As Managing General Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Applied Real Intelligence (“A.R.I.”), Zack Ellison is responsible for leading the firm’s management and investment activities, including sourcing, due diligence, structuring and execution, and portfolio management.

Previously, Mr. Ellison was Director, U.S. Fixed Income at Sun Life Financial, one of the world’s largest asset managers with more than $1.4 trillion in assets under management. At Sun Life, he was responsible, with the team, for managing in excess of $25 billion of fixed income assets across more than 70 portfolios with varying mandates while contributing to the firm’s credit investment strategy, portfolio management, trading, and risk management practices. Primary sector coverage included financial institutions (banks, insurance, asset managers, specialty lenders, Business Development Companies), consumer products, food & beverage, utilities, REITs, transportation (autos, airlines, rails), aerospace & defense, and industrials. Secondary coverage included TMT, energy, healthcare, and pharma.

Prior to joining Sun Life, Mr. Ellison worked on the Global Credit Trading desk in the top-ranked Fixed Income division of Deutsche Bank, the largest bank in the world at the time with $2.8 trillion in assets. At Deutsche Bank, he traded the full cap structure, including senior and subordinated bonds, credit default swaps, hybrid securities, and preferred stock across financials, energy, utilities, autos, and industrials.

Preceding Deutsche Bank, and during the Global Financial Crisis, he was a banker focused on underwriting and managing leveraged loans within the technology, media, and telecom sectors at Scotia Bank where he had primary responsibility for $2 billion of the team’s $6 billion loan portfolio. During this tumultuous period, Scotia Bank, Canada’s third largest bank with greater than $1 trillion in total assets, was one of the world’s top performing global financial institutions in terms of fewest loan losses.

Mr. Ellison began his career in the financial services industry in New York at Thomson Reuters within the firm’s Corporate Advisory Services division, where he served the majority of Fortune 500 energy and utility companies as a capital markets advisor.

From 2020 through 2023, Mr. Ellison was honored to serve as a board member for both the CFA Society of Los Angeles and the Southwest Chapter of the CAIA Association; a distinctive honor as he was the sole individual to hold similar positions simultaneously on a national level. In 2021, he was awarded the James H. Fletcher Emerging Leader Award by CFA Society of Los Angeles.

His views on investing in innovation and venture debt are showcased in monthly columns he writes for Venture Capital Journal and Built In, as well as engaging discussions with leading investors each week on The 7 in 7 Show with Zack Ellison (Podcast). Additionally, he authored the Venture Debt chapter in the recently released book from the CFA Institute Research Foundation: An Introduction to Alternative Credit.

Mr. Ellison holds an MBA with concentrations in Analytic Finance and Economics from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business along with an MS in Risk Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College while majoring in Economics. In his personal time, Mr. Ellison is working towards completion of a Doctorate in Business Administration at the University of Florida (Gainesville). Additionally, he holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations and previously held FINRA Series 7, 55, and 63 licenses.

Contact Zack Ellison at zellison@arivc.com.

Dan Espinal is the Founder and CEO of Rarebreed Veterinary Partners, a high-growth technology-enabled community of thriving independent veterinary practices. Dan previously ran the IDEXX Laboratories (NASDAQ: IDXX) In-house Chemistry business and Corporate Development & Strategy team, where he managed, led, and executed global acquisitions, managed the annual strategic planning process, and structured complex partnerships. Before IDEXX, Dan was a venture capital investor at Allied Minds, Plc (LSE: ALM), focusing on internet and communication technologies. Prior to Allied Minds, he was a management strategy consultant at JSA Partners (formerly AT Kearney), providing aerospace and defense companies with market entry, competitive strategy, acquisitions and investment decision support, and advisory services.

Dan is a U.S. Army combat veteran and airborne-ranger qualified infantry officer with service time as a combat advisor. He led over 150 combat patrols in southeastern Afghanistan and spent time as an executive officer of the 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment (Airborne) as an infantry platoon leader. Dan earned his MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Matt Schwartz is a Partner at DLA Piper, the third largest law firm globally. Matt is an internationally recognized expert in venture debt and leads DLA Piper’s Venture & Growth Lending practice, is the Chair of DLA Piper’s West Coast Finance Practice Group, and represents banks, funds, family offices, companies and high net worth individuals in structuring and negotiating a wide range of debt and equity investments. At DLA Piper, Matt represents lenders and companies in connection with technology, life science, asset based, private equity and venture capital finance and has extensive experience in counseling lenders and companies on corporate structure issues, mergers and acquisitions, commercial contacts, negotiation tactics, and corporate strategy.

Matt sits on the Board of Directors of the John Brockington Foundation and is a founding board member of the Randy Jones Foundation. Matt also is host committee member and fundraising leader for the Best Buddies Hearst Castle Challenge.

Digvijay “Sunny” Singh has a broad technology, investing and business operations background. He started his career with deep engineering projects at Lockheed Martin where he worked on F-16 fighter jets. During his EE/CS Ph.D. at UCLA, he became part of the founding team of an AI-based medical device startup which received institutional venture funding and went on to be commercialized with full FDA approval. Sunny subsequently launched his own IT and cybersecurity business which exited in 2020. He invested most of the earnings into distressed real-estate and remains an active California real-estate investor. Sunny also started Angel investing in early-stage startups in 2015 and was invited to join Tech Coast Angels (TCA) in Los Angeles in 2017.

He climbed the ranks at TCA over the years and became the youngest President at TCA until his term ends in 2022. Sunny was also the founding and managing member for the first TCA Los Angeles startup fund in 2019. Sunny has reviewed tens of hundreds of venture capital (VC) deals, has a personal portfolio of a few dozen startups, and continues to be very active in Southern California.

Ben Wiles is a Partner at Prospera Law, LLP (f/k/a LKP Global Law, LLP) in Los Angeles, one of the top venture finance law firms in Southern California. He represents venture capital and private equity investors and emerging growth companies in formation, debt and equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, strategic joint ventures, technology arrangements, and general corporate matters. His practice spans the therapeutics, medical devices, retail, adtech, insurtech and blockchain industries. He has handled corporate matters and financings of all sizes, from small pre-seed convertible note deals to nine figure late-stage investments for the world’s largest venture capital firms. He also regularly handles sell-side M&A exits.

Previously, Mr. Wiles was an attorney focused on venture capital and emerging companies at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP and Day Pitney LLP. Mr. Wiles cares deeply about innovation in the practice of law and is an active member of the legal hacker and blockchain legal communities. Mr. Wiles earned his BA in Economics and Political Science at Swarthmore College and his JD from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.