Our Team

As a company, we pride ourselves on our people.  We have a dynamic team of professionals who possess diverse but extremely relevant backgrounds.
Leadership
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Amine Alami

Principal
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Amine Alami
Principal

Amine Alami is a Principal at Advantage Capital where he leads the engineering, procurement and construction of the firm’s renewable energy investment platform.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Amine was the senior director of business and corporate development at Solv Energy, one of the largest renewable energy construction firms in the United States. He also served as vice president of asset management at Renewable Energy Systems (RES) and the director of solar operations at K Road Power Holdings, LLC. During this period, he led the development, asset management, engineering procurement and construction for approximately 2GW of renewable energy projects.

Earlier in his career, Amine held several leadership roles at Sunedison, FRV and MMA renewable ventures where he managed M&A activities, engineering, development, supply chain, and construction and operations of renewable energy assets.

Amine received his master’s degree in electrical engineering and MBA from Georgia Tech focused on renewable energy and finance. During his tenure at Georgia Tech, Amine led lab research on high efficiency solar cells at the University Center of Excellence of Photovoltaics and was a key member of the 2007 solar decathlon competition. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and speaks 4 languages (Arabic, French, Spanish and English).

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Lynn Ambrosy

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Lynn Ambrosy
Managing Director

Lynn Ambrosy is a Managing Director and a leader on the talented Capital Markets team working to expand the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and renewable energy business lines of the firm.

Ambrosy comes to Advantage Capital from Aegon Asset Management where he led its tax credit syndication platform with direct responsibility for capital raises, fund structuring and investor relations. At Aegon, he originated more than $4.5 billion of tax credit equity in 43 proprietary and multi-investor funds and served as co-head of the LIHTC platform. Ambrosy has more than 25 years of commercial real estate experience spanning both debt and equity with a primary focus on affordable housing.

Ambrosy leads LIHTC syndication initiatives and place tax credit equity in the firm’s other growing lines of business, including renewable energy, while helping to bolster Advantage Capital’s Investor Relations function.

Ambrosy holds an MBA from The University of Iowa Tippie College of Business and a B.A. in finance from the University of Northern Iowa.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Brian Anderson

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Brian Anderson
Managing Director

Brian Anderson is a Managing Director at Advantage Capital. As a member of the firm’s investment group, he is responsible for sourcing, due diligence and valuation analysis of current and prospective investments.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Brian co-owned and served as lead operator of a south Texas-based trucking company. Before purchasing that company, he was a managing director at GF Capital Management & Advisors, a NYC-based private equity fund. He has also held roles with NBC Universal, RBC Capital Markets and Credit Suisse earlier in his career.  

Brian received his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School and his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Indiana University.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Tom Bitting

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Tom Bitting
Managing Director

Tom Bitting is one of the founding members of Advantage Capital’s renewable energy investment platform and currently leads the sourcing and underwriting for all of the fund’s solar project investments. In that capacity, he is responsible for structuring and underwriting transactions, performing due diligence, managing investments and seeking new opportunities to deploy fund capital effectively. Tom also serves as a member of the solar Investment Committee.

Prior to joining the firm, Tom served as a vice president in the commercial credit administration division of Pulaski Bank. In that role, he assessed investment risk, collaborated with lenders to develop customized financing options to best serve customer needs, and made loan approval decisions for new and existing customers. He served as a member of the bank’s Risk Management Committee and was responsible for monitoring and assessing a number of bank-wide loan portfolio and balance sheet metrics.

Tom received his MBA from Saint Louis University and his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Bucknell University.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Ryan Michael Brennan

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Ryan Michael Brennan
Managing Director

Ryan Brennan is a Managing Director at Advantage Capital. Mr. Brennan leads the firm’s efforts to foster access to capital and economic development in underserved communities. He is a leader on the firm's fundraising team and spearheads initiatives to strengthen and develop internal talent and assets.  

Ryan was most recently the Chief Operating Officer of the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the development finance arm of the U.S. government. While at DFC, he drove the creation and adoption of the Impact Quotient (IQ), an innovative method of measuring and improving impact in projects around the world. Ryan was a member of the DFC Investment Committee and led business development across the Western Hemisphere that facilitated billions in direct investment to Central America’s Northern Triangle. Prior to COO, Ryan led the DFC Office of Investment Policy, implementing environmental, social and governance standards across the $23 billion DFC portfolio.

