professionals

Wade Hansen – Managing Director

Wade established Cabrillo Advisors to build upon his success in founding MHT Partners, a Dallas-based middle market investment bank, where he led the firm’s high tech client efforts. While there, he completed successful transactions with NEON Systems (Nasdaq: NEON) and Softbrands, Inc. (OTC: SFBD.PK). Cabrillo clients have included several public and private companies with enterprise values between $150M and $400M, including PeopleSupport (Nasdaq: PSPT) and BakBone Software Inc. (OTC: BKBO.PK).

Prior to MHT, Wade was a founding Principal at Dell Ventures in Austin, Texas, where he coordinated strategic partnerships and equity investments in the software, semiconductor, health care and internet services sectors. Wade was responsible for investing in excess of $300 million in such companies as Sina (Nasdaq: SINA), Navisite (Nasdaq: NAVI) Neoforma (Nasdaq: NEOF), and webMethods (Nasdaq: WEBM), and played a significant role in developing key strategic partnerships with these and other public and private companies in support of Dell’s corporate strategy initiatives.

Prior to joining Dell Ventures, Wade spent four years with McKinsey & Company, serving as an Engagement Manager in the Dallas and Palo Alto offices. While at McKinsey, Wade focused on corporate strategy issues of top-line revenue growth, M&A and post-merger management in the high tech, pharmaceutical distribution, consumer goods and energy services industries.

Wade has an MBA with distinction from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Business and graduated from San Diego State University with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting summa cum laude, and is a licensed CPA in the State of Texas.

Channing Hamlet – Managing Director

Channing Hamlet brings our clients a deep background in executing mergers and acquisitions and fundraising.

Prior to joining Cabrillo, Channing was a Director at TEC International in San Diego where he lead business and new product development. With more than 11,000 members, TEC is the world’s largest organization dedicated to leadership and effectiveness for CEOs and executives.

Prior to joining TEC, Channing worked with LLR Partners, a $260 million private-equity firm, focused on investing in growth oriented middle market businesses in the outsourced business services, enterprise software and consumer products sectors. At LLR, Channing was involved in structuring private equity investments, due diligence and advising portfolio companies at the Board level.

Prior to LLR Partners, Channing worked in Legg Mason’s Investment Banking group. Channing advised numerous private and public companies on M&A and capital raising activities. His primary responsibilities included transaction execution for mergers and acquisitions and private financing transactions.

Channing started his career at Mars & Co, a boutique strategy consulting firm, where he served clients in consumer products, heavy industry and distribution industries. At Mars & Co., Channing advised clients on growth strategies, competitive assessments and strategic acquisitions.

Channing has a Masters degree in Operations Research and a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Engineering College at Cornell University.

Senior Advisors

Richard Carr – Senior Advisor, General

Richard currently serves as Senior Advisor and Vice Chairman of the Board to Vistage, the world’s largest CEO membership organization. He leverages his nearly 30 years’ experience with Vistage as a member, Group Chair, COO, President, and CEO to work with the Vistage Chair community, executive staff, and affiliates.

Mr. Carr is a West Point graduate and a highly decorated infantry officer with significant command experience in Germany and Vietnam. After receiving his MBA from Pepperdine University, he went on to become President and CEO of Sentinel Container Corporation and Engineered Foam Inc., serving in that role for 15 years. For nine of those years, he was a Vistage member. He became a Vistage Chair in 1992.

During his time as a Group Chair through his time as an executive with Vistage, Richard has mentored and coached nearly one hundred CEOs and companies, in addition to serving on advisory and statutory Boards for several companies.

Julian Castelli – Senior Partner, Media & Communications

Mr. Castelli was a founding partner of Cabrillo Advisors, and led engagements and transactions for several clients including Autry Petroleum, Neon Systems and Hire.com. Mr. Castelli left the firm in 2004 to pursue his executive career, but remains active with the Cabrillo partnership and is a valued resource to the team for his expertise in M&A, Corporate Valuation, and Business Operations. Mr. Castelli is currently leading Castles Media Company (www.castlesmedia.com) in its efforts to acquire and develop category-specific online media businesses, and is actively running its first venture — Mountain Reservations, Inc. (www.mountainreservations.com)

Mr. Castelli is a tenured senior executive with over 17 years of experience building, buying, selling and leading companies. His experience includes advising leading Fortune 500 Companies as an Investment Banker with Goldman, Sachs & Co., and as a Strategy Consultant with Mckinsey & Company. Mr. Castelli’s operational executive experience includes CFO roles at a $1 billion revenue public telecom company — Paging Network Inc., and at a $300 million revenue media company — Consumer Source Inc. (NYSE: PRM). Mr. Castelli has also served as President of a wireless software company — Vast Solutions, and a national media business — Auto Guide/Autoguide.com.

Mr. Castelli has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BA from Amherst College.

Jack Florio – Senior Advisor, Life Sciences

Jack Florio joined Cabrillo in 2007 to head our life sciences practice, and brings over 34 years expertise in the space, having served in diverse senior management roles within US biotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations.  The majority of those years were spent with Eli Lilly and Company in a sales, business development, and product development function for domestic and global operations. 

Over the last 6 years, Jack has assumed senior management roles in 6 diverse US based pharmaceutical/biotech companies where her served in various executive roles where he focused on business development, corporate strategy and fundraising.  These companies have included Vital Therapies, Aegis Therapeutics, and InterPharmaLinkUSA.

Jack also brings venture capital experience and contacts to Cabrillo, being an active member in the San Diego Tech Coast Angels, a major US focused angel investing group, where he has been actively involved in due diligence for a large number of potential investments and has personally invested in 15 companies.  In addition, Jack has an affiliation with Interpharmalink USA, a management and strategy consulting firm based in Switzerland that is exclusively focused on the life sciences and biotechnology markets.

Jack earned an MBA from New York University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University’s College of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Mark T. Broido - Senior Advisor, Business Services

Mark brings to Cabrillo's clients and portfolio companies a deep experience in business operations, growth management, and international expansion, particularly in business services.

In addition to his advisory role at Cabrillo, Mark is CFO of Calibrated Group, an operationally-focused private equity firm focused on acquiring and developing operations in the US and India.  With Calibrated, Mark was President of Midland Calibrated, a business services joint venture with Encore Capital Group (Nasdaq: ECGP), starting and growing MC's operations in India to 300+ staff, over 2 years.

Prior to Calibrated Group, Mark Broido was part of the founding group and acting CFO at Listen.com, developer of Rhapsody, the current leading competitor to Apple's iTunes.  Listen was a start up, raising over $100M prior to its sale Real Networks in 2003.  At Listen.com, Mark managed the company's internal growth from 6 to 160 staff, and managed the finance, legal, and HR/administrative functions. 

Prior to Listen.com, Mark was part of the pre-funding team at Risk Management Solutions, Inc., at Stanford University spin-out, helping grow the firm from 10 to 500 employees over 8 years.  At RMS he secured development financing and led product development for what became the company's flagship risk analysis model, and later was the top salesperson prior to directing RMS' marketing activity.  

Prior to RMS, Mark was a strategy consultant at Monitor Company, a Harvard Business School spin-out directed by Prof. Michael Porter.  At Monitor, Mark worked with a variety of Fortune 100 companies in the telecommunications, chemical R&D, and manufacturing industries. 

Mark earned A.M. and A.B. degrees (with Distinction), in International Relations and International Policy, from Stanford University.