Principal
Eric Munson co-founded Adit Ventures in 2014 at the request of family offices seeking to obtain shares in select venture-backed growth companies.
His 35 years of experience include work in alternative asset management, corporate finance, mutual funds, and private equity and venture capital. He has developed and managed 18 different funds while raising assets in excess of $20 billion.
Throughout his career, Eric has served on the executive, investment, and/or management committees at such reputable firms as Hambrecht & Quist, Morgan Stanley, Franklin/Templeton, Seneca, Wentworth Hauser & Violich, and Acorn Partners. He has invested as a principal in over 30 privately held companies, working on over 250 initial public offerings and hundreds of other deals since 1982.
Chief Operating Officer
Eric S. Lazear is the Chief Operating Officer of Adit Ventures and a member of the Executive Management Committee, as well as a member of Adit’s Valuation Committee. He is based in New York and leads the operational infrastructure, compliance and cybersecurity functions at Adit. In addition, Eric speaks at numerous global industry events on topics ranging from best practices, operational due diligence and corporate governance.
Prior to joining Adit Ventures, Eric was an Executive Director in the Capital Advisory Group at J.P. Morgan, where he managed a team that worked with alternative funds throughout their life cycle by providing advisory services to COOs, CFOs and General Partners specializing in operational infrastructure, vendor selection, policies and procedures, operational risk and due diligence and overall best practices. Eric was also Co-Head of the Capital Advisory Group’s ESG working group where he worked with managers and investors on best practices with respect to ESG as well as implementing an ESG framework into the investment and operational process. Before J.P. Morgan, Eric was the COO and CCO for IAM (International Asset Management) with oversight of all non-investment related activity and compliance, as well as the operational risk due diligence process. Eric has also held various operational risk due diligence and consulting positions with FQS (Family Office) and Duff & Phelps. He received a B.B.A. in Finance and Marketing from Hofstra University and an M.B.A. in Finance from Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business.
Managing Director & Portfolio Manager
Mr. Cholak joined Adit Ventures in June of 2020 as a Managing Director.
Jon is a seasoned venture investor and software professional with over 15 years of industry experience.
Jon started his career at Deloitte Consulting where he managed large scale custom software development projects in the health and human services sector. He then spent time working at Intel where he focused on new business valuation & strategy development.
After completing his MBA at the University of Texas, Jon joined USAA’s venture program where he focused on enterprise software investments in the infrastructure, cloud, Blockchain, Fintech and security sectors.
Jon has deployed over $90M in early stage capital across 15+ companies, with multiple successful exists. Jon has served as a speaker at numerous industry engagements and as a startup mentor at various accelerator programs.
Jon holds an undergraduate degree from New York University and his MBA from the University of Texas.
Managing Director
Michael is a Managing Director at Adit Ventures and is a well-known authority and practitioner on macroeconomics, the public and private markets, and alternative investments. He often appears as an expert panelist on Fox Business, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and CNN, and is cited in publications like CNNMoney, Barron's, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. For over ten years, Michael served in a variety of leadership roles in strategy, trading, and research for ten years at hedge funds like Sandell Asset Management and Magnetar Capital. He also helps companies and sponsors raise growth capital via the private equity and credit markets. He began his career in Investment Banking at DLJ.
Michael holds Series 7, 24, 55, 63, 86, and 87 licenses. He received an MBA in Finance from the Kenan Flagler School of Business at UNC-Chapel Hill where he was a Dean's Scholar and Hugh McColl Fellow, and a dual Bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School where he graduated magna cum laude and was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar. He serves as Managing Director and Market Strategist at Third Seven Capital where he advises institutional clients on asset allocation, risk management, investment themes, and private markets.
Managing Director
& Head of Investor
Relations
Julie Klugman joined the Managing Members in August 2015. She is a primary point of contact for our current and prospective investors, managing new investor onboarding and creating marketing collateral including presentations, various web-based content, ad hoc requests, and prospecting.
She works on new business development and oversees and optimizes client materials. Prior to becoming a Managing Member, Julie was employed at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF), where she was an analyst in capital markets for over two years.
Mrs. Klugman received a B.S. from the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, where she graduated cum laude as a double major in real estate and marketing. Julie is also a holder of the New York Real Estate Salesperson License (since 2012). She has five years of investment experience.
Vice President
Max Moskovitz joined Adit Ventures in June 2017 as a Senior Analyst. He leads the due diligence and financial review of current and potential portfolio investments in addition to providing insight and strategy for investment structuring. Max is also responsible for the quarterly financial reporting and the annual financial statement audit.
Prior to joining the Managing Member team, he was an Audit Senior in the Financial Services Practice at Deloitte, where he worked with many top-tier growth equity and private equity firms.
Max received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from Syracuse University and is a licensed CPA. He has five years of investment experience.
