From Round A to public markets.

Mark Gordon is a co-founder and CIO of Ascent Funds, and the former Chief Financial Officer for Hyzon Motors Inc. He was a senior portfolio manager at Janus Henderson, where he managed the Alphagen Energy Funds, a Senior Analyst at Paulson & Co responsible for the energy sector, and a Portfolio Manager at Soros Fund Management, where he ran an energy and natural resources fund. He spent eight years at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, ending as a Portfolio Manager and a Managing Director. Mark has an MBA (honors) from the University of Chicago, an MA from Stanford University, a BA from Brown University (honors), and is a CFA charter holder. He completed the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.

David Wu is co-founder, President and Managing Partner of Ascent Funds. Over the past 20 years he has led more than 20 complex capital markets transactions totalling over US$20 billion, across listings, delistings, restructurings and cross-border financings in New York, London, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong. He began in investment banking at Rothschild, and later served as Chairman of Capital Markets and Group Deputy CFO at Fosun, where he took portfolio companies including Lanvin Group, Club Med and Babytree to the public markets. He holds a BA in Economics & Management from the University of Cambridge.

John Vogelstein is a Senior Partner of Ascent Funds. He is also the Chairman of New Providence Asset Management, LLC and Senior Advisor to Warburg Pincus, LLC. He began his career at Lazard Freres & Co., where he became a partner in 1964, and joined E. M. Warburg & Co., Inc. (later Warburg Pincus, LLC) in 1967. John was the Chief Investment Officer of Warburg Pincus LLC for more than two decades and, with Lionel Pincus, built the firm into one of the largest full line private equity firms in the world. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Prep for Prep and Vice Chairman of the Board of Overseers of The Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University.

Mark Shattan is deputy CIO and a Partner of Ascent Funds. He was a Portfolio Manager at Jennison Associates, where he managed a $3 billion growth portfolio and co-managed the flagship $65 billion large cap growth strategy. Before Jennison, Mark was a Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of a $7 billion equity strategy at Goldman Sachs. He has over 20 years of experience as a growth Portfolio Manager at Goldman Sachs and Jennison Associates, investing alongside Herb Ehlers and Sig Segalas. Mark is a West Point Graduate, a former Captain in the U.S. Army, and a CFA charter holder.

David Walker is a Partner at Ascent Funds and the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Jedburgh Advisors, a hedge fund in West Palm Beach, Florida. He has 21 years of experience working at hedge funds, including over 6 years as a portfolio manager, at firms including Spruce House Investment Management, Tower Capital, Scout Capital, and Concordia Advisors. David holds a BS in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he received the Superintendent’s Award, and an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University. He served in the U.S. Army in the 82nd Airborne Division, 3rd Ranger Battalion, and 5th Special Forces Group, and is a Service-Disabled Veteran.

Dr Paul Lichty is an Advisor at Ascent Funds and the Co-Founder and CEO of Forge Nano, a Colorado-based company recognized globally for its atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology. As a graduate student in 2013, Paul co-invented a scalable ALD manufacturing process for applying ultra-thin coatings to materials, which led to the founding of Forge Nano. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder, as well as a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Chemical and Biological Engineering from the same institution. He has been recognized among Denver's "40 Under 40."

Ambassador Frank Lavin is an Advisor at Ascent Funds. He served as Under Secretary for International Trade at the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Bush (43) Administration, and was previously U.S. Ambassador to Singapore, where he helped negotiate the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement. In the private sector, he held senior finance and management positions in Hong Kong and Singapore with Bank of America and Citibank, and earlier served in the Bush (41) and Reagan Administrations, including as White House Political Director. He is a columnist for Forbes.com and the author of several books, including “Inside the Reagan White House.”

Hassan Ikram is an Advisor at Ascent Funds and the Founder and CEO of Cotyledon Holding. A former investment banker based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, he has spent over 15 years in product and business development, financial advisory, asset allocation and investment banking. He has founded and scaled businesses in fintech, consultancy, logistics tech and healthcare, and has worked with several startups as an advisor and mentor. Hassan advises on strategy, operations and fundraising, including public listings, private placements, mergers and acquisitions, and restructuring.