Featured Speakers
Insight into the market dynamics that are having the greatest impact on an industry is what drives our business and its this understanding that allows us to identify and secure the thought leaders who have a true 'vision' to offer. This is a small sample of some of those visionaries that are helping shape the future of food, drink & wellness.
Ben Branson
Marvin Jiwan
Dan Gooderham
Michael Horvath
Lauren Foundos
Lauren Foundos, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of FORTË since 2015. FORTË streams live and on-demand, cutting-edge fitness classes from well-known boutique studios worldwide directly to you. FORTË builds proprietary hardware and software that is installed into their partner studios, which enables them to seamlessly live stream classes directly to the FORTË platform or through their white-label digital service integrated directly into the brands app/website.
Before launching her own company, FORTË, Lauren spent a decade working on Wall Street, with the last five years in finance on the trading floor as an Institutional US Government Bond Broker at Whitaker Securities where she helped to dramatically increase UST Short Coupon and Bill desk revenues. Prior to that she worked at Deutsche Bank in Synthetic Equities and Cloudview Capital Management, a global-macro hedge fund, on their trading desk. Lauren graduated from the University of Maryland in 2006, with a BA in communications and concentration in business. She earned ACC Academic Honor Roll, and Intercollegiate Athletic Honor Roll during her time at Maryland. Lauren is a two-time all-American field hockey player, she played in the Junior Olympics, and went on to play Division I at the University of Maryland, the nation’s top ranked program. She plays the piano, violin, has two older brothers, adores her parents, and loves to ski!
Igor Parshin
Melissa Cash
Jon Canarick
Jonathan (“Jon”) Canarick is a Managing Partner with 19 years of consumer private equity investment experience. Since joining North Castle in 2001, Jon has actively managed North Castle’s investments across a variety of Healthy, Active, and Sustainable Living sectors and across all job functions at North Castle. Having started his career at NCP as an Associate out of investment banking, Jon has played a crucial role in the development of North Castle and many of its portfolio companies. Jon currently sits on the Board of Directors of Five Iron Golf, Echelon Fit, CR Fitness, Encore Vet Group, The Escape Game, Barry’s, Brooklyn Boulders, and SLT. Previously, Jon served on the Board of Directors of Kettlebell Kitchen, Curves, Jenny Craig, Palladio, Mineral Fusion, gloProfessional, Flatout, International Fitness, Enzymatic Therapy, Performance Bicycle, Avalon and DDF and was actively involved in the Firm’s investment in Grand Expeditions. Prior to joining North Castle, Jon worked in the Financial Sponsors Coverage and Leveraged Finance groups of Bear, Stearns & Co., where he executed leveraged buyout transactions and provided advisory services for financial sponsors. Jon earned a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.
Ellie Webb
James Hopkins
Laura Zalm
Tatiana Mercer
Denise Lefebvre
JJ Gantt
Jonathan J.J. Gantt serves as the President of Barry’s, the original global high-intensity interval training boutique fitness concept. Prior to joining Barry’s in 2018, Jonathan was a die-hard Barry’s client in New York City while serving as the Chief Financial Officer of a publicly-traded hotel real estate investment trust. Prior to this role, Jonathan was a member of the M&A and Treasury team at Starwood Hotels & Resorts. He also has experience with two private equity funds. Jonathan resides in Miami, Florida. He holds a BS degree from Cornell University and an MBA degree from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Luke Boase
Debbie Richards Novograd
Ernst van Orsouw
Matt Lambert
Strategic Partners
From the market-leading Food, Drink & Wellness Companies to the most well-respected CROs, CMOs, Consultants, M&A Advisors, Private Equity, Incubators, Accelerators, and Distributors, our Strategic Partners continue to play a pivotal role in our portfolio. For more information on how to become a strategic partner, please email us at [email protected]
About Us
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