Sonya Brown is a General Partner and Co-Head of Growth Equity at Norwest Venture Partners, a leading venture and growth equity firm managing over $12.5 billion in capital. With more than 20 years of investment experience spanning Bear Stearns, iXL Ventures, and Summit Partners, she joined Norwest in 2011 and has built a reputation as one of the most influential investors in consumer products, e-commerce, retail, and business services. Her portfolio includes Babylist, Madison Reed, Kendra Scott, and PCA Skin. A perennial honoree on M&A's Most Influential Women list, she is equally recognized for her work advancing diversity and inclusion in private equity.
R. David Andrews is the Founder and Co-CEO of Gryphon Investors, a San Francisco-based middle-market private equity firm he launched in 1995 with a distinctive 'Deal-Ops' model that integrated deep operational expertise into every investment long before it became industry fashion. A triple Stanford alumnus (B.A. Economics, J.D., M.B.A.), Andrews spent his early career at Salomon Brothers, Shearson Lehman Brothers, and Oak Hill Partners before charting his own course managing $10+ billion in assets across healthcare, business services, industrials, consumer products, and software - serving as chairman or director of over 50 companies along the way.