Ryan serves on the Providence Queen of the Valley Hospital Community Board, the Truman State University Foundation Board of Directors as well as on the Board's Investment Committee. He is also on the Board of the Napa Little League. He is the former President of the Boys and Girls Club of Napa Valley Board.

Ryan received his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Truman State University.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Pete Byford

Principal
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Pete Byford
Principal

Pete Byford is a principal on the firm’s Partner Services team. In his role, he helps lead the growth of the overall line of business and focuses on origination of New Markets Tax Credit financing transactions.

Byford is a veteran attorney and former equity finance consultant. Over the past eight years, he has been involved in NMTC transactions delivering more than $1.1 billion in total investment to underserved areas.

Before joining Advantage Capital, Byford was a director at one of the largest regional accounting firms in the U.S. In a previous role as Executive Vice President and General Counsel, S.B. Phillips Co., Inc., he served as legal counsel, oversaw financial departments, and worked closely with top executives to define business strategies while providing legal advice on specific issues. For more than thirteen years, he led his own law firm, Byford Law LLC.

Byford holds a B.A. from The Citadel along with a J.D. from University of South Carolina and a L.L.M, Taxation from University of Denver.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Cindy Colvin

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Cindy Colvin
Managing Director

Cindy Colvin is a Managing Director leading the firm’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit team.

Cindy has nearly 20 years of banking and real estate finance experience in both sales and underwriting capacities.  Prior to assuming her role at Advantage Capital, Cindy was the Head of Credit Delivery for Truist’s Commercial Real Estate Line of business. There she was responsible for leading a team of underwriters and portfolio managers within commercial real estate including private developers, REITs, affordable housing as well as low-income housing tax credits and new market tax organizations.  

Cindy graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and earned her MBA from the University of Georgia Terry College of Business.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Ryan Dressler

Principal
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Ryan Dressler
Principal

Ryan Dressler is a principal at Advantage Capital where he is a member of the expansion and fundraising teams.

Prior to joining the firm, Ryan was director of new site development for a national nonprofit leadership organization based in Richmond, Virginia. He has a varied background in sales, strategic growth and early-stage business formation.

Ryan holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Louis Dubuque

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Louis Dubuque
Managing Director

Louis Dubuque, a managing director, board member and chief credit officer, works on formulating investment policy, identifying and closing new investments and managing the firm's debt portfolio. He also serves on the board of the government-guaranteed lending division of Advantage Capital. During his tenure with the firm, he has been instrumental in helping raise more than $800 million in capital and has been involved with more than 50 investments totaling in excess of $300 million.

Louis joined Advantage Capital after nine years at U.S. Bank, where he served as senior vice president. At U.S. Bank, he created and managed a $400 million subordinated debt fund and directed the capital markets division’s middle market group. Louis also spent six years as a commercial loan officer for JP Morgan Chase (formerly First Chicago/NBD Bank).

Louis holds an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis and a bachelor’s degree in accounting and business administration from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He is a certified public accountant. In recognition of his professional achievements and community involvement, he was named to the St. Louis Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list in 2003. Mr. Dubuque also serves on board of the CRUDEM Foundation.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Keith Freeman

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Keith Freeman
Managing Director

Keith Freeman is a principal at Advantage Capital where he identifies and screens potential new investment opportunities, performs due diligence, negotiates and closes transactions and manages existing investments. He is primarily focused on investments made by Advantage Capital Agribusiness Partners.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Keith served as a managing director for AGR Partners Inc, a California-based investment firm that focuses on providing capital to leading agribusinesses and food companies. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing the company’s deal originations, investment analysis procedures and transaction negotiations.

Keith received his MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and his bachelor’s degree in finance from Miami University.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Jonathan Goldstein

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Jonathan Goldstein
Managing Director

Jonathan Goldstein is an experienced investment executive with a background in venture capital, renewable energy and urban investing. He serves as a member of Advantage Capital’s investment committee and leads the firm’s tax credit syndication group. He is also a member of both the firm’s strategy council and the clean energy investment team. Prior to joining Advantage Capital in 2010, Jonathan served on the board at McCormack Baron Salazar, the leading urban revitalization firm in the country, overseeing the Project Finance group, the various private, governmental and community funding sources. He also oversaw MBS’s New Markets Tax Credit practice, including $210 million in allocations from the U.S. Treasury.

