Jamie is a senior advisor at Norwest Venture Partners, providing counsel to Norwest’s portfolio companies in the areas of E-Commerce and performance marketing.

During her career, Jamie has been a key partner in launching, scaling, and optimizing brands utilizing digital marketing and E-Commerce best practices. Her experience ranges from customer analytics to growth and performance marketing.

Currently, Jamie leads E-Commerce and Performance Marketing at Vuori, a performance apparel brand in the Norwest Portfolio. She serves as the key member for driving online revenue through optimizing performance marketing spend, partnering with digital and technology to act as a stakeholder on revenue-driving initiatives, and understands the customer and the business through analytics. Her role has evolved at Vuori, working closely with digital and technology as well as marketing.

Prior to Vuori, Jamie led E-Commerce Marketing at Stance and helped launch the first DTC snack brand at Frito-Lay, serving on the company’s first E-Commerce Marketing team. Her experience ranges from CPG to apparel and all aspects responsible for driving and understanding growth.

Jamie holds a BBA in Marketing from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.

 

Sandy is a passionate entrepreneurial leader with three decades of deep expertise in the beauty industry. She is a senior advisor at Norwest Venture Partners, providing counsel to Norwest’s portfolio companies in the areas of marketing, operations strategy, and execution. Sandy has a proven track record for successfully building global beauty brands for private, public, and Fortune 25 companies. She is currently the CEO of True Botanicals, where she is driving exceptional and profitable growth for the clean and sustainable direct-to-consumer luxury skincare brand.

Sandy began her career in beauty in southern California at Sebastian Professional, one of the most innovative salon haircare companies of its time. Sandy worked directly with the founders and gained responsibility across key areas of the business including global brand management, international sales, research & product development, and creative direction. After 10 years of building her early career there, Sebastian was acquired by global haircare giant Wella Germany, which was then acquired by Procter & Gamble. Sandy stayed on with P&G for eight years as Global Vice President for the haircare division, first in Geneva, Switzerland where she led the integration of the professional group while continuing to build the Sebastian brand globally through product innovation and international distribution. She then relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio, where she had marketing responsibility over the multi-billion-dollar mass haircare division in the US.

When Sandy was ready to come back to her beloved California, she took on a key role as SVP/CMO for iconic consumer brand Bare Escentuals, owned by the Shiseido group, where she was responsible for helping the brand regain market leadership as the #1 complexion brand in prestige beauty and top five beauty brand. She also helped deliver new consumer acquisition with four consecutive #1 beauty industry launches. Sandy had direct responsibility for the global brand but also the direct channels, including e-commerce, subscription, and QVC, and partnered closely to build the business in beauty’s biggest retailers, Sephora & Ulta.

After an exciting five years at Bare Escentuals, Sandy went on to become the CMO for KENDO BRANDS, a division of LVMH. There, she was responsible for setting the global marketing strategies across digital, influencer, social, and creative for five brands including the explosive and disruptive launch of Fenty Beauty by Rihanna, which fueled frenzy and connection with consumers globally, ultimately helping to influence the way other beauty brands consider & infuse inclusivity in their marketing practices.

Well-known for her management style and building best-in-class teams, whether it be a 20-person startup or an organization of 400+, Sandy’s fierce and compassionate leadership infuses hard work, humor, and humanity to unlock people’s fullest potential into delivering exceptional results with focus & integrity. Many have followed her to various companies over the years, with several lead team members working with her across 3+ companies.

Sandy has been a keynote speaker at Beauty Biz Roundtable, Columbia University Black Business Students Association, and most recently the globally streamed Google Marketing Live event where she shared how inclusion was woven into the fabric of the Fenty Beauty launch. Sandy has also garnered multiple industry awards over the years, including twice been the recipient of the “San Francisco Business Times Most Influential Women” award.

Sandy finds incredible joy in mentoring young women and supporting children and animal causes. She is an alum of the University of Southern California and she is fluent in several languages including French and Arabic. She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children.

 

Shu Dar brings nearly two decades of expertise in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and impact investing to Norwest. As a Senior Advisor, she works closely with Norwest and its broad portfolio of companies to educate and guide them on climate change, social inequality, and related risks and opportunities.

