Experienced Management Team
Odeon has a dedicated management team of seasoned professionals with distinct and complementary backgrounds. The General Partners bring significant investment, operational, entrepreneurial, management, legal and strategic consulting and advisory experience in assisting portfolio companies. The General Partners will be in charge of the operation of the Partnership and will make all investment decisions leveraging the perspective and knowledge of Moore, Clayton & Co., Odeon's strategic partner, and Odeon's Advisory Board members.
Managing Members of the General Partnership
Matthew A. Smith. Mr. Smith is a managing and founding partner of Odeon Capital. Mr. Smith has been a technology-focused private equity investor for over eight years. Prior to raising $115 million for Fund I, he was a co-founder and general partner of Wheatley Partners, initially a $100 million dollar partnership, where he was responsible for identifying, negotiating and managing investment positions in information technology companies. In that role, Mr. Smith led several investments, including: VerticalNet, USWeb, Gray Peak Technologies, and Packet Engines. From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Smith served as an investment partner with Wheatley II Partners, where he specialized in making information technology investments in companies, including Keynote Systems and PSINet. In 1993, he served as an investment analyst for a related affiliated partnership, Woodland Partners, L.P., where he specialized in software investments. Previoulsy, he practiced corporate law at Cahill Gordon & Reindel. Mr. Smith holds a JD/MBA from New York University and a BA in Political Science from the University of Michigan.
Jeffrey E. Finkle. Mr. Finkle is a managing and founding partner of Odeon Capital. Prior to raising $115 milllion for Odeon Capital Partners I, Mr. Finkle had a distinguished 18-year career in the fields of entrepreneurial management, general management, corporate development and marketing in the computer software industry. He most recently served as Vice President of Corporate Business Development at Computer Associates International, a $4.7 billion developer of software solutions and services. Mr. Finkle also served as its Vice President of World-Wide Channel Marketing, and prior to Computer Associates' acquisition of Cheyenne Software, served as Cheyenne's Vice President of Corporate Development and Corporate Marketing where he had overall responsibility for corporate and product positioning. Prior to that, he served as Vice President and General Manager of Cheyenne's Unix Division. Prior to Cheyenne, Mr. Finkle was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Applied Programming Technologies, which he represented for sale to Cheyenne in 1993. Early in his career, Mr. Finkle co-founded N/Hance Systems a peripheral manufacturing and software development company. Throughout his career, Mr. Finkle was personally responsible for numerous acquisitions/divestitures, product launches, promotional campaigns and development projects. Uniquely, Mr. Finkle has substantial operating experience with full budgetary responsibility and corporate development experience in companies with varied complexity and ranging in size from $0-$4 million, $40 to $200 million and over $4 billion in revenues.
Marc D. Aronstein. Mr. Aronstein is a partner at Odeon Capital. He has 11 years of experience in the fields of private equity investing, entrepreneurial management and investment banking. His private equity experience includes sourcing, evaluating, structuring, negotiating and monitoring investments across a wide range of industries. At EXOR America, the $2 billion U.S. investment arm of the Agnelli Group, he concentrated on making value-oriented investments in large management buyouts and making select technology investments. At Morgan Lewis Githens & Ahn, he focused on investing a $200 million private equity fund in rapidly growing companies. Mr. Aronstein held senior operating positions at priceline.com, where as Vice President of Corporate Development, he was responsible for forming and launching affiliate ventures and at The River Group, where he was the Chief Financial Officer of a rapidly growing consumer products company. He began his career as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch & Co, concentrating on merchant banking transactions and high yield debt financings. Mr. Aronstein holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Qayyum Hafeez. Mr. Hafeez is a principal at Odeon Capital. He has 9 years of experience in private equity, investment banking, hi-tech, and energy industries. His private equity experience includes deal sourcing, due diligence, structuring, and negotiating new investments and providing guidance on managing a portfolio of investments across a wide range of industries. Prior to Odeon Capital, Mr. Hafeez was an investment banker in Bear Stearns’ M&A and telecommunications groups where he advised corporate clients on M&A, financing, and restructuring transactions including the acquisition of Keebler Foods by Kellogg, IPO for Agere Systems, and restructuring of General Motors’ Hughes Electronics. Mr. Hafeez also worked with TL Ventures, a private equity fund with over $1 billion under management, and executed investment transactions in VerticalNet, Inc., and Traffic.com. Prior to that, Mr. Hafeez was with Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., an architectural, civil and environmental engineering design company, where he designed renewable and clean energy systems and managed environmental infrastructure projects. Mr. Hafeez received an MBA with a concentration in finance and private equity from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds bachelors and masters degrees in structural and environmental engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and Cornell University, respectively.