Operations Associate
Ms. Una Kenny joined Adit Ventures in March 2021 as Operations Associate. She is responsible for the overall operations, compliance and entity management of the Adit Ventures funds.
Prior to joining Adit, she worked in Commercial Real Estate at L&L Holding Company, LLC supporting Acquisitions, Legal & Capital Raising.
Ms. Una Kenny attended the Dublin Institute of Technology where she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing.
Analyst
Mr. Leckie joined Adit Ventures in September 2020 as an Analyst.
Mr. Leckie performs research and due diligence on existing portfolio investments and new opportunities for Adit.
Prior to joining Adit full-time, Angus was a summer intern for Adit and interned at management consulting firm Kearney, working on a digital transformation project for a global Fortune 500 consumer products company.
Angus received his B.A. from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, where he graduated as a double major in Economics and International Relations and the Head of the GIG St Andrews Fund.
Analyst
Ms. Liang joined Adit Ventures in January 2020 as an Analyst.
Ms. Liang performs accounting, analysis, due diligence, general financial reviews, researching both new & existing Adit investments.
Prior to joining Adit, she was a senior associate at PwC in NYC where she worked in the Asset and Wealth Management industry providing financial services to top-tier private equity firms.
Ms. Liang has both her Master’s & Bachelor’s Degrees in Accounting from Lehigh University is a licensed CPA. She has 3 years of investment experience.
Analyst
Mr. Munson joined Adit Ventures in May 2021 as a Research Analyst.
Mr. Munson performs due diligence, analysis, and research on both new & existing Adit investments.
Prior to joining Adit, Tom was a registered associate with the Dix Fisher Group of U.S. Capital Advisors in Dallas, TX, assisting the team with portfolio construction and business development.
Mr. Munson received his Bachelor’s in Economics from the Fisher College of Business at the Ohio State University and a CAPE in Data Science and Visualization from Southern Methodist University. Tom currently holds his Series 7 and 66 licenses.
Portfolio Accountant
Nicolette DeVincenzo joined Adit Ventures in January 2021 as a Portfolio Accountant. She's responsible for quarterly financial reporting and year-end audit as well as valuation analysis of existing portfolio investments.
Prior to joining Adit, she worked at EY in the Financial Services Office providing tax compliance services to top-tier private equity firms and hedge funds.
Ms. DeVincenzo received her Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from the University of Miami and her Master's of Accountancy, In Taxation from Rutgers University. She is also a licensed CPA.
Portfolio Accountant
Samir Mutawakil joined Adit Ventures in August 2021 as a Portfolio Accountant. Samir is responsible for accounting and financial reporting, financial planning and analysis, and the financial statement audit.
Prior to joining Adit, he worked as an Accountant at King Street Capital Management where he was responsible for accounting and financial reporting.
Mr. Mutawakil received his bachelor’s degree in Accountancy from Baruch College and is a licensed CPA in the state of New York.
Portfolio Accountant
Gianni Fazio joined Adit Ventures in September 2021 as a Portfolio Accountant.
Prior to joining Adit, he worked at Mazars USA performing audits of large corporations in the Financial Services, SAAS, and M&D industries.
Mr. Fazio received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in accountancy from Long Island University. He is also a licensed CPA.
Advisor
Michelle is founder/CEO of Blaze Mobile. She is the company's key innovator, responsible for setting strategic direction and overseeing the company's rapid growth and leadership in mobile payments for retail, transit, and health care. Michelle is the author of scores of patents that covers the gamut from, In App purchases, NFC mobile payments, mobile advertising, mobile health care, and more. Prior to Blaze Mobile, Michelle led the development of over a dozen new commercial internet and mobile products at Microsoft taking them from conception to launch including the Microsoft Online Network in Europe generating over $16 million in revenue, the Microsoft-BET interactive services, and Microsoft consumer and business wireless services just to name a few.
Before this, Michelle worked at AT&T where among other things she envisioned and led the product development of Media Park, a forward reaching broadband service which connected creative professionals in Hollywood, Silicon Valley and New York to digital content libraries, 5 gigabytes of storage, rendering before many had even heard of the internet using $2M in capital she raised. Michelle has a Master’s Degree from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering degree from U.C. Berkeley.
Advisor
Court is the founder and CEO of multiple successful technology startups including DocuSign, Point.com, Primus BioVision and MetaBrite Inc. Additionally, Court serves on the Boards of several early-stage companies, and is an active investor and advisor in the Seattle area. Over his career, Court raised over $200M in venture and strategic funding from institutions such as Motorola, Staples Corp, Ignition Partners, Sigma Partners and Oak Investments.