Jonathan founded Sunwheel Energy Partners, an affiliated firm specializing in solar energy programs. Since beginning his career as an attorney, clerking for a federal appellate judge and serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the Justice Department, he also helped found Taproot Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, where he sourced and structured investments in technology companies. He serves on the boards of Advantage Capital portfolio companies Nextility and SDBIC. He is a member of the Board and Executive Committee for the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition and on the board of Rise, a regional nonprofit dedicated to housing and urban revitalization. In 2012, he was named to the “Who’s Who in Energy List” by a coalition of regional Business Journals. He holds a J.D. from Washington University, where he graduated first in his class, and a bachelor’s degree from Yale.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Christopher Harris

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Christopher Harris
Managing Director

Christopher Harris is a managing director at Advantage Capital. As a member of the firm’s investment group, he is responsible for sourcing, due diligence and valuation analysis of current and prospective investments. He serves on the board of directors for several portfolio companies, including GENICON, Prioria Robotics, Beehive Industries, RepEquity, SOMS Technologies and Quoddy. Christopher also manages Advantage's investments in Veran Medical Technologies, Minimally Invasive Devices and OrderWithMe.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Christopher worked for GE Capital as an assistant vice president, where he helped establish the company’s presence in large cap leveraged finance underwriting and investing. He joined GE in the FMP program and cycled throughout various operating and finance roles before joining on with the large cap leverage finance team.

Christopher received his MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Reid Hutchins

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Reid Hutchins
Managing Director

Reid Hutchins is a managing director at Advantage Capital where he manages the firm’s New York investment portfolio. His responsibilities include sourcing and structuring new investments, as well as working with current portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Reid served as a product development engineer for Advanced Micro Devices and as an engineer and manager with IBM Microelectronics. He brings operational experience in semiconductor design, manufacturing, testing and production to the firm.

Reid currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Upstate Venture Association of New York (UVANY). He also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Northeast New York.

Reid holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from St. Lawrence University, in addition to a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s in engineering management from Dartmouth College.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Michael Johnson

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Michael Johnson
Managing Director

Michael Johnson, an experienced venture capitalist and a specialized transactions attorney, is a managing director at Advantage Capital. He is involved in all aspects of the firm’s operations, with a primary focus on capital-raising transactions, regulatory compliance and government relations. He also serves as chief compliance officer.

Previously associated with New Orleans’ largest law firm, Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrère & Denègre, Michael practiced securities and corporate law for a broad range of clients.

Michael received his J.D. degree from Stanford University School of Law, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif, and an his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, graduating cum laude.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Anne Johnson

Principal
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Anne Johnson
Principal

Anne Johnson is a principal and helps lead the Capital Markets team, focusing on capital formation and investor relations across the firm's Renewables, LIHTC, NMTC and state tax credit platforms. She has more than 30 years’ experience in the public and private equity markets, and has closed nearly $1.5 billion in federal tax credit equity transactions and placed more than $400 million in state tax credits during her time with Advantage Capital.

Anne was with Johnson Rice & Co. for eighteen years, first as an equity research analyst and later in institutional equity sales. She worked in corporate finance for Deloitte and Chaffe & Associates, valuing privately-held companies and financial institutions for capital raises, mergers and acquisitions, and estate planning. Immediately prior to joining Advantage Capital, she was with DeMonte & Falgoust CPAs, focusing on tax compliance and planning for corporations and individuals.

Anne holds an MBA from the University of New Orleans and a bachelor's degree in business from Rhodes College.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Julie Laperouse

Principal/Chief Talent Officer
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Julie Laperouse
Principal/Chief Talent Officer

Julie Laperouse is a Principal and Chief Talent Officer at Advantage Capital. With two decades of experience helping companies and clients create meaningful corporate cultures and establish strong, strategic people pipelines, Julie leads the human resources strategy for the firm.

