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Investment Banking Team
Viant Capital LLC is the investment banking and financial advisory services arm of Viant Group. Within Viant Capital, we have assembled a team of seasoned financial services professionals who have worked on numerous capitalization and buy and sell-side transactions. With a diverse set of backgrounds from legal to entrepreneurial, from operating executives to career investment bankers, our team knows how to work with management teams under pressure to capitalize on their financial and strategic opportunities.
Find out more about our Team:
Senior Members
Scott Smith, Founder
John Batdorf
Anne Vrolyk
Leigh Hudson
Tyler Comann
Stephen Gurney
David Reilly
Michael Scherer
Lindsay Hoover
Paul Samuel
Sierra Asia Members
Paula Beroza
Lee Sands
Scott Smith, Founder, Managing Director
Mr. Smith is the Founder and Managing Partner of Viant Group and a Managing Director of Viant Capital. Mr. Smith also founded Neveric Capital, Viant's predecessor firm, in 1998 and has over twenty years of experience in investment banking, corporate law and company operations working primarily with technology, media and healthcare companies. Prior to Viant, Mr. Smith was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) where he was responsible for establishing the Silicon Valley office and was the co-head of the technology group. Before CSFB, Mr. Smith spent fifteen years with Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro as a Partner where he was responsible for founding the firm’s Silicon Valley venture capital office.
John Batdorf, Managing Director
Mr. Batdorf has over eighteen years of experience in investment banking working with software and Internet companies, including capital formation and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Viant, Mr. Batdorf spent seven years at SG Cowen Securities Corporation where he was a Director in the software group, responsible for originating and executing securities offerings and mergers and acquisitions transactions for software companies. Mr. Batdorf has significant transaction experience in several investment banking product areas with a focus on public and private equity, mergers and acquisitions and convertible securities. Throughout his career, Mr. Batdorf has executed and closed over $5 billion in financings and over $1 billion in mergers and acquisitions transactions for his clients. Mr. Batdorf also spent two years as a financial analyst with Kidder, Peabody & Co., Inc. in the technology group. Mr. Batdorf earned his MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BS in Business Administration, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University.
Anne Vrolyk, Managing Director
Ms. Vrolyk has over thirty four years of investment banking and money management experience. Ms. Vrolyk focuses on mergers and acquisitions and private financings for companies in the consumer products and services industries and also in business services including software and information technology. Prior to joining Viant, she served for twenty years as founder and Managing Director of Vrolyk & Company, a boutique investment bank based in San Francisco. Prior to founding Vrolyk & Company she spent five years as a generalist in the merger department of Alex. Brown & Sons in San Francisco. Previous to ABS she was with the merger department of Goldman Sachs in New York and also worked for Kidder Peabody in New York and Scudder, Stevens & Clark in Los Angeles. Ms Vrolyk earned her MBA from Columbia University and her BA in Bacteriology from UCLA.
Leigh Hudson, Managing Director
Ms. Hudson has over twenty years of investment banking experience managing merger & acquisition transactions and private and public financings - including initial public offerings, high yield debt offerings and private placements of both debt and equity. Prior to joining Viant, Ms. Hudson was a Managing Director at Vrolyk & Company, a boutique investment banking firm located in San Francisco, focused on merger & acquisitions and private financings in the Consumer and Business Services sectors. Prior to Vrolyk & Company, Ms. Hudson was a member of the Corporate Finance group at Drexel Burnham Lambert. Ms. Hudson received an MBA from the Wharton School and a BS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford.
Tyler Comann, Managing Director
Mr. Comann has three decades of experience in investment banking, private equity investing and operating management. He specializes in mergers & acquisitions and capital formation for business service companies. During his investment banking career, he has led over 80 engagements with a total transaction value of $1.2 billion. Prior to joining Viant, he was the co-founder of Comann & Montague, a boutique investment bank which he managed for thirteen years. Before Comann & Montague, Mr. Comann spent two years as CEO of M&B Miniblinds and six years as a partner with Comann, Howard & Flamen, a private equity firm based in San Francisco. For nearly twenty years, Mr. Comann has taught service management courses while a lecturer at Stanford University, the Haas School of Business (U.C. Berkeley) and H.E.C. (Paris, France). He also holds two U.S. patents related to the wine industry. Mr. Comann graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Economics and from Harvard Business School with an MBA with High Distinction.
Stephen Gurney, Director
Mr. Gurney has over a decade of investment banking and corporate operations experience in a variety of sectors including healthcare services, green technologies and software. Within Viant, Mr. Gurney is responsible for transaction
execution and origination for private equity capital raises as well as mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Viant,
Mr. Gurney was with Seven Hills Partners and ING Barings (Furman Selz) where he executed private and public capital
financings as well as mergers and acquisitions for technology sector companies. Prior to business school, Mr. Gurney
developed systems and embedded software for scientific and telecommunications satellites and consulted for General
Electric, Orbital Sciences, Comsat, Com21 and NET. Mr. Gurney earned an MBA, Beta Gamma Sigma, from Columbia Business
School in New York and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.
David Reilly, Managing Director
Mr. Reilly has over twenty years of experience in investment banking with healthcare and medical technology companies.
He previously served as Managing Director of Cronus Partners LLC, an investment bank he co-founded in 2004 where he built
and led the firm's healthcare/medical practice, representing clients such as Beacon Hospice, Inc., the leading provider
of hospice services in New England and Precision Metal Products, Inc., a manufacturer of medical implants for leading
orthopedic implant manufacturers. Previously, Mr. Reilly was with The Nassau Group, Inc., where he founded the firm's
healthcare practice. Throughout the 1990s, Mr. Reilly provided M&A, corporate restructuring and strategic advisory
services primarily to healthcare companies as a partner in Cronus Partners, Inc. He began his investment banking career
within Smith Barney's Healthcare Group in the execution of various corporate finance transactions, including initial and
secondary public offerings, private placements, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Reilly earned his MBA from the Leonard N.