Prior to his entrepreneurial ventures, Court held senior management positions with Cisco Systems and KLA-Tencor, and spent three years running a technology business in Neuchatel, Switzerland. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University and post graduate credentials from Stanford University, UC Berkeley and University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Advisor
Joanne is President at Empira Global. Joanne is leading her family office investments across the US, China and Southeast Asia with a focus on tech, healthcare and consumer industries. Joanne previously led the expansion and business development of BYD - a Warren Buffett backed electric vehicle, IT and renewable energy manufacturer in the US. Joanne is also partner at SFXY, an US-China cross-border private equity and advisory firm, helping companies with their business expansion in China. She graduated from Yale University with a MS in Chemistry.
Advisor
Tim is a start-up investor and company builder/operator with a portfolio of over 50 companies mainly in the Digital space in Europe and the US. Tim is a frequent speaker at industry events in the US and Europe and is an supporter of entrepreneurial associations around the globe. He has served as Global CEO and Shareholder of Spring Studios since 2019, driving the company’s growth and expansion. Prior to joining Spring, he moved to New York and lead the relaunch of Reprise, an IPG - Interpublic Group of Companies Business. Under Tim’s leadership Reprise grew to 69 offices and 3,000 staff worldwide, with clients that include global Blue Chip brands.
Before moving to New York, Tim was CEO of stock market listed NetBooster Group based on London and Paris, where he scaled the business to 25 global offices and oversaw more than 950 employees worldwide. His entrepreneurial career building internet portals in 1998, before establishing metapeople Group in 1999 in his native Germany. Tim grew the company to a digital marketing agency with hundreds of employees across multiple offices before selling it to NetBooster Group in 2013. He is one of the founding board members of the AdLedger Consortium, has served as Juror at the Cannes Advertising Festival, speaker at the United Nations and is part of the AdAge publishing collective.
Advisor
Sonny is one of the leading FinTech executives in Silicon Valley and is currently the Chief Commercial Officer at BitPay. BitPay is the largest processor of bitcoin in the world and has raised over $70M in funding from top investors like Founders Fund, Richard Branson, and Index Ventures. Previously, Sonny was the part of the founding team at Jumio, which has raised over $40M from Andreessen Horowitz, and Citibank.
Sonny has spoken at numerous conferences throughout the world and is often a guest interview on Bloomberg and CNBC and a guest writer for TechCrunch. He is a Venture Advisor for Lumia Capital and is also an angel investor in several companies including TubeMogul (IPO), Estate Assist (acquired by DocuSign), Getaround, Extend, and Civic Technologies (one of the first ICOs). Sonny has an MBA from Thunderbird, and is a graduate of Binghamton University (NY) where he played collegiate tennis.
Advisor
William J. Bennett is a U.S. public figure on cultural, political, and education issues. Over the course of his professional life, Mr. Bennett has succeeded in education, government and the private sector.
Mr. Bennett is an experienced technology entrepreneur, having been the founding Chairman of K12.com, a multi-billion dollar online education company, where he held the position of Founding Chairman from 1998 to 2006. Mr. Bennett previously served on the Advisory Board of Viridis Learning, Inc., a human capital technology solution company that provides training to individuals in the middle-skill workforce, and he was a senior advisor to Udacity, one of the world’s leading online education organizations, in Udacity’s early years.
Mr. Bennett is an award-winning professor in academia, having taught at Boston University, the University of Texas and Harvard University. Mr. Bennett was the U.S. Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988. Mr. Bennett was formerly the host of Morning in America, one of the most popular national talk shows in the country, and is now host of The Bill Bennett Show, as well as The Bill Bennett Interview, a nationally syndicated series of exclusive, in-depth interviews aired across the country on the Salem Radio Network. Mr. Bennett has written or co-authored more than 25 books including The Educated Child: A Parent’s Guide from Preschool Through Eighth Grade and two New York Times number one best-sellers.
Mr. Bennett graduated from Williams College, where he received a B.A. degree in Philosophy, the University of Texas, where he received a Ph.D. and from Harvard University, where he received a J.D. Mr. Bennett is the recipient of more than 30 honorary degrees.
Advisor
Manoj Saxena is the Executive Chairman of CognitiveScale and a founding Chairman of AI Global a non-profit dedicated to the ethical and responsible adoption of AI. Until recently, Manoj previously served as Chairman of the board of the US Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, San Antonio for six years.
Previously, he served as the first General Manager of IBM Watson, where his team built the first cognitive systems. Prior to IBM, Manoj was founder and CEO of two venture-backed software companies which were acquired within a five-year span.
Saxena currently serves on the Board of AI Global, the Saxena Family Foundation and the London Stock Exchange Technology Advisory Board. He is also a Lecturer at University of Texas Austin where he teaches a course on Design of Ethical Artificial Intelligence systems.
Manoj holds a post graduate degree in business administration from Michigan State University, and graduate degree in management sciences from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science in Pilani, India. Holder of nine software patents.