Julie comes to Advantage Capital from Gulf Coast Bank and Trust Company where she was Director of Culture and Talent for a team of more than 800 employees. She also served as Managing Director of Training at Emergent Method; a management consulting firm focused on helping organizations achieve their mission. As Director of Talent Development for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce, she assisted local businesses in the attraction and retention of talent including executive recruitment and recruiting program development

Julie holds a B.A. from Louisiana State University. She also serves on the Emerging Leaders Council of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and runs The Alliance, a networking consortium of professional women. In 2017, the Baton Rouge Business Report named her to the list of Most Influential Women in Business.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Steven Lichtin

Managing Director & CEO of Advantage Renewables
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Steven Lichtin
Managing Director & CEO of Advantage Renewables

Steven Lichtin is a managing director at Advantage Capital and chief executive officer of Advantage Renewables. In this capacity, he is responsible for the strategy and growth of the company's renewable energy development platform. A seasoned energy developer, Steven brings nearly 15 years of experience developing solar and energy storage projects in various markets across the U.S. He has managed or developed over 10GWs, and directly overseen the commercialization of over 1GW of solar and energy storage projects.

Prior to Advantage Capital, Steven was vice president of development at Cypress Creek Renewables, a renewable energy independent power producer (IPP), where he led all development activities in ERCOT, PJM and MISO. Before that, he was director of development at esVolta, an energy storage IPP, where he led development activities for ERCOT, PJM, ISO-NE and NYISO. In these roles, Steven was responsible for managing the entire pipeline from site origination, through permitting and interconnection, to start of construction.

Steven earned his MBS in Sustainability from Bard College and his BA in Economics from Vanderbilt University.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Franchesca Lorio

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Franchesca Lorio
Managing Director

Franchesca Lorio provides leadership in all aspects of the firm’s accounting and financial management. As a managing director and controller of all Advantage Capital entities, she is responsible for the preparation of the firm’s financial statements and numerous other periodic reports to investors, lenders and various regulatory authorities. Franchesca is also responsible for cash management as well as the implementation and supervision of the firm’s reporting and compliance systems. In addition, she works closely with the firm’s independent public accountants in connection with the completion of the annual audits of more than 70 Advantage Capital entities.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Franchesca practiced public accounting for five years with several leading CPA firms, where she focused on tax and financial accounting matters.

Franchesca graduated cum laude from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. She is a member of the Institute of Management Accountants, the American Society of Women Accountants and the Young Leadership Council.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Sandra M. Moore

Managing Director/Chief Impact Officer
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Sandra M. Moore
Managing Director/Chief Impact Officer

Sandra M. Moore is managing director and chief impact officer at Advantage Capital, a growth equity firm founded in 1992 with over $3.6 billion AUM.  The firm focuses on high growth and high wage business investing in communities where access to investment capital has historically been hard to find.  Sandra is a member of the Advantage Capital investment committee and a direct advisor to the diligence and structuring teams.

Sandra is also a member of the Advantage Capital fundraising team, which has brought in $225 million in capital during her four–year tenure. She has built the Advantage Capital Impact team, which creates data-driven initiatives to track and expedite portfolio growth, leads the communications and branding team and serves as the external-facing representative for Advantage Capital.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Sandra was the president of Urban Strategies, a national nonprofit corporation that works exclusively with for profit housing developers to rebuild distressed urban core communities using mix-finance, multi-family housing as the revitalization platform.

Sandra formerly served as the CEO of the Missouri Family Investment Trust, a public-private partnership entity leading Missouri’s multi-system reform efforts.  Prior to joining the Family Investment Trust, Sandra was senior vice president of St. Louis 2004, Inc., a region-wide effort, led by business, civic and political leaders, to transform the St. Louis regional economy and gear it for exponential growth in the 21st century.

She is the former director of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DOLIR), where she served as a member of then Governor Mel Carnahan’s cabinet, and a former administrative judge with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Sandra is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, MO.  She received her J.D. from the School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Sandra is committed to the growth, development and empowerment of people and the communities where they live.  She serves on several local and national boards and committees that work to strengthen the fiber of community, and she is a sought-after speaker and thought leader on these issues.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Scott Murphy

Managing Director/Chief Investment Officer
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Scott Murphy
Managing Director/Chief Investment Officer

Scott Murphy rejoined Advantage Capital as a managing director and the chief investment officer after serving in the United States Congress representing New York from 2009 to 2011. He previously worked at Advantage Capital from 2001 to 2009, overseeing the firm's $88 million New York portfolio. As chief investment officer, Scott oversees the firm’s entire portfolio.

