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.

Robert F. Mancuso

Chief Executive Officer

  • Robert F. Mancuso is the Chief Executive Officer of Capri Capital Partners, a pioneer in the alternative assets category and a decades long investor. In his capacity as CEO, Robert oversees all operations of Capri Capital Partners, and has direct involvement in the sourcing, evaluation and management of the firm’s investments.

    Robert 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, which he helped found. Merrill was the first Wall Street firm to raise a captive private equity fund from institutional investors. Robert helped design Merrill’s 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 billion dollar leveraged buyout ever done by anyone which was done with KKR as Merrill’s equity partner.  

    Robert subsequently founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of two merchant banking firms, Mancuso & Company and The Dellacorte Group.

    Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Robert was associated with Lazard Freres & Co, and also practiced law with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. 

    Over his career, Robert has led teams that raised over $7 billion in financing, tapping numerous providers of senior, mezzanine, and equity capital, from both public and private sources. He has also served on the boards of directors of twelve companies ranging in size from $75 million to $4 billion in annual sales.

  • Robert is a thought leader in the family office direct investing space.  He is the author of several articles that address the investing needs of Single Family Offices and the challenges of direct investing, and a frequent speaker at family office conferences in the U.S. and abroad. 

    Select publications and speaking engagements include:

  • Ray 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.

    Ray and Robert have known each other for approximately four years, during which time Ray’s insights and expertise in financial affairs and governance became evident. His decades of experience and success in the restructuring of troubled companies is enviable. These skills should help avoid operational crises which may occur in CHF’s portfolio. It is likely that 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 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 past eight years. 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 CHF’s activities on both a pre-acquisition and post-purchase basis.

  • 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 credit officer for an AI fintech company catering to institutional lenders, and co-founded an investment fund focusing on residential real estate.

    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 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.

    • Rod Simon is a catalyst for sustainable generational growth and impact, deeply rooted in the heart of West Texas with a profound connection to his family's rich legacy in the cattle and grain industry. As the visionary Board Chair of the Families-4-Philanthropy Foundation, Rod is dedicated to fostering collaboration among private businesses, public corporations, and conservationists to create a world where collective efforts benefit people, the planet, and animals alike. With over 35 years of operational experience, as a fourth-generation family business, Rod's operations expertise excels in expanding his family's portfolio holdings and advising others. He leads with a generational predictive farsighted approach. 

    • Rod's journey captures decades of accomplishments and sacrifices. From the early days of his great grandparents in the 1850s, raising cattle, milking cows, herding sheep, and Angora goats gave the foundation and platform for the family. Rod's last thirty-five plus years have been dedicated to expanding the family's global infrastructure interests in private operating entities and public market holdings. He is now legacy planning to “hand the reins,” of the last three generations, by transferring these assets to the fifth generation. Rod's family life experiences, starting at the age of eight, raising and shearing his own Angora goats, instilled in him the true American dream passed down by his family. This family heritage of embracing hard work, personal sacrifice, and commitment to leaving the earth in a better place is what brings lasting insight and, "Let your daily passion be to expand wisely and diversify with the intent of remaining focused for future generations.”

    • At the forefront of his family office portfolio, consisting mostly of infrastructure companies, Rod’s collaborative initiatives are focused on innovative technologies, clean and renewable energy, and the development of portable, commercially viable smart distributed energy systems for global utilities. His growing endeavors spanning fifteen countries, reflect a steadfast dedication to global impact and sustainability.

    • Rod champions the power of teamwork, strongly believing that "collaboration is essential to success." Through the F4P Foundation, he collaborates with global ambassadors and corporate sponsors to combine their efforts to provide greater empowerment of family legacies by utilizing 501(c)(3) organizations, sparking meaningful change and illuminating a path towards a brighter future. Guided by inspirational mantras such as, "You become unstoppable when you work on things people can't take away from you," Rod emphasizes perseverance and vision in creating enduring, impactful benefits. Rod's advisory focus is on generational transfers of family-held businesses. His role as an Advisory Board Member provides deep understanding of multi-generational family dynamics. “His biographical history is for the benefit of families, Fund investors and Fund managers who can draw on his generational experiences and significant insights.” - LinkedIn

    • Tirto Adji, a seasoned entrepreneur, investor, and family office expert, embodies the spirit of a remarkable Indonesian success story. He is the wealth manager for an 85-year-old conglomerate from Indonesia that began its humble beginnings as a small trading company for commodities and has since evolved into a leading family business in the country. The conglomerate, with a rich family business history, is diversifying its interests into different industries spanning palm oil, real estate, financial services, and tech investments. Now in its third generation, the conglomerate stands as a testament to resilience, innovation, and sustained success. With over 200,000 employees worldwide, the family business has played a crucial role in shaping Indonesia's economic landscape and nation-building, becoming one of the largest and most influential business entities in Asia.

    • Harnessing the entrepreneurial legacy of the family business and his own journey as an entrepreneur, Tirto serves as the key advisor to both the principal and next generations of the conglomerate. He offers financial planning, investment advice, risk management, philanthropy, and overall guidance on family office governance and best practices. Additionally, Tirto brings expertise in areas such as market analysis, mergers and acquisitions, and business development to assist the conglomerate with its private markets’ investment strategies. He also advises and guides family businesses through the complexities of succession planning, preparing the future leaders to ensure seamless transitions and sustained legacies. Active in community endeavors, Tirto represents Asian family businesses as a thought leader and speaker at International Family Business Conferences, while also playing a key role in a global network of family offices, enhancing their prosperity through strategic investment and risk management.

    • In addition to his business responsibilities and corporate roles, Tirto remains deeply dedicated to philanthropic pursuits. He supports non-profit organizations such as Cosmopolis, a platform aiding refugees, and partners with UNHCR to address the global refugee crisis, as evidenced at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

    • With over 25 years of experience as a technologist and investor in Silicon Valley, Tirto earned an MSc in Computer Science from SJSU and acquired advanced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning credentials from Stanford University. Preceding his current roles, Tirto held technical leadership positions at esteemed companies like National Semiconductor and Yahoo. Furthermore, he also serves as a member of the board of directors and observer for leading healthcare and fintech startup companies in the US.

    • 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