Aperture Venture Partners

General Partners

Paul E. Tierney, Jr. has been a highly respected global investment professional for over thirty years. His experience and relationships help Aperture’s portfolio companies in a variety of valuable ways (strategy, capital raising, M&A, business development, corporate governance). Prior to Aperture, Paul co-founded and ran Coniston Partners and its successor partnerships throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Financial, operational and strategic decisions helped Paul build Coniston to over $1 billion in capital and generate significant returns to the shareholders and limited partners. Paul also founded and ran other investment vehicles, including Coniston Global Partners, Corporate Value Partners and Darwin Capital Partners, all of which generated superior returns to shareholders. He serves on the Board of Altea Therapeutics and is actively involved with other portfolio companies of Aperture. He is Chairman of the Board of TechnoServe, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship in Latin America and Africa, and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School teaching courses on private equity. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He received his M.B.A. as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School and a B.A. with high honors from the University of Notre Dame.

Thomas P. Cooper, M.D. is a nationally recognized healthcare entrepreneur, having used his medical training and business experience to found several companies which have become the national leaders in their respective fields and generated $2 billion in revenues. His experience and relationships help Aperture’s portfolio companies in a variety of valuable ways (operations, strategy, recruiting, regulatory, reimbursement). Companies that Tom has founded include a national emergency physician company (Spectrum Emergency Care: Acquired by Laidlaw, Inc.), the largest correctional facility healthcare company (Correctional Medical Services) and the largest provider of X-Ray/EKG to nursing homes (Mobilex USA: Acquired by Integrated Health Services). These companies have had combined revenues of over $2 billion, serve over five thousand facilities, are located in all 50 states and reach more than four million patients. Tom serves on the Boards of Cardiocore Lab, IPC The Hospitalist Company and Kindred Healthcare and is actively involved with other portfolio companies of Aperture. He is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School teaching courses on entrepreneurship. He received his M.D. from Indiana University and his B.A. from DePauw University.

Eric H. Sillman has worked at Aperture since inception and is involved in all aspects of the business. He is actively engaged with many of Aperture’s portfolio companies. Prior to Aperture, Eric worked in a variety of professional services capacities. At UBS, he executed merger and acquisition, equity and debt transactions in a variety of industries. At The Parthenon Group, he helped companies assess expansion strategies and e-commerce initiatives. At TechnoServe, he assisted early stage companies with market analyses, financial management and organizational structures and instituted a methodology to measure organizational impact. He serves on the Board of Agora Partnerships and on TechnoServe's Board of Members. He received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and B.A. from Brown University.

Advisory Board

Paul R. Charron retired as Chief Executive Officer of Liz Claiborne, Inc. in 2006, a position he held since 1995. From 1996-2006, Mr. Charron was also Chairman of the Board. He currently serves as an Advisor to Warburg Pincus, LLC, the global private equity group. Previously, Mr. Charron was Executive Vice President of VF Corporation, the country's largest publicly-held apparel manufacturer. Before joining VF in 1988, Mr. Charron served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Brown & Bigelow, the Minnesota-based promotional products firm. He also served as Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing at Cannon Mills Company, a New York-based bath and bedding manufacturer, and worked in marketing management positions at General Foods Corporation. His business career began in the brand management organization at Procter & Gamble. Mr. Charron currently serves on the boards of the National Retail Federation, where he serves as Second Vice Chairman, and the American Apparel & Footwear Association, where he served as Chairman. He currently serves as a Director of Campbell Soup Company and Vital Voices Global Partnership. In addition, Mr. Charron is a member of the American Society of Corporate Executives. Mr. Charron is a graduate of Notre Dame University and Harvard Business School.

Peter A. Flaherty is a Director Emeritus of McKinsey & Company. Mr. Flaherty served for many years on McKinsey’s Investment Advisory Committee, which is responsible for pension and discretionary partner investments, with a particular focus on alternative investments. In June 2001, he moved to part-time status with McKinsey to focus increasingly on private investing and not-for-profit interests. Since 2005, Mr. Flaherty has been a Managing Director of Arcon Partners, a private investment firm. He is a member of the Boards of Rockefeller University, The Foreign Policy Association, The Kenyon Review, TechnoServe and the Leadership Academy of the New York City Schools. He is Chairman of the Advisory Council for the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of the Institute for International Studies at Stanford University and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Flaherty is a graduate of Stanford University, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the Harvard Business School.

Keith R. Gollust is a private investor and, along with Mr. P. Tierney, a founding partner of Gollust, Tierney, and Oliver, a private investment firm. Mr. Gollust is Chairman of the Board of Synta Pharmaceuticals, an emerging public pharmaceutical company with a diverse pipeline of drugs targeting large therapeutic markets. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, a director of The Juilliard School and a member of the Advisory Council of the Princeton University Department of Astrophysics. Mr. Gollust is a graduate of Princeton University and the Carnegie Mellon School of Business Administration.

Edward L. Kuntz is a leading healthcare executive in the United States, bringing deep industry knowledge and contacts. He currently is Executive Chairman of Kindred Healthcare, Inc., one of the largest providers of long-term healthcare services in the United States. Kindred is a New York Stock Exchange listed company with revenues in excess of $4 billion, and is also a Fortune “500” company. In January 2004, Mr. Kuntz relinquished his position as CEO of Kindred, after serving as CEO for more than five years. Prior to Kindred, Mr. Kuntz was an advisor to a number of healthcare companies and investment groups, including a venture capital firm. He was also CEO of Living Centers of America, a leading long-term healthcare company. Mr. Kuntz began his career in the private practice of law and then served as General Counsel of ARA Services (now Aramark). Mr. Kuntz serves as a director of Rotech Healthcare and PharMerica. He has been active in numerous professional associations, including the Alliance for Quality Healthcare, the American Health Care Association and the Federation of American Hospitals. Mr. Kuntz graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree and also received Juris Doctor and Master of Law degrees from Temple University.