The Blueshirt Group, LLC - About - Team

Alex Wellins , , , Co-Founder and Managing Partner

Alex brings 25 years of investor relations, media relations and corporate communications experience to Blueshirt. After earning his B.A. from the University of Michigan, he spent his first years on the west coast providing marketing communications counsel to emerging Silicon Valley software startups. Alex then spent five years at Morgen-Walke Associates focusing on financial media relations then transitioned to manage investor relations programs for the largest group of technology clients at the firm. Alex has been a strategic advisor on the IPOs of many Internet, software and digital media companies and has participated in numerous high-profile M&A transactions in the technology sector.

Chris Danne , , , Co-Founder and Managing Partner

Chris has more than 25 years of IPO and investor relations experience and has helped more than 100 companies go public. Prior to forming Blueshirt, Chris was a Principal at Morgen-Walke Associates, where he ran the West Coast office. After graduating from Duke University, Chris spent two years working in Europe and Asia before joining Mallory Factor and The Equity Group in New York.

Lisa Laukkanen , , , COO and Managing Partner

Lisa brings more than 20 years of experience in investor relations, corporate communications and on Wall Street to Blueshirt. Prior to joining Blueshirt, Lisa launched and led the investor relations practice at Alexander Ogilvy Public Relations where she managed teams in New York and San Francisco and led the investor relations efforts for numerous IPOs, mergers, acquisitions and corporate initiatives both domestically and internationally. Lisa has worked with a wide range of technology companies in the semiconductor, software, and Internet sectors. Her previous experience includes managing investor relations for technology companies while at Morgen-Walke Associates and various marketing roles at PaineWebber. Lisa holds a B.A. in Management from Pine Manor College.

Mark Roberts , , , Managing Partner – BCA

Mark runs Blueshirt’s Capital Markets Advisory efforts. Mark brings both operational experience, as a CEO of a clean tech business, as well as over 15 years of investment banking experience. As a banker, Mark worked on a diverse range of IPOs, capital raises and M&A transactions in a variety of roles, including co-head of software at Thomas Weisel Partners, and global head of semiconductors and semiconductor capital equipment at Bear Stearns. He holds an MBA from the Stern School of Business at NYU, and a B.A. from Duke University.

Lana Adair , , , Managing Director

Lana is a veteran finance professional with two decades of sell-side, buy-side and strategic advisory experience. Most recently, Lana founded LLA Advisors to help early stage companies with pitch development and venture capital raising. Previously, Lana covered small- and mid-cap consumer and internet stocks as an equity research analyst with Piper Jaffray and Banc of America Securities. Earlier in her career, Lana was an associate at North Castle Partners, a $600m private equity fund in Greenwich. Lana began her career in Salomon Brothers’ investment banking analyst program and worked on IPO, follow-on equity and M&A transactions. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Northwestern University.

Michael Anderson , , , Managing Director

Mike brings 30 years of capital market experience to Blueshirt. The majority of his experience is in equity capital markets at firms including JP Morgan, UBS and BMO, working with clients across multiple sectors as well as with leading private equity firms. Prior to equity capital markets, he spent time in leverage finance and privately placed debt capital solutions. Mike earned his BA from Tufts and an MBA from Yale.

Lori Barker , , , Managing Director

Lori has 30 years of finance and in-house investor relations experience, including building the first in-house Investor Relations programs for Symantec, SanDisk and Remedy Software. She has managed crisis communications, including hostile takeover offers, shareholder litigation and proxy battles. Her expertise includes M&A, perception studies, investor targeting and growing analyst coverage. Industry experiences include Technology, Semiconductor, Software, Fortune 500 IT Distribution, Consumer Goods and Retail. Lori is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, and she holds an MBA from Santa Clara University. She began her career as a CPA at Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Co.

Nicole Borsje , , , Managing Director

Nicole joined Blueshirt in 2014 from Jefferies where she was a Vice President in their Equity Capital Markets Group. Prior to joining Blueshirt, Nicole spent almost 8 years working on the execution of IPOs and follow-on offerings as part of the Equity Syndicate desks of Jefferies and UBS. During that time, Nicole worked on over 75 bookrun IPOs across a broad range of sectors including Technology, Healthcare, Consumer and Real Estate. While at Blueshirt, Nicole has worked with a variety of Software and Internet companies for both Pre-IPO advisory and public company Investor Relations. Nicole received her B.S. in Business Administration from Georgetown University’s Robert E. McDonough School of Business.