Shu Dar is a recognized financier with experience leading organizations to identify, structure, and fundraise for environmental and social transactions. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lucid Capitalism, a boutique ESG and impact investing advisory practice.

At RSF Social Finance, Shu Dar led investments and served as Chairwoman of the Investment Committee, rewrote the firm’s investment policy statement and impact strategy, and oversaw the restructuring and subsequent portfolio management of its $70 million impact and ESG portfolio. Previously, she served as the Director of Capital Formation and Investor Relations at Social Finance, an impact investing firm leading Pay-for-Success project financings.

Shu Dar was a VP at Citi’s Inclusive Finance and Digital Acceleration groups where she arranged market-based poverty alleviation transactions. These included Green Bonds, and investments in cleantech and social enterprises, with a particular focus on fintech for the underbanked in Asia and Africa. At the World Bank’s IFC, she was an investor on the Global Infrastructure team and developed the $4bn Global Infrastructure Crisis Facility. She started her career as an investment banker at JPMorgan, working in Global M&A, Syndicated Leveraged Finance, and Private Equity Sponsors before and during the subprime crisis.

Shu Dar received an MBA from MIT Sloan and graduated magna cum laude from NYU Stern with a BS in Finance and International Business. Shu Dar is the daughter of immigrants and was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She lives in Bernal Heights in San Francisco with her partner and daughter.

Rachel is passionate about developing unique programming to help build a culture of openness and belonging that embraces diversity as a dimension of a company’s overall talent strategy. As a Senior Advisor, Rachel works closely with Norwest and its broad portfolio of companies to educate and guide them on diversity and inclusion strategies and best practices.

Rachel Williams is a Bay Area native with more than 20 years of experience in Silicon Valley. Her experience spans human resources – recruiting, strategic employee relations and engagement, organizational change, culture & learning development, inclusion programming, and implementation. Rachel is the former Head of Equity Inclusion & Diversity at Google X – the moonshot factory. X creates novel technology solutions to address the world’s most challenging problems.

Prior to X, Rachel held roles as the first Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion at StubHub where she focused her efforts on bringing equity to the company’s workforce, workplace, and marketplace to drive inclusion.

Prior to StubHub, Rachel was the first Head of Diversity & Inclusion and Corporate Recruiting at Yelp. Building Yelp’s diversity initiatives from the ground up to accelerate action, which led to a 10 percent increase in women in technical roles, as well as the creation of numerous employee resource and affinity groups that had more than 75 percent employee participation, among other accomplishments.

In addition to her roles within various corporations, Rachel lends her time to advise organizations dedicated to the improvement of diversity, equity, and inclusion. She was an early advisor to Diversity Advocates, a Kapor Capital empowered group that seeks to advance inclusion by providing resources, knowledge, and network to do pioneering work. As an Advisor to Village Capital, Rachel met with several founders of color to help with strategy and provide impactful feedback.

Rachel has spoken on her work and thought leadership at numerous conferences and universities including Tech Inclusion Conference, SXSW, the White House, North Carolina A&T, Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School, Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, and MIT Sloan. Rachel graduated from UC Berkeley (Go Bears!) and enjoys spending time with her more than 300 family members whenever she can.

Mr. Willens is a seasoned chief executive officer, board member and advisor with over 30 years of experience in healthcare, consumer services and product companies, private equity and residential and commercial real estate. He is a strategic innovator who drives results with differentiated approaches and a collaborative leadership style.

Mr. Willens co-founded, and from 2002 to 2013 served as Chief Executive Officer of, Sage Dental Management Services (“Sage”), a leading multi-specialty dental services organization with offices throughout Florida and Georgia. He currently serves as Vice-Chairman of Sage, Chairman of the Boards of Smile Management Services (a dental services organization operating as Epic Smiles exclusively providing orthodontic care utilizing clear aligners), Simply Keto Nutrition (an innovative ketogenic foods and supplement manufacturer) and AW Property Funds (private equity fund invested in on-campus, medical office properties), and a board member and advisor of Blue Cloud Pediatric Surgery Centers (a national organization of ambulatory surgery centers providing pediatric dental care), On-Site Dental (the leading national workplace dental services organization) and Allied Dental Holdings (a multi-specialty dental services organization with offices throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania). He previously has held senior executive positions at Dental Care Alliance, InterDent and Universal Standard Medical Laboratories.

