Arctaris Annual Impact Report: Leveraging Public-Private Partnerships to Amplify Impact

Jonathan Tower

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Jonathan is founder and CEO of Arctaris Impact Investors, the largest impact-focused manager of Opportunity Zone funds nationally. He manages the Arctaris family of funds, investing in private equity, infrastructure and community-centric real estate in underserved areas. Mr. Tower invests in growth-oriented businesses in the manufacturing, technology, and services industries with heavy emphasis on underserved and underrepresented banking markets.

Mr. Tower has 20+ years of industry experience, investing in private equity and private debt, including three interim Chief Executive Officer roles in private equity-backed companies. He has worked closely with portfolio companies in the manufacturing, technology, and services industries to achieve their growth objectives, including Capterra (acquired by Gartner), Verid (acquired by EMC), QuoteShip (acquired by ICGE), Moguldom Media (acquired by Interactive One), and Xoom (IPO: XOOM).

Prior to co-founding Arctaris in 2009, Mr. Tower was a Managing Director, Operating Partner and member of the Investment Committee at Dutchess Capital, LLC. He held responsibilities both in private equity deal execution and maximizing value in portfolio companies, working with management teams to develop growth or turnaround strategies.

At Fidelity Ventures, he executed private equity and venture capital investments, focusing on the enterprise technology, security and communications sectors, including the firm’s investment in Xoom, which held an initial public offering and was acquired by Pay Pal for more than $1 billion.

At IBM, Mr. Tower was a member of the Corporate Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions and Debt Capital Markets groups, where he facilitated the issuance of more than $2 billion in term debt, launched the company’s credit hedging program, managed $250 million of A/R factoring transactions, led venture investments in five expansion-stage technology businesses, and supported two business units in divestitures that generated $300 million in profit.

Prior thereto, Mr. Tower was a Co-Founder of Vodium.com, which was acquired by Vcall.com. From 1996 to 1999, he was a Financial Journalist at Bloomberg News. Mr. Tower has published articles on corporate finance, derivatives and risk management in Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Magazine, International Herald Tribune, and the New York Times.

Mr. Tower received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 2002 and B.A. in English and Mathematics from Georgetown University in 1996.

Benjamin Bornstein

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Ben joined Arctaris in 2018 and serves as Managing Director. He focuses on fund structuring, investment evaluation, and investor development. Ben brings 25+ years of financial services experience in senior investment roles both domestically and internationally. He previously served as President of Prospero Capital Management, an investment adviser based in Chicago.

Prior to Arctaris, Ben served as CEO of Imerman Angels, the world’s largest support network for cancer fighters, survivors, and caregivers. He previously worked as a partner and portfolio manager at Omega Advisors in New York and covered the U.S. portfolio for the global fund products of Orbis Investment Management in London and Bermuda. He has a strong background in evaluating management teams, financials, and strategies for developing products.

Ben earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University. Ben graduated from Harvard Business School with high distinction as a Baker Scholar (top 5% of class), and Harvard Law School as part of the JD/MBA program. He received the John Loeb Award (awarded to the top four students in finance) and Sheridan Logan Fellowship (awarded to one Baker Scholar) at Harvard Business School.

Ben’s philanthropic interests and Board involvement include Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs (HAE), Lurie Cancer Center (Board 39), Above and Beyond Family Recovery Center, H Foundation, and Pets are Worth Saving (PAWS Chicago).

Anita Graham

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Anita joined Arctaris in 2020 and serves as Managing Director – Baltimore Market. She leads the sourcing, due diligence and execution of debt and equity investment opportunities in Baltimore. Anita has over 25 years of experience as a private equity investor and has made direct investments in an array of sectors leading transactions that total in excess of $300 million.

Prior to joining Arctaris, Anita was co-founder and Managing Director of Graham & Associates, a company that assembled and partnered with professionals experienced in assisting management teams in developing processes to meet operational and financial objectives, identifying the appropriate source of capital to support the management team’s goals, and performing internal operational and financial audits to insure that the goals are being met. Previously, Anita served as a General Partner of Opportunity Capital Partners (“OCP”), a minority-owned private equity firm (that also included an SBIC and an SSBIC) with $135 million of capital under management that focused on providing later stage growth equity to companies primarily in the telecommunications, media, industrial services and healthcare industries. Prior to joining OCP, Anita served as the President of Renaissance Capital Corporation, a company that provided equity to small middle market companies in diversified industries.

Anita served on the Advisory Board and was a founding board member of Pacific Community Ventures, a fund with over $40 million of capital under management that targets markets primarily in California. She also served as a board member of the Maryland Small Business Development Financing Authority which provides financing to small businesses throughout the state of Maryland.

Anita earned a BA in Economics from Cornell University and an Executive MBA from Golden Gate University.

Alan K Halfenger

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Alan Halfenger joined Arctaris in 2021 and is the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Arctaris Impact Investors, LLC and its advisory affiliates and funds. As a senior member of the firm’s infrastructure team, he is responsible for the compliance, legal and risk management functions. Alan has almost 30 years of legal and compliance experience in the asset management and financial services industry.