Scott is an experienced venture capitalist and highly successful entrepreneur with a robust background in public service. Prior to his tenure at Advantage Capital, he co-founded three high-tech companies, including a game company that brought fantasy football and baseball to the Internet. He also founded an online auction company that was sold to eBay and a website building company that was sold to iXL. He earlier spent two years as a structured finance associate at Bankers Trust, where he focused on the insurance industry. In addition to his time in Congress, Scott previously served in the administrations of two Missouri governors.

Scott received his bachelor’s from Harvard College and has earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. As a former president of the Upstate Venture Association of New York, he maintains a strong commitment to civic affairs.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Justin Obletz

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Justin Obletz
Managing Director

Justin Obletz is a managing director and chief financial officer at Advantage Capital, based in the New Orleans office. In his role, Justin manages the accounting, tax, and financial planning & analysis functions of the firm. Prior to his role as chief financial officer, Justin was a member of the investment team. He is an experienced multi-stage investor, having worked across the firm’s investment programs to evaluate and structure transactions, as well as monitor portfolio company investments. He currently serves on the board of directors of TurboSquid, Lamm Food Service and the Louisiana Technology Fund.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Justin worked in the New Ventures division of Trader Publishing Company in various strategic and operational roles. He began his professional career in the Assurance and Advisory Business Services group at Ernst & Young.

Justin received his MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree in accountancy from the University of Notre Dame. He is a certified public accountant (inactive).

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Tim Perusek

Principal
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Tim Perusek
Principal

Tim Perusek is a principal at Advantage Capital. As a member of the Investment group, he is responsible for sourcing, due diligence and valuation analysis of current and prospective investments. Tim supports the firm’s Southeast investment footprint.

Tim joins us most recently from SunTrust, where he served as a senior vice president in the Corporate Finance Specialty Group. Prior to SunTrust, he spent 27 years at GE Capital, working in a variety of corporate finance roles including regional management, business development and underwriting and credit.

Tim holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Florida.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Keith Pettus

Principal
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Keith Pettus
Principal

Keith Pettus is a tax credit equity veteran with more than a decade of experience sourcing and structuring investment opportunities. As a principal on the Advantage Capital Renewable’s Capital Markets team, he will focus on sourcing new, and expanding existing, investor relations.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Keith spent more than five years with JP Morgan Chase building out its market leading Historic Tax Credit Equity platform.

Keith received his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Lehigh University and is a CFA and CAIA Charterholder.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Damon Rawie

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Damon Rawie
Managing Director

Damon Rawie is a seasoned investor and managing director at Advantage Capital. Based in Austin, Damon heads the firm’s overall equity investment operations. In this role, his responsibilities include managing members of the firm’s investment group and coordinating Advantage Capital’s equity investment strategies. In addition, Damon is an active multi-stage investor for the firm. He evaluates potential investments, performs due diligence and structures transactions. His investment experience covers a variety of industries including new media, business services, software and energy technology.

Damon provides administrative, financial and strategic planning support to Advantage Capital portfolio companies, and he serves as a member of the board of directors for a number of the firm’s portfolio companies. He is also a board member of the Texas Coalition for Capital, a non-profit statewide organization that supports various economic development initiatives including job creation and access to capital for emerging businesses.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Damon worked in investment banking and operational consulting. He was a manager at China International Capital Corporation (CICC), a Morgan Stanley/China Construction Bank joint venture investment bank in Beijing. Before working with CICC, Damon was a management consultant at Price Waterhouse and an investment banking analyst at J.P. Morgan Securities.

Damon holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Josh Rogers

Principal
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Josh Rogers
Principal

Josh Rogers is a principal at Advantage Capital. As a member of the investment team, he is responsible for helping to source investments, perform due diligence, structure transactions and manage portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Josh was an equity research associate covering mid and large-cap U.S. banks at ISI Group, now Evercore Partners. At UBS Investment Bank in New York, he was an investment banking analyst and an equity research associate director covering financials and healthcare services, as well as IT.

Josh received his MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and his bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard College.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Philip Ruppel

Principal
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Philip Ruppel
Principal

Philip Ruppel is a principal and a member of the firm’s investment team. His responsibilities include sourcing new deals as well as providing due diligence and valuation analysis for current and prospective investments.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Philip worked for Navigation Capital Partners in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was responsible for evaluating prospective investments, conducting due diligence of investments, executing transactions and monitoring portfolio companies. He also spent time in New York working as an investment banking analyst for Bear Stearns.