David began his career as a corporate lawyer in the venture capital/private equity group at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago. He holds a B.A. in Finance from Michigan State University and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law.

David brings his expertise in the employer market to emerging and established health care companies. He has a passion for bringing innovation to care delivery and believes the employer channel is often the quickest way to adoption. After 15 years as a practicing physician, David joined the consulting world leading the Health Management practices at both Towers Perrin and Mercer. While at Mercer, he founded Mercer Labs which brought together large employers, health startups, and VCs to accelerate innovation in health care. He presently sits on several boards and acts as an advisor to promising emerging companies.

Rory Rickert is currently a Principal Consultant with Capture Strategies, LLC where he provides strategy and business development consulting to mostly US-based health companies with a concentration of projects in the pharmacy supply chain. Rickert has led engagements with pharmaceutical manufacturers, drug wholesalers, retail pharmacy chains, mail order, specialty and specialized pharmacies, Pharmacy Services Administrative Organizations, PBMs, trade associations, technology and lab companies. He has also assisted public and private sector healthcare payors.

Prior to Capture Strategies LLC, Rickert led the healthcare consulting arm of QuarterLine Consulting, LLC from 2002 through 2021. From 1993 to 2002, he was an executive with one of the largest PBMs now part of CVS Caremark. Prior to that, he led pharmacy, operations, systems, and purchasing for HNS, a national home infusion therapy company.

After graduating from Pharmacy School at the University of Minnesota, Rickert worked as a clinical pharmacist at Minneapolis Children’s Medical Center and excelled in an oncology drug sales position with a large pharmaceutical company. He is also a longstanding member of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) and serves on the National Board of Advisors for the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy.

Rory L. Rickert
Principal
602.509.7060 c
480.451.0148 p
rrickert@capturestrategies.com

Michael is a senior advisor at Norwest Venture Partners, providing counsel to Norwest’s portfolio companies in the areas of pharmaceutical services marketing, operations strategy, and execution. He is an experienced industry executive with more than 20 years of proven success in securing and increasing revenue from new and incumbent pharmaceutical services industry clients while delivering superior client satisfaction. Michael has held senior positions over the past 20 years in PAREXEL (Corporate Vice President), ERT (President and CEO), Aptiv Solutions (Chief Operating Officer), inVentiv Health Clinical (President), Syneos Health Clinical (President), and Target Pharma Solutions (Interim CEO). He has also served on four Board of Directors in various roles, including Executive Chairman. Prior to the pharmaceutical services industry, he was the President of a technology company and served as a senior economic forecaster for the US government. Michael possesses strong business acumen and has applied a wide range of client development strategies to establish market presence, improve execution, enhance strategic development, and increase revenue. Michael holds an AB in economics from Williams College and a MA and Ph.D. in business economics from Wharton.

Dr. Goldfarb has been a pioneer in the infertility and women’s health field for over 35 years. His infertility programs have been responsible for many firsts including:

-the first in vitro fertilization birth in Ohio (1983)
-the world’s first in-vitro fertilization / surrogate birth (1986)
-Ohio’s first birth from preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) (2004)
-The first case in the world utilizing Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis for Congenital Pseudohypoparathyroidism (2005). The couple came from France for the procedure.

Dr. Goldfarb has been involved in several other biomedical entrepreneurial ventures, served as an advisor multiple healthcare companies and has consulted private equity firms on various health care related investments.

Dr. Andrey Ostrovsky is a senior operating leader and health policy expert with over a decade of experience applying human-centered design, agile development, lean management, quality improvement, and entrepreneurial principles to eliminate disparities and sustainably achieve the Triple Aim.

He has proven leadership experience setting growth strategy and translating research into practice for early stage technology startups, growth stage services companies, and regulatory organizations.

Dr. Ostrovsky’s health expertise includes population health, value-based payment, social determinants of health (SDOH), quality measurement, care coordination, home and community-based services (HCBS), pediatrics, and behavioral health. He is a practicing physician.

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