Prior to joining Arctaris, Alan served as a Consulting Partner and Practice Leader serving the operational, risk, and regulatory compliance needs of banks, fin-techs, broker dealers, asset managers and private fund managers. In these roles, he advised clients on strategy and initial registration projects, outsourced compliance support engagements, annual/mock examinations and internal investigations, cyber and risk management projects, technology selection and implementation, and regulatory/operational remediation projects.

Alan has also served as the Global Chief Compliance Officer for Bain Capital LLC. In this role, he was responsible for the development of the compliance, risk and control functions for the private equity, venture, credit, impact and hedge fund affiliates. He served in several legal and compliance roles at JP Morgan, including the Private Bank Chief Compliance Officer, where he focused on the investment management, securities and derivatives activities of the affiliated broker dealers and RIAs. Also, Alan has held legal and compliance positions in several other asset managers and broker dealers. Earlier in his career, he worked as a regulatory consultant for Price Waterhouse.

Alan holds the Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist Certification and the Series 4, 7, 9, 10, 24, 53 and 62 licenses. He graduated from the New York University Stern School of Business with a BS and a JD from the Syracuse University College of Law. He is a frequent industry speaker and writer on regulatory, compliance and risk topics. Alan has served on the boards of several non-profit and academic organizations including the Syracuse College of Law Advisory Board, the Bottom Line and the Boston Debate League.

He lives with his wife and daughter and enjoys kayaking, archery and martial arts.

Jeff Nordhaus

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Jeff Nordhaus joined Arctaris in 2022 and is a Managing Director focused on the broadband and infrastructure verticals and leads the Arctaris Broadband Company. Jeff brings to Arctaris more than 25 years of investment, finance and public sector experience.

Most recently Jeff served as Executive Vice President, Innovation & Broadband of Empire State Development, which is the economic development agency of New York State. In this role, he led the $500 million New NY Broadband Program, the largest state broadband initiative in the nation at the time. During his tenure, the Broadband program successfully established more than 125 public-private partnerships with Internet providers, thereby expanding broadband service to more than two million previously underserved locations within New York State.

Mr. Nordhaus was previously Managing Director in the Global Principal Group of Oaktree Capital Management, L.P., an alternative asset management firm based in Los Angeles, CA, where he led private equity investing for the communications, technology and leisure sectors.

Prior to joining Oaktree, Jeff was a Managing Principal of Quadrangle Group in New York, where he worked from 2001-2009. At Quadrangle, Mr. Nordhaus led private equity investments in the broadband, leisure and Internet sectors and served on the firm’s Investment Committee. Jeff has served on Boards of Directors of Cequel/Suddenlink, Bresnan Communications, GET (Norway), Dice (NYSE: DHX) and Protection One (NASDAQ: PONE).

Prior thereto, Jeff spent nearly 10 years in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs most recently as a Vice President in Communications, Media and Entertainment Group. While at Goldman, Jeff was based in Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and New York and worked on numerous marquee transactions for clients such as Qualcomm and The Walt Disney Company, amongst others.

Jeff received an A.B. with honors from Harvard College. Currently, Jeff serves as Board Member of Govern for America, member of the Andover Development Board and Harvard College undergraduate interviewer. He resides in New York and enjoys spending time near the ocean in Rhode Island.

Uche Osuji

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Uche joined Arctaris in 2014 and serves as Managing Director. He leads the portfolio management function and drives business development through relationships with banks, investors, program partners and local governments. With over 20 years of relevant industry experience, Uche sits with the Board of Directors in an advisory role for Norwich Technologies, Saddleback Ski Area, and Recaro Automotive.

Prior to Arctaris, Uche worked in finance for 13 years with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Bear Stearns. He worked in various roles of increasing levels of responsibility in relationship management, corporate credit, and portfolio management.

Uche earned a BSE from Duke University and an MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. He has served as Co-Chairperson of the Duke NY Board, Alumni Council of Phillips Academy Andover, and co-manager of a non-profit soup kitchen in the East Village of New York City.

Uche and his family reside in New York City.

Nihar Sait

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Nihar joined Arctaris in 2020 and serves as Managing Director. He is responsible for underwriting new acquisitions, evaluating development opportunities and managing the firm’s real estate portfolio. Nihar has over 20 years of professional experience in technology, investment banking, private equity and corporate development.

Prior to joining Arctaris, Nihar was a Director at Apex Investments, a New York City-based real estate investment firm focused on the acquisition, renovation, and refinancing of commercial and residential properties.

He co-founded and successfully raised seed capital for an e-commerce company that ethically sourced goods from emerging markets. Nihar has also held a number of investment roles at SUN Capital, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, where he analyzed real estate, telecom and clean technology opportunities.

Nihar earned a BA from Northwestern University, a Masters from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.