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. In this role, she led NYC’s special education reform efforts, impacting more than 1,700 schools and supporting more than 290 thousand students with special needs. Amy managed instruction and professional development for more than 100 thousand staff members and more than 290 thousand students with disabilities, including launching a cadre of 950 literacy interventionists trained in the science of reading. 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. from Washington University in St. Louis. She currently serves on the New York board of Teach for America.
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.