The Team

Experience is the defining attribute of our team, with the most senior members having lived through the most significant financial and economic crises of the past 40 years.

Leadership

  • Chief Executive Officer

    Robert F. Mancuso is the Chief Executive Officer of Capri Capital, LLC and related entities including Capri Capital Partners, through which investments in family held companies are made, and Capri Consulting, which advises families on the challenges they face resulting from intergenerational transfer.

    Robert is a pioneer in the alternatives assets category. He was the first President and Chief Executive Officer of Merrill Lynch Capital Partners, Inc., the entity responsible for establishing and growing Merrill’s private equity business. Merrill was the first Wall Street firm to raise a captive private equity fund from institutional investors.  In helping found Merrill Lynch Capital Partners, Robert was instrumental in designing its very successful strategy of being the "White Knight" to companies under threatened takeover from raiders who were financed by Drexel Burnham and Mike Milken.  While at Merrill, he sourced and led the team which closed the first ever billion dollar leveraged buyout, which was done with KKR as Merrill’s equity partner.  Over his career he led teams that raised over $7 billion in financing, tapping numerous providers of senior, mezzanine, and equity capital, from both public and private sources. 

    Robert has also served on the boards of directors of twelve companies ranging in size from $75 million to $4 billion in annual sales, many of which had previously been publicly traded. His corporate governance experience includes having been elected non-executive chairman of the board, a member of the executive committee, and a member of the compensation committee. 

    Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, he was associated with Lazard Freres & Co for four years, in its Corporate Finance department raising capital for domestic and multinational corporations and intergovernmental entities.  He also practiced law with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. before joining Lazard. 

    A prolific author, Robert has written numerous articles dealing with the challenges that family businesses face as a result of the Great Wealth Transfer, the imposition of confiscatory transfer taxes, and the unintended consequences of the growing popularity of wealth taxes.  His articles have been published by a number of leading media outlets, including Real Clear Markets, the Chicago Tribune, and Bloomberg under both its Tax and Law categories.  The full library of Robert's publications is available on our News and Insights page.

    He holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business as well as a JD degree from Cornell Law School.

    He also has been a representative of the United States family business community on Capitol Hill, having visited and advocated with members of the US Congress’ Family Business Caucus on three occasions with regard to pending legislative proposals.

  • Ray Wechsler is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American Equity Partners, Inc., a firm he founded in 1992 to invest in and improve the operating performance of distressed and underperforming entities. He retired as Senior Advisor of Cerberus Operations and Advisory Company in December, 2015. He previously had been a Managing Director at Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. and a Senior Executive and Director of Cerberus Operations and Advisory Company.

    Ray has more than 30 years of senior leadership, investing, and restructuring experience, and he has managed the distressed portfolio or selected portfolio companies of private equity firms, including Cerberus and Soros Fund Management, among others, including his own investments. In successfully investing in, and reorganizing, numerous companies in financial and operational difficulty, Ray has been Chairman and CEO of more than 15 companies, including Mueller Industries, Jos. A. Bank, Protect Services Industries, Mervyns, United Press International (President and COO), among many others. Earlier in his career, Ray held senior financial positions at RCA Corp. and then as EVP and CFO of AT&T International.

    While Ray and Robert have known each other for years, Ray’s insights and expertise in financial affairs and governance were immediately evident. His decades of experience and success in the restructuring of troubled companies will help Capri avoid potential operational crises in the firm’s investment portfolio. Furthermore, his involvement in the pre-acquisition, as well as post-purchase phases of CHF’s work, will help offset the risks of investing in a recessionary environment, if one occurs.

  • John Bradley has a vast network of relationships in the life sciences industry, as well as with family offices and high net worth individuals on a worldwide basis. An expert in branded pharmaceuticals and drug delivery, he has successfully raised over $500 million in public and private capital for pharmaceutical, insurance, and technology companies.

    John has over 40 years of corporate finance experience as an executive within both pharmaceutical companies and investment banks. He has also managed the assets of several large family offices. He was co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Mystic Pharmaceuticals; Founder and Chairman of VentureLink; and past President and Founder of Bradley-Hummel & Co. Inc, a NYSE member firm. He also held positions at Brown Brothers Harriman and Drexel Burnham Lambert & Co. He is currently the CEO of Bradley-Hyland & Co.

    John and Robert have known each other and worked on a variety of matters together over the last decade. During that period of time, Mr. Mancuso has come to appreciate the extensive breadth of John’s relationships – both domestic and international. His insights into the financial and capital markets, as well as his expertise in the bio pharmaceutical sector, have led him to be a key advisor to many of the wealthiest families in this country and abroad.

    His extensive experience as both founder of a company as well as a board member will bring significant value to Capri Capital’s activities on both a pre-acquisition and post-purchase basis.

  • David Lloyd began his Private Equity career at Mancuso & Company in 1995 after earning his MBA at the University of Chicago.  He helped guide the financial management, corporate governance, and strategic initiatives of the portfolio companies, including the sale of Life Fitness, inventor of the LifeCycle, to Brunswick Corporation.  This investment in the leader in fitness equipment generated a 43.6% gross IRR over 6 years.

    Subsequently, David became an M&A banker at Credit Suisse, where he structured and executed the airline industry’s first major acquisition via a §363/365 stalking-horse bid for TWA, on behalf of American Airlines.  In the transaction, American Airlines created TWA for 2.2x EBITDAR via provision of a DIP loan, assumption of TWA’s secured debt and assumption/renegotiation of aircraft operating leases, while preserving 21,500 jobs.  The transaction led to an investment thesis he subsequently executed at a hedge fund with peak AUM of $10 billion.

