On February 2, 2023, we will host an Upstate Capital breakfast event at the Saturn Club. The event will start at 8:00am and will include networking and panel discussion followed by an invitation-only roundtable.
The next event in the series will take place on February 2, 2023 at The Saturn Club (977 Delaware Ave, Buffalo NY 14209)
Registration
Who Will Be There?
The event will be attended by executives, investors, and industry professionals interested in early stage and lower middle market equity.
Tickets
Tickets: $95 For Upstate Capital members: $50
Not yet an Upstate Capital member? Become a member today.
Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Banking Officer of Five Star Bank
Mr. Quinn has been Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Banking Officer of Five Star Bank since February 2021. He joined the Bank in August 2020 as Senior Vice President, Commercial Banking Executive. Previously, he served for 15 years in leadership roles with HSBC Bank USA, NA, most recently as Managing Director and Regional Head of Corporate Banking. He began his career as an attorney with Jones Day in Cleveland, Ohio and subsequently spent 10 years in commercial banking at M&T Bank.
Conversation: Upstate investors talk about their outlooks for 2023
Tom Quinn
Chief Executive Officer of The WNY Impact Investment Fund
Thomas is the Chief Executive Officer at the Western New York Impact Investment Fund. He has deep experience leading high growth entrepreneurial ventures, raising capital, and creating high-functioning management teams. Prior, he was President of Baton Pharma and Infonaut.
Somak is a Founder and Managing Partner at Armory Square Ventures where he invests in software, mobile, and technology-enabled services companies across New York state and the greater northeast region. He is also a board member of the Upstate Capital Association of New York, as well as Clerio Vision, Vizbee, and ACV Auctions. Somak earned his BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Columbia Business School.
Randy Bianchi is Managing Director of Lakelet Capital. He has over 25 years of entrepreneurial and management experience as well as 10 years of experience as Business Development Partner at Summer Street Capital Partners.
Managing Director, Direct Credit Investments at Hamilton Lane
Trevor is a Managing Director on Hamilton Lane’s Direct Credit Team, where he is responsible for leading the evaluation and due diligence of direct credit investment opportunities.
Prior to joining Hamilton Lane in 2015, Trevor was a Principal with Ares Management, where he evaluated and executed private debt transactions in middle market companies. Previously, he was a Vice President with Allied Capital Corporation, a middle market investment firm headquartered in Washington, DC. He began his career at Harris Williams & Co., executing sell-side investment banking engagements.
Trevor received an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a B.B.A. in Finance from the College of William and Mary.
Kelsey Thomas, CPA
Senior Manager – Transaction Advisory Services at Withum
Kelsey is a Western New York native with diverse professional experience spanning a wide range of businesses, industries, and geographies. Her background includes nearly a decade of transaction advisory experience with private companies and private equity. She couples her public accounting background with deep knowledge of the local community, and in addition to her experience, brings the resources of her organization to her participation on the Board. WithumSmith+Brown is an international top 100 public accounting firm.
Invitation only: Roundtable Sessions Roundtables are offered for investors, entrepreneurs and professional advisors. If you’d like an invitation, please contact Noa Simons at noa@upstatecapital.org.
Noa Simons
President & CEO, Upstate Capital Association of New York
Noa Simons is an entrepreneur, investor and ecosystem builder. She leads the Upstate Capital Association of New York, an organization that increases access to capital for companies across the state. Noa manages a robust membership network and convenes events on technology, trends and best practices for investors, entrepreneurs and professional advisors. She emphasizes collaboration and inclusion across the ecosystem.
She participates in several investment initiatives across the Upstate NY ecosystem. She is a co-founder, former manager and current advisor to the Hudson Valley Startup Fund, a member-managed place-based seed capital fund. She is an Executive Advisor to Genius NY, a $5M business plan competition focused on unmanned systems and big data/IoT startups. She serves on the Launch NY Investment Committee, the Jeff Lawrence Manufacturing Innovation Grants Committee, the Tech Garden’s External Review Committee for Grants for Growth, and on the board of the Hudson Valley Technology Development Center. She is also an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for NYSERDA.
Prior, Noa worked in a private family office that led to the launch of a China-based venture capital firm. She managed early-stage startup tech-to-commercialization projects in wind turbine development and waste-to-energy. At TD Growth Capital, she sourced early stage technologies in the cleantech sector and conducted deep due diligence, primarily in energy and transportation. Through the family office, Noa also served as interim CEO at Norton Motorcycles in Portland, Oregon, and she built and launched the digital archive housed at the Mary Ferrell Foundation. She started her career at a fast-growing education company headquartered in the Boston, MA area.
She earned a B.A. in Politics from Brandeis University, and attended Miss Hall’s School where she graduated Summa Cum Laude.