Philip received his MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and his bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration from Rhodes College.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Greg Schwarztrauber

Principal
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Greg Schwarztrauber
Principal

Greg Schwarztrauber is a principal and leads our tax team at Advantage Capital. As part of the tax team, he focuses on tax issues facing the firm’s investment funds and performs tax and financial analysis in connection with new transactions, existing funds and exit opportunities. Greg brings over 30 years of varied income tax and accounting experience to the firm.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, he worked at Anheuser-Busch where he served as a Senior Director, Tax Strategy. His duties primarily focused on M&A transactional planning along with implementing tax efficient operating structures.  Before joining Anheuser-Busch, Greg spent seven years as the head of tax for XTRA Lease, a national transportation equipment leasing business owned by Berkshire Hathaway.  In addition, Greg worked as a Senior Manager in the tax consulting practice at KPMG where he provided services to clients operating in a variety of industries.  

Greg received an undergraduate degree in Accounting from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, a Master of Taxation from the University of Illinois and a MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.  Greg is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Missouri, a member of the AICPA, Missouri Society of CPAs and former President of the Tax Executives Institutes, St. Louis Chapter.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Talmadge Singer

Managing Director
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Talmadge Singer
Managing Director

Talmadge Singer is a managing director at Advantage Capital. He has extensive experience raising capital for and structuring tax credit equity incentivized funds, closing both levered and unlevered funds in excess of $1.5 billion. Talmadge has also syndicated more than $1.45 billion of state and federal tax credits. In addition to his fundraising functions, he supports Advantage Capital’s national expansion efforts, focusing on government relations at the federal level.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Talmadge was an associate in the Corporate and Securities practice group at Thompson & Knight LLP where he focused on fund formation, securities law and mergers and acquisitions.

Talmadge earned his J.D. from the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University and was a member of the SMU Law Review Association. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Louisiana State University.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Steven Stull

President
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Steven Stull
President

Steven Stull, president and founder of Advantage Capital, is a seasoned venture capitalist and private equity investor with more than 35 years of investment experience. As the firm’s chief executive officer, Steven directs our investment policy, overall operations, strategic planning and fundraising activities as well as overseeing financial administration, institutional investor relations and professional recruitment. He has served as director of several Advantage Capital portfolio companies, including Corpay (NYSE: CPAY), HRI Properties and OMNI Energy (NASDAQ: OMNI), among others. Prior to founding Advantage Capital, Steven spent nine years as an executive in the investment department of General American Life Insurance company, where he headed the Securities Division, negotiated real estate finance transactions and managed portfolios of both publicly and privately traded securities.

Steven is nationally recognized for his leadership efforts in small business capital formation, particularly for businesses located in distressed or underserved communities, where little or no venture capital infrastructure exists. He has been recognized by Ernst & Young as an Entrepreneur of the Year for his sponsorship of entrepreneurship in Louisiana. In 2007, he received the Olin School of Business Distinguished Business Alumni Award from Washington University in St. Louis.

Steven holds an MBA and a bachelor’s degree in finance and economics from Washington University in St. Louis. He has earned the Fellow Life Management Institute/Master designation and the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community

Tony Toups

Principal
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community
Tony Toups
Principal

Tony Toups is a principal at Advantage Capital. He is involved in the firm’s national expansion efforts and economic development activities, working on the implementation of public/private investment programs that foster access to capital. He is a frequent speaker on these topics and also provides legal advice and representation as corporate counsel. A seasoned attorney and litigator, Tony was a partner with the New Orleans law firm of Adams and Reese prior to his tenure at Advantage Capital.

Tony’s nearly 20 years of law practice includes product liability defense, commercial litigation, construction cases and other complex matters. He was also a partner at Chaffe McCall in New Orleans and has experience in the news media and state government.

Tony earned his J.D. degree from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center and his bachelor’s degree in journalism at Louisiana State University.

Who we are

At Advantage Capital, we believe in creating a work environment where our employees feel supported, valued, and can thrive. We are smart, innovative and entrepreneurially minded. We bring the best and the brightest talent together with a standout culture, highly autonomous yet collaborative environment, and outstanding benefits.

We fundamentally believe that capital can change lives, and we hire those with the passion and drive to help us do so.

Our Offices

Advantage Capital - Investment Capital for Small Businesses - United States, Finance, Capital, Investment, wealth, local community