Irmina Blaszczyk , , , Managing Director

Irmina joined The Blueshirt Group in 2017, with 13 years of in-house investor relations and strategic communications experience in the Technology space. She was previously at Symantec, managing investor relations during the spinoff of VERITAS Technologies. Irmina has extensive experience as a corporate spokesperson, implementing effective investor relations’ strategies at public and private companies and managing crisis communications during corporate transactions. She began her career in investor relations at ATI Technologies in Canada and moved to San Francisco after its acquisition by AMD. Irmina also spent two years at Deloitte and Deloitte Hong Kong developing and implementing a worldwide partner-training program across the Americas, Europe and Asia. Irmina has a BA in Economics with a Finance Specialization and French Minor from the University of Waterloo in Canada.

Stacie Clements , , , Managing Director

Stacie brings over 15 years of investor relations experience, serving as strategic advisor to leading public and private technology companies. Stacie re-joined Blueshirt in 2020 as a Managing Director where she focuses on client relationships in the software and consumer internet sectors. Prior to this, Stacie served as the Vice President of Investor Relations at Quotient (NYSE: QUOT) where she advised and created strategies around corporate positioning, transformational events, M&A and proxy solicitation. She also led Quotient’s Corporate Social Responsibility efforts. Stacie started her investor relations career in 2005 at Blueshirt where she implemented dozens of IR programs. She holds a B.A. in Journalism from California State University, Chico.

Gary Dvorchak , , , Managing Director

Gary brings significant capital markets and media expertise to Blueshirt. Before joining Blueshirt from a competing IR firm, he had two decades of experience as a portfolio manager and analyst in the institutional investment management business. Gary co-founded an investment boutique that successfully IPOed a closed-end mutual fund (NYSE:FAV); was a portfolio manager on a long-short equity fund; and was a co-portfolio manager (covering technology) for an institutional small cap strategy with over $4 billion of AUM. Gary started his investment career in research at investment bank Hambrecht & Quist. From 2004 through 2014, Gary was a high profile contributor to Jim Cramer’s Real Money financial news website. Gary earned his MBA at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Before business school, Gary spent four years in the computer industry as a software developer and project manager. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. Gary earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1996. Gary resides in Beijing, China.

Jeff Fox , , , Managing Director

Jeff leads the Blueshirt Strategic Media Team and has over 20 years’ experience in PR and communications, specializing in helping companies refine their messaging and bring their stories to national business and financial media. Jeff has worked with private and public companies across all industries and has helped numerous companies through their IPOs, SPACs and Direct Listings. He was recently recognized by Business Insider as one of the Top PR Pros for IPOs. Jeff holds an M.B.A. from George Washington University and a B.S. degree from the University at Buffalo.

Monica Gould , , , Managing Director

Monica brings more than fifteen years of Investor Relations and Wall Street experience to Blueshirt. She was previously Executive Director of Investor Relations at Time Warner. Prior to that Monica established and ran a Corporate Access desk for Credit Suisse and served eight years as a sell-side equity analyst on a top-ranked Institutional Investor team at Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank where she covered the telecom equipment sector. Monica holds an MBA from the Stern School of Business at NYU and a B.A. in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Albany.

Lindsay Grant Savarese , , , Managing Director

Lindsay joined Blueshirt in April 2014. Prior to Blueshirt, Lindsay worked in the Multifamily Finance group at Walker & Dunlop where she underwrote commercial mortgages. Lindsay graduated from Washington & Lee University with a BS in Business Administration.

Christine Greany , , , Managing Director

Christine has more than 20 years of investor relations experience, representing companies across a broad range of industries, including consumer, media and software. Christine established an independent IR/Corporate Communications practice in 2001 after spending 2 years as a Senior Partner at Integrated Corporate Relations (ICR) and 10 years as a Senior Vice President/Group Director at Morgen-Walke Associates. She has been an instructor and guest lecturer on financial public relations and investor relations at the New York University School of Continuing & Professional Studies.

Barry Hutton , , , Managing Director

Barry brings over 20 years of capital markets experience spanning investment banking, portfolio management and investor relations. He has expertise throughout the corporate lifecycle including private equity, public listings, corporate strategy, M&A and various special situations. Prior to joining Blueshirt, Barry worked as an investment banker in New York with both Schroder and J.P. Morgan. He then had global responsibilities for portfolio management with BofA Securities in San Francisco. Over the last 15 plus years, Barry has focused on investor relations serving as Head of Investor Relations within two public technology companies and holding senior positions within nationwide advisory firms. Barry has earned a B.S. Business Administration from the University of the Pacific and an MBA from the University of Rochester.