Advisor
Alex is Global Managing Director & Global Head of Experian Ventures, Experian's in-house venture program which he founded in 2016. Since its founding, the evergreen fund has invested over $200m.
Previously, Alex served as Executive Vice President at Nantmobile. Alex was Managing Director with USAA's Corporate Development Group and a member of their Executive Management team and built USAA Ventures into one of the most active FinTech CVC after his first year.
Alex was a Director with Intel Capital, the world’s largest corporate venture group having invested over $14B globally. He serves as a mentor to Plug&Play Silicon Valley and numerous other startups and supports Purdue University mentorship program. He has served as an advisor to ProSieben, Gamestop Corporation, Playspan (acquired by Visa and NVCA’s Corporate Venture working group along with dozens of early stage companies and global corporate venture groups.
Alex current board positions include Chairman at C88 Technologies Ptd; independent director at GoShip and Board Director or advisor at BankBazaar, Jirnexu, CompareAisa Group, Infosum; and Harvest Savings & Wealth.
Advisor
Partner – Alston & Bird
Vivian is a partner of Altson & Bird where she focuses her practice on strategic and corporate transactions with an emphasis on technology, intellectual property, data, trading, regulation, and compliance. She provides counsel on matters at the intersection of financial services regulation and technology, and advises clients on the implementation of digital transformation projects and on the monetization of data and intellectual property.
Before private practice, Vivian served as general counsel of BIDS Trading providing oversight on legal issues involving U.S. cash trading and market data for the NYSE. As managing director and general counsel of technology at Salomon Brothers/Citigroup, she was the lead lawyer on many corporate transactions and technology initiatives, including the Fulcrum Project, which transformed electronic trading on Wall Street.
Vivian earned a Band 1 ranking in the Chambers FinTech 2020 guide for Corporate, Securities & Financing. She was also named to The National Law Journal’s inaugural list, Trailblazers – Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, and FinTech, which recognized lawyers who have “moved the needle in facilitating new technologies and digital currencies.”
In 2018, Vivian was named Humanitarian of the Year by the Hope for a Healthier Humanity Foundation, which provides resources to cultivate better health care in underdeveloped nations.
Advisor
Jason joined Advisor Group in April 2019 and is responsible for building and implementing a comprehensive and proactive security strategy to drive business decisions and protect value creation on behalf of Advisor Group and its affiliated financial professionals. Prior to Advisor Group, Jason served as Alight’s Chief Information Officer and Chief Security Officer and was responsible for Alight’s overall digital, technology, enterprise risk and security strategy. Before joining Alight, Jason was the Senior Vice President of Security Technology and Operations for Charles Schwab and held senior roles in cyber security at Honeywell. Jason began his career in the United States Air Force as a telecommunication specialist.
Jason earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems, Information Technology, from Bellevue University, and an MBA at Ottawa University. He also completed executive education in cybersecurity and national policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a FBI CISO academy graduate. Jason is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), a CISCO Certified Network Professional and Associate, is certified in IT Infrastructure Library Foundation, and a certified Six Sigma Green Belt. In addition, he holds several advisory board positions for security startups ranging from early stage to securing additional investment funds.
Advisor
Ira is a leading executive in the information security space and currently the Chief Information Security Officer for FFF Enterprises. FFF is a medical distribution and patient care organization that has been counterfeit free since its founding over thirty years ago. Previously, Ira defined the role of information security as its first CISO for Orora Limited, a global specialty packaging manufacturer with offices throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia.
Ira has spoken throughout the world, as well as advised multiple board organizations on the state of cybersecurity, particularly during the merger and acquisition process. He has advised or participated in numerous startups on many cybersecurity and cloud computing solutions over the last twenty years. Ira has an MBA from Pepperdine and holds several industry certifications in Security (CISSP), Risk (CRISC), and Audit (CISA).
We submit every opportunity to a thorough financial evaluation before we choose to invest, selecting only companies that demonstrate consistent growth, steady cash flow, and strong future potential. We also continually review existing investments to ensure that they’re still a good fit for us culturally and financially.
In the investment world, experience is everything. We’ve built ours working directly with trusted partners in the angel and VC community, so our team understands the risks, trends, and typical behavior of the private investment life cycle. But we also continually track trends and changes in VC investing to seek out tomorrow’s rising stars.
Adit Ventures looks to invest with dynamic growth companies providing goods and services that are making our world a more productive place — those with good customer service and company cultures.
We embrace the principles of positive governance, sustainability, and pro-environmental practices as both a moral imperative and a business decision. Adit is committed to being a part of the positive change in the world today by operating ethically and honestly while helping clients seek capital appreciation investing.
We're passionate about the companies we invest in — and we want investors to have a chance to take part in that excitement. We help our investors access shares in dynamic private companies, allowing them to support the technical and cultural benefits these organizations represent — and to potentially share in the returns.