    In 2003 at Carlson Capital, David founded the stressed/distressed credit business in aviation, aircraft leasing and aerospace.  He served for 5 years on the Valuation Committee for bespoke Level III assets, and was the FINRA registrant for the New York office.  Peak AUM was ~$475mm in directional and hedged strategies involving secured and unsecured debt, structured product, syndicated and bi-lateral loans, equities and all relevant credit, rates, currency and equity derivatives.

    In 2016, he formed Air Funding LLC, which advises financial investors on transportation-related investing in public and private markets.

  • Head of Underwriting and Capital Markets

    Vijay Aiyar is the head of underwriting and capital markets at Capri Capital Partners. His responsibilities include evaluating prospective investments, leading the acquisition process for such fund investments, and structuring, negotiating and syndicating the financing for Capri portfolio companies. In addition to his transaction experience, Vijay brings a deep network of relationships within the banking, private equity and institutional credit communities.

    Prior to joining Capri, Vijay spent nearly a decade at Barclays Investment Bank, most recently serving as a Director in the Leveraged Finance group. His main areas of focus included underwriting debt financing commitments for private equity-owned and corporate borrowers, executing high yield bond and leveraged loan offerings, and providing strategic capital advisory to private equity firms and company management teams. During his tenure at Barclays, Vijay raised billions of dollars of debt capital across various types of issuers, and spanned sectors with strong representation from family businesses, including restaurant franchisees, optometry, convenience stores and grocery.

    Before Barclays, Vijay was a Senior Consultant at Accenture, where he led the execution of numerous CRM transformation projects, driving significant sales and operational improvements for his clients. Vijay has also served as chief product officer at a technology company that offers AI-powered diligence and underwriting solutions to alternative investment firms.

    Vijay holds a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and an MBA in Finance from the New York University Stern School of Business.

  • Head of Business Development and Investor Relations

    Paul Mancuso is a versatile transactional attorney with experience in business development, M&A, and investor relations. Most recently, he served as the Chief Development Officer at an independent sponsor focused on building a portfolio of surf, snow, and outdoor brands. In this role, Paul managed due diligence, financial analysis, and capital-raising efforts for five potential acquisitions, ranging in size from $50M to $400M. Additionally, he was primarily responsible for identifying and soliciting U.S.-based family offices to become equity capital partners for each transaction.

    Paul began his career as a corporate attorney at Ropes & Gray in New York, where he primarily focused on private equity and venture capital transactions. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Cornell University and a JD from New York University School of Law. Paul is admitted to practice law in both New York and California.

Investment Team

    • Jonas Larsson is a seasoned investor and entrepreneur with a rich background deeply rooted in his family's legacy. Starting in his family's pulp and paper mills and trading business, Jonas immersed himself in learning the intricacies of the industry and the values it stood for. Jonas's family history traces back to 1897, originating as small landowners before expanding into the forest products trading business. Over the years, the family diversified into owning pulp and paper mills, food processing companies, and real estate, cementing their position as industry leaders. Embarking on a succession and wealth preservation journey in 2009, they transitioned into an investment firm and family office focused on small and medium sized industrial enterprises.

    • Jonas subsequently assumed a leadership role at a renowned e-commerce accelerator with over 300 companies across the globe. He founded and exited multiple companies and raised over 2 billion USD in funding. This experience reinforced his entrepreneurial spirit, leading him to found and exit his own fintech companies before founding a venture capital firm focused on e-commerce and fintech. His latest venture capital endeavor centers on WorkTech, reflecting his commitment to creating a better world for employers and employees alike.

    • Despite his global ventures, Jonas remains grounded in his family's principles of integrity, respect, responsibility, and generosity. Currently residing in Stockholm, Sweden, Jonas continues to uphold these values while actively supporting educational initiatives at institutions like the University of Cambridge, Stockholm School of Economics, and the Pennsylvania State University, where he earned his degrees and continues as a mentor, speaker, and donor.

    • Jonas, a Swedish citizen, was born in Hamburg, Germany. Over the years, he has lived and worked across the globe, gaining invaluable perspective and multi-cultural skills.

    • He brings to the Advisory Board extraordinary insights into not only family held companies, but also multi- generational family businesses which have been tested both by time and the challenges of an ever-changing competitive marketplace. He can speak to family held companies from a position of authenticity which few other advisors can occupy. His skills should also be especially valuable to the Fund’s portfolio companies as they seek global markets for their products and services.

    • Jonathan Heller comes from a family of German-Jewish engineers and bankers. His grandfather was Dr. Arnold Heller, the author of the first-ever German textbook on automobile construction, while his maternal grandmother was from the family of Ludwig Bamberger, the founder of Deutsche Bank. His parents left Germany as refugees in the 1930s, and his father later had a leading role in developing the Head-Up Displays used in British and American military aircraft.

    • Jonathan worked in the British and European nuclear industries, becoming Secretary-General of the European Atomic Forum in Brussels, which among much else played an important role in his time in protecting the nuclear installations in the Ukraine. He also ran one of the ten largest pension funds in the U.K. and worked with the St. Gallen Consulting Group in Germany and Switzerland, advising banks and insurance companies on financial product development.

    • His consulting firm, which he created in the 1990s, has created a number of new financial products, to address specific needs of multinational companies’ pension funds, and of large single-family and multi-family offices. In this context, he has become a well-known speaker on structured products at family office conferences in Europe, the U.S. and Canada, as well as on MBA courses.

    • He is a graduate of Oxford University (First Class Honours in Philosophy and Modern Languages), and one of his family’s main philanthropic interests is in education.

    • Jonathan is resident of the U.K., but with family spread between the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Israel and India. He brings to the Advisory Board experience in both the industrial and financial environments across a number of regions, and in sharing best-practice solutions between countries.

Advisory Board