Jennifer Jarman , , , Co-founder & Managing Director

Jennifer Jarman is a founding member of The Blueshirt Group and has 15 years’ experience developing and implementing comprehensive investor relations programs for companies in the Internet and digital media sectors. Prior to joining Blueshirt, she spent over two years in the technology group at Morgen-Walke Associates. Before starting her career in investor relations, Jennifer lived in Brussels, Belgium where she worked for Network Operations Worldwide, an executive recruitment company, and The Wall Street Journal Europe. She holds a B.A. in Communication and Psychology from Tulane University.

Brinlea Johnson , , , Managing Director

Brinlea joined Blueshirt in October of 2001 in San Francisco, and transitioned to our New York office in 2003. Brinlea has been a strategic advisor on many IPOs and has participated in numerous high-profile M&A transactions in the technology sector. She manages client relationships both in San Francisco and New York, and also coordinates non-deal roadshows around the country. Prior to joining Blueshirt, she worked in institutional sales at Robertson Stephens. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a BA in Communications and Psychology.

Rachel Kahn , , , Managing Director

Rachel has nearly 15 years’ experience in public relations and corporate communications, most recently serving as head of corporate communications at Activision Blizzard. Rachel was previously vice president and head of Sparkpr’s technology, media, and entertainment practice, creating high-impact programs for clients such as Walmart, Warner Bros./DC Entertainment, and eharmony. Rachel earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration & Marketing from the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona.

Whitney Kukulka , , , Managing Director

Whitney joined Blueshirt in 2014, bringing both investment banking and institutional investor advisory experience. While at Blueshirt, Whitney has worked with companies across a wide range of industries, including internet, software, consumer and media in both Pre-IPO Advisory and public company Investor Relations capacities. Prior to joining the firm, Whitney worked in the investment banking group at Sandler O’Neill & Partners where she focused on business valuation for IPOs, M&A and capital raises for financial institutions. Previously, Whitney worked at Cambridge Associates, an investment advisory firm, designing portfolio management strategies for institutional investors. Whitney earned her B.S. in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Arizona, Eller College of Management.

Chris Mammone , , , Managing Director

Chris brings more than 20 years of experience in investor relations, equity research and investment banking to Blueshirt. Prior to joining Blueshirt in 2019, Chris spent 7 years building strategic, high-impact internal investor relations programs for publicly-traded companies in the Financial Technology sector, including Verifone and Green Dot. Chris spent more than a decade at Deutsche Bank Securities in New York, primarily as a senior equity research analyst providing lead research coverage for a variety of Payment Services, Transaction Processing, and Financial Technology companies. Chris holds a B.A. of Business Administration, Finance from the University of Notre Dame.

Scott McCabe , , , Managing Director

Scott joined Blueshirt after 17 years on Wall Street, with 5 years on the sell side and 12 years on the buyside. Scott was a Vice President at Lehman, as part of a #1 I.I. ranked research team focused on enterprise and carrier technologies. On the buyside, Scott was a senior analyst, sector head and senior portfolio manager focused on the tech, media, and telecom industries at JAT Capital, Talpion, Columbia Threadneedle, UBS Asset Management and Millennium Management. He has BAs in Economics and Mathematics from Northwestern University.

Gregory McNiff , , , Managing Director

Gregory McNiff is a Managing Director in the New York office with more than 20 years of technology and telecom experience. Prior to joining Blueshirt, Greg worked at Nomura as a sell-side equity analyst covering the communications infrastructure sector. Prior to Nomura, Greg ran Business Development for XO Communications. Greg also has experience in early stage venture capital, investment banking, and corporate strategy. Greg holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, an M. Litt. in Shakespeare Studies from the University of St. Andrews and a BA in Classical Languages from Columbia University.

Andrew Neff , , , Managing Director

Andy brings over 35 years of experience in equity research across a broad range of technology ranging from start-ups to mega-cap companies including involvement in many IPOs, secondaries and M&A transactions. Most recently, Andy was a VP at Gartner Invest where he covered sectors/companies in data center infrastructure (servers, storage, cloud), hardware (mobile phones, PCs, tablets, wearables, printers), software/services, communications, semiconductors and 3D printing. Previously, Andy was a senior managing director at Bear Stearns, where he was voted to the Institutional Investor All-Star team for 16 straight years in computing and developed and coordinated Bear Stearns' technology research team. He received his MBA in finance from Harvard Business School and BA (cum laude) from the University of Rochester. He divides his time between the NYC area and Israel.

Leslie Phillips , , , Managing Director

Leslie brings several years of communications and marketing experience to Blueshirt. Her previous experience includes business development for The Louis Berger Group, an infrastructure engineering firm, and clean tech financing consulting for Arup, a building design firm. Leslie received a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an M.B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin. She also studied in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and speaks Portuguese and Spanish.