Stern School of Business and a BA from the University of Rochester.
Michael Scherer, Director
Mr. Scherer has over fifteen years of experience in investment banking and equity research covering a variety of sectors
including healthcare, technology and consumer goods. He previously served as Principal of Cronus Partners LLC, an
investment bank he co-founded in 2004 where he executed middle-market mergers and acquisition and capital raising
transactions across various sectors of healthcare, including medical devices, medical technology and healthcare services.
Previously, Mr. Scherer assisted corporate clients with institutional private market transactions as a Vice President
with The Nassau Group, Inc. and as an Associate with Private Equity Partners. Mr. Scherer joined Private Equity Partners
from UBS Asset Management where he conducted buy-side institutional research. Mr. Scherer began his professional career
as a member of Smith Barney's Consumer Products sell-side equity research team. Mr. Scherer graduated from Bucknell
University with a BS in Accounting and was awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst designation by CFA Institute in 1998.
Lindsay Hoover, Managing Director
Ms. Hoover has more than fifteen years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, placements of equity and debt, merchant banking, financial restructurings and strategic advisory services. Prior to joining Viant, Lindsay was a Managing Director at Venturi & Company, involved in the origination and execution of M&A, placement, restructuring and strategic advisory engagements, working with clients across a range of industry sectors that included financial and business services, software and media, consumer products and manufacturing and distribution. Prior to joining Venturi & Company, Ms. Hoover was a Vice President with Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, where she helped to establish the firm's Technology Banking Group and cross-border and strategic alliance capabilities. At Houlihan Lokey, Ms. Hoover was involved in the firm's software sector, consumer sector and private equity coverage activities. Formerly, Ms. Hoover was an officer of Pacific Capital LLC, a boutique investment bank, where she concentrated primarily on the firm's principal investment activities and executing buyouts of private, middle-market companies. She received a BA degree in Russian from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) and an MBA degree (Mandarin double major) from the Fisher Graduate School of International Business at MIIS.
Paul Samuel, Senior Associate
Paul Samuel has ten years of experience in investment banking, company operations, and risk management. He specializes in M&A advisory and capital raising across various industry sectors, including software, Internet, healthcare, and business services. Paul has previously led business development for Circos.com, a provider of social media analytics software for the hotel industry, and worked at The Rubicon Project where he established and expanded the company's commercial relationships with online ad networks and exchanges. Paul began his career with Lehman Brothers as an Associate within the Risk Management Group, where he conducted risk analysis on trading counterparties across various industries, with particular focus on technology and telecommunications. Paul earned an MBA from UCLA Anderson and a BS in Finance from Binghamton University.
Paula Beroza, Managing Director
Ms. Beroza has more than twenty years of experience in investment banking and investment management originating,
structuring, and marketing over $26 billion of acquisitions, debt and equity issues of U.S. and international companies
(China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Germany, and Latin America). Ms. Beroza spent 11 years at Merrill Lynch where she
worked in a variety of capacities including running the Greater China investment banking business in the mid-1990's.
As head of the Greater China investment banking group, Ms. Beroza helped international firms seeking access to the China
market, completed the first international equity offering of a Chinese company, structured and placed innovative
financial products, and educated the government and Chinese enterprises as to the operation of the international
capital markets, including investor expectations, regulatory practices, transparency, after-market trading, etc.
In all, Ms. Beroza has helped raise over $2 billion in financing for Chinese enterprises. Prior to joining Merrill
Lynch, Ms. Beroza worked in the High Yield Capital Markets and Private Placement divisions of Salomon Brothers and
with the Prudential Insurance Company of America in the Private Placement Department. Ms. Beroza received her
undergraduate degree in Mathematics and her master's degree in Finance from the University of California, Berkeley.
Ms. Beroza is based in San Francisco, California.
Lee Sands, Managing Director
Mr. Sands has more than thirty years of experience in Asia, including twenty in China. From 1997 to 2004, Mr. Sands served as
founder and Chairman of MBP Consulting, a boutique consulting firm advising international corporations regarding
market access (both entry and penetration) and government policy in China, and as a partner in Mayer, Brown, Rowe &
Maw. From 1991 to 1997, Mr. Sands served as Chief U.S. Trade Negotiator with China, in the Office of the United States
Trade Representative (USTR), in the Executive Office of the President. During this time, he negotiated and oversaw
implementation of all major trade agreements with China resulting in market opportunities for thousands of key U.S.
exports; formulated U.S. trade policy; managed negotiations; and oversaw compliance related to intellectual property
rights, telecommunications, insurance and other areas with China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia. In addition,
Mr. Sands created comprehensive strategies and tactics to address East Asian trade issues and assisted U.S. companies
in designing market access strategies. Mr. Sands won USTR's distinguished negotiating award for his efforts.
From 1986-88, Mr. Sands worked in the US Embassy in Beijing, Economics Section - where he won the State Department's
Reporting Award for his work at the Embassy in reporting on developments in China's economic restructuring efforts.
Mr. Sands graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Asian Studies from City College of New York in 1973, a Masters of
Philosophy in History from Yale University in 1979, with a specialty in Japanese and Chinese history, and a Master
of Arts in Korean and Chinese language and history from Harvard University (1975). Mr. Sands speaks and writes the
Chinese language. He is based in Beijing.
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