 25 years of experience in communications, information technology and business services companies. Most recently, he was Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Vonage (Nasdaq: VG) from November 2014 to June 30, 2020. As CEO, Mr. Masarek ushered in an era of transformation for Vonage, driving the company from its legacy focus providing VOIP-based residential home phone service into a global business cloud communications company. During his tenure, Vonage completed eight acquisitions, and market capitalization nearly quadrupled to over $2.5 billion. Mr. Masarek came to Vonage from Google, Inc., where he was Director, Chrome & Apps from June 2012 until October 2014, following the acquisition of his prior company, Quickoffice, Inc. Mr. Masarek was Co-founder and CEO of Quickoffice, Inc., one of the world’s most widely recognized mobile brands. Under his leadership, Quickoffice became one of the world’s most embedded mobile productivity software solutions, engaging more than 26 million registered users at the time of Google’s purchase. Mr. Masarek earned his M.B.A., with Distinction, from Harvard Business School and his B.B.A., Magna Cum Laude, from the University of Georgia.