Lauren Sloane , , , Managing Director

Lauren has been working at The Blueshirt Group since 2011 on investor relations for technology companies, including semiconductor, telecommunication, IP communications, and IoT businesses. She began her career in investor relations at MidOcean Partners, a New York based private equity firm. Prior, she worked as an analyst at Paradigm Investment Group. Lauren holds an M.A. in International Business from NYU and a B.A. in International Relations from UC San Diego.

Melanie Solomon , , , Managing Director

Melanie joined Blueshirt in 2011 after seven years at NY-based Stern Investor Relations, a biotechnology-focused IR firm, where she was vice president. She has extensive experience shaping the investor relations programs of pre- and post-IPO companies, with particular strengths in strategy implementation, document generation and competitive intelligence. At Blueshirt, Melanie is working with both private and public companies. Melanie is a graduate of Cornell University with a B.S. in Communication, and she also spent time working in the wine industry.

Yujia Zhai , , , Managing Director

Yujia joined Blueshirt as a Bitcoin and crypto specialist. He has been actively investing in this space since 2017 and is deeply passionate about the democratization of finance and the potential for Bitcoin to disrupt the existing fiat monetary system as well as incentivize a renewable energy revolution. Yujia brings 16 years of diverse experiences around Investor Relations and capital markets to Blueshirt. After graduating with a B.A. in accounting, Yujia worked as an auditor for Deloitte, where he obtained his CPA. Afterwards, Yujia helped develop and manage the Investor Relations department of a small cap solar company while going through an IPO. Next, Yujia worked as a sell-side analyst at Voyant Advisors where he researched and marketed potential sell/short ideas among publicly traded companies with deteriorating earnings and cash flows. In 2014, Yujia joined Qualcomm, a $200 billion market cap fabless semiconductor company, where he led the Corporate FP&A department. During his tenure, his expertise contributed to managing several important capital markets events: managing an activist investor; a hostile takeover attempt from the Broadcom; the $140 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductor; lawsuits from the FTC and Apple; a $10 billion accelerated stock repurchase plan; and $20 billion of bond issuances.

Tiffany Behany , , , Director

Tiffany is a skilled communications professional and former CNBC producer with more than a decade of experience in helping companies tell their stories. She specializes in broadcast and media relations with a proven track record of success in developing and executing media strategies for consumer and technology clientele. She has secured top-tier media coverage for companies including Activision Blizzard, Realtor.com, eharmony and DC. Tiffany holds an M.A. in Strategic Communications from Seton Hall University and B.A in Communications from Rutgers.

Ellen Davis Hayes-Roth , , , Director

Ellen joined The Blueshirt Group in 2011 where she manages investor relations (IR) for software and hardware companies. In addition to advising clients on their IR programs, Ellen also leads Blueshirt’s recruiting efforts in investor relations and related corporate functions. Having spent over 8 years providing strategic counsel to both public and pre-IPO technology companies, Ellen is well suited to understand the blended finance and communications skillset required to be successful in IR roles. Before joining Blueshirt, Ellen worked for one of the nation’s largest institutional investment firms providing equity financing for residential real estate development. She holds an M.A. Investor Relations from the University of San Francisco and a B.A. in Sociology from San Francisco State University.

Emily Greenstein , , , Director

Emily has been working at The Blueshirt Group since 2017 on investor relations for a wide range of companies across Internet, Consumer Retail, Automotive and Software industries. She has experience with international public companies, including businesses based out of England, Brazil and Israel. Emily holds a Bachelor of Science in Managerial Economics from the University of California, Davis.

Drew Haroldson , , , Director

Drew joined Blueshirt in December 2020, bringing sell-side research and in-house investor relations experience. Drew graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science, and holds a Master of Science in Finance from Johns Hopkins University.

Sabrina Mathews , , , Director

Sabrina joined Blueshirt in 2018. While at Blueshirt, Sabrina has worked with a variety of companies across Cybersecurity, Software, and Internet. Sabrina received her Bachelor of Science, Commerce in Marketing from Santa Clara University’s Leavy School of Business.

Bill Newby , , , Director

Bill joined Blueshirt in July 2021. Prior to Blueshirt, Bill worked as an equity research analyst at D.A. Davidson covering the consumer and industrial verticals. Bill graduated from Linfield University with a BS in Finance.

Hilary Sumnicht , , , Director

Hilary joined Blueshirt in 2021, bringing marketing, asset management and institutional investor advisory experience. Prior to Blueshirt, Hilary worked at GCM Grosvenor focusing on diversified infrastructure investments. Hilary received her Bachelor of Science in Marketing from the University of Arizona, Eller College of Management.