85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth and M&A strategies

We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute a multitude of strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector, and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively. We operate with a singular focus to help our clients achieve their long-term strategic objectives. 

Selected Client ADVISORY AND EXECUTIVE ROLES 

Steven Freitas
Executive Managing Director

Steven has more than 20 years of investment banking, strategic advisory, and technology industry research experience. Prior to founding 85 Advisors, he was Managing Partner at a technology-focused investment banking boutique in New York City where he oversaw all aspects of client engagements and transaction execution for a global client base of enterprise software, cybersecurity, and communications technology companies. Previously, Steven was Director of Communications Technology Equity Research for BMO Financial Group’s U.S. Capital Markets division. In that role, he was widely recognized for his domain knowledge, innovative client strategies, and prescient sector/company insights, having predicted multiple disruptive trends affecting the communications, networking and infrastructure software sectors. Steven earned an M.B.A from Wake Forest University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Financial and Economic Studies from the University of Western Ontario. 

Amy Jones
COO and Head of Education Technology and Services

Amy has nearly 20 years of education leadership and administration experience. Prior to joining 85 Advisors, she was Chief Academic Officer and Deputy Chief Executive for Special Education for the New York City Department of Education, the largest school district in the United States with 1.1 million students and a $24 billion operating budget. In this role, she led NYC’s special education reform efforts, program and service quality, and specially designed instruction across approximately 1,700 schools. Amy managed professional development for more than 100 thousand staff members supporting more than 290 thousand students with disabilities. In addition, she oversaw numerous projects to re-engineer instruction and systems for the multi-billion dollar Division of Specialized Instruction and Student Support, including learning management systems, management information systems, analytics, student information systems, inventory and ERP, assistive technology and accessible education materials. Amy was widely recognized for her strategic vision and leadership of large-scale change efforts to transform schools and ensure better learning outcomes for all students. Earlier in her career, she served as a teacher, a school principal, an adjunct professor for online graduate courses, and Director of University Partnerships for Teach For America. Amy earned an M.A. in Organization and Leadership from Columbia University and a B.A. degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She currently serves on the New York board of Teach for America.

Pierre Chamberland
Managing Director

Pierre has more than 30 years of experience driving product innovation for technology businesses around the world, spanning semiconductors, consumer electronics, and cybersecurity. Prior to joining 85 Advisors, Pierre was CEO of NetGovern, an information governance software company that he founded, grew to an 8-figure business, and subsequently sold in a strategic M&A transaction. Pierre is also an investor, coach, and mentor for software company founders, sharing the valuable experience he has gained during his career as a serial entrepreneur, executive leader, and technologist. He is a strong believer in the transformative power of open-book management and employee-ownership. Pierre is Community Evangelist for the Open Invention Network (openinventionnetwork.com) and the Canadian Council of Innovators (canadianinnovators.org).

John Oh
Managing Director and Head of Growth Advisory

John has more than 20 years of experience building the marketing and go-to-market capabilities for some of the most highly regarded IT infrastructure companies. Prior to 85 Advisors, John served as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for F5 Networks where he led its entry into new product categories and grew the company’s revenues to $1.5 billion. He has served as CMO/VP of Marketing for multiple disruptive early and growth-stage venture-backed companies, including NetScaler (acquired by Citrix Systems), FireEye (IPO), Radiance Technologies (acquired by Comcast), SweetLabs (Google Ventures), and StackIQ. In these roles, John helped define and create new IT segments that are now mainstream, such as Application Delivery Networking, Identity Management, Virtualization, and Datacenter WAN optimization. In addition, he led the M&A positioning and post-acquisition integration of five transformative M&A transactions that collectively generate more than $2 billion of recurring product revenue (as of 2016) for their acquirers. Earlier in his career, John held various senior management roles with Citrix Systems, Edelman PR Worldwide, and Oblix (now Oracle). He studied physics at U.C. Berkeley.

Mark Kovarski
Executive in Residence

Mark has more than 25 years of experience driving growth and innovation within Fortune 2000 technology, communications, and financial services companies. Prior to 85 Advisors, Mark served as Senior Managing Consultant at Cisco Consulting Services where he advised some of North America’s largest financial institutions regarding technology strategy, implementation, and digital process transformation. While at Cisco, he was a key member of the strategic development teams responsible for defining Cisco’s M&A and competitive strategies in (Big) Data Analytics and Blockchain. In that capacity, Mark also provided strategic guidance to promising FinTech startups as a Barclays’ Rise NYC accelerator program mentor. Previously, Mark held multiple leadership roles within BMO Financial Group’s IT organization, including business technology strategy and strategic vendor management. Earlier in his career, he led IT operations management teams at Rogers Communications and AT&T. Mark is passionate about using technology to address humanitarian challenges, leading him to co-found The Humanized Internet, a non-profit organization with a mission to provide persistent, secure, global intelligent digital identity to the world’s population, including the 1.5 billion people who currently lack legal identity.

Jeff Fisher
Executive in Residence

Jeff has more than 20 years of experience developing and implementing strategic alliances and go-to-market strategies for several notable emerging and growth-stage infrastructure software companies. Prior to 85 Advisors, Jeff was Vice President of Sales and Alliances at Hysolate, a Team8-backed endpoint security startup, where he led the effort to bring the company’s disruptive secure client hypervisor software solutions to the U.S. market. Previously, he served as Vice President of Strategy and/or Alliances for a number of innovative enterprise software companies, including Softricity (acquired by Microsoft), Desktone (acquired by VMware), RES Software (acquired by Ivanti) and KEMP Technologies. In these roles, Jeff helped conceive and evangelize emerging product categories, such as Application Virtualization and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) that are now multibillion software markets. He was an integral member of executive leadership teams that raised more than $100 million in venture/growth capital and delivered more than $400 million in exit value to shareholders. Earlier in his career, Jeff held technical sales and business development roles at Microsoft and Citrix. He earned a B.A. degree from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.