Growth Equity

Wayne L. Hunter is Co-Founder and the Managing Partner of Harbert Growth Partners, as well as a Partner of Harbert Management Corporation (“HMC”). Mr. Hunter joined HMC in 2002 and currently serves on the boards of kaléo, MapAnything, Netsertive and Springbot. He previously served on the boards of Unitrends (sold to Insight Venture Partners) and Yap (sold to Amazon). Mr. Hunter also serves on the boards of the Florida Venture Forum and Venture Atlanta and previously served on the boards of North Carolina’s Council for Entrepreneurial Development and Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology. Prior to joining HMC, he was founding Managing Director and Head of Wachovia’s (and predecessor firms First Union Securities’ and Wheat First Butcher Singer’s) Technology Investment Banking Group. In addition, he was a member of Wachovia’s Private Equity/Venture Capital Fund Investment Committee and served on Wachovia’s Investment Banking Management Committee. During his tenure in investment banking, he advised on more than one hundred financing and M&A transactions for clients in the communications, technology, and healthcare sectors. Mr. Hunter has more than thirty years of experience working with leading entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Mr. Hunter holds a degree in law (J.D.) from the University of Alabama School of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree (Economics) from Auburn University.

Brian Carney is a General Partner at Harbert Growth Partners. Mr. Carney joined HMC in 2007 and currently serves on the boards of Anutra Medical, Clinipace Worldwide, Envera Health, Healthcare Interactive, Social Safeguard, and WiserTogether. Mr. Carney is a board member of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development in Durham, NC and is a former Board member of the Richmond Venture Forum. Prior to joining HMC, Mr. Carney was an associate with Morgan Stanley Venture Partners where he executed healthcare growth equity investments. Prior to Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, Mr. Carney was a financial analyst in Morgan Stanley’s Healthcare Investment Banking Group.

Mr. Carney holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with honors from Washington & Lee University.

Thomas D. Roberts III is a General Partner at Harbert Growth Partners. Mr. Roberts joined HMC in 2002 as a founding member of the HGP Investment Team. He currently serves on the boards of Cloud Elements, Iconixx, Ledbury, Mobile Posse, Sidecar Interactive, and Two Six Labs, and manages HGP’s investment in Clarabridge. He led HGP’s investments in and was a board member of Agility Healthcare (sold to GE Healthcare), JackBe (sold to Software AG) and Invincea (sold to Sophos). He also serves as a consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Rapid Reaction Technology Office, helping the DoD to identify promising emerging commercial technologies for the government. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the board of the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association (“MAVA”). Before joining HMC, Mr. Roberts was a senior investment banker for Wachovia (and predecessor firms First Union Securities and Wheat First Butcher Singer), where he originated and successfully executed over 40 public and private equity and M&A advisory transactions for clients in the technology, telecom and healthcare sectors. He was a founding member of First Union’s Technology Investment Banking Group. Prior to investment banking, he was with Markowitz & McNaughton, a strategy consulting firm, specializing in competitive analysis, market opportunity assessment, benchmarking and acquisition buy-side search and due diligence services for Fortune 500 clients.

He holds a Master of Business Administration degree and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Virginia.

Mr. Brooke is an EVP and Limited Partner of Harbert Management Corporation, and serves as a member of the HGP Investment Committee. He serves on the board of MaxCyte, as well as Southeast BIO and the Biotechnology Association of Alabama. He formerly served as the Chair of SEBio, Innovation Depot and the Alabama Innovation Council. He has been advising earlystage companies for more than twenty years and previously served on the boards of Aldagen, Innovative Biosensors, NovaMin, Optimal Radiology, AV Holdings (Atherotech), Visador, Nationwide Homes and Emageon (NASDAQ: EMAG). As an Executive Vice President and Board member of HMC since its inception, Mr. Brooke initially served as HMC General Counsel and later as its Chief Operating Officer. Before joining HMC, Mr. Brooke served as General Counsel of Harbert Corporation. Prior to that role, he was a founder and managing partner of Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff and Brandt, a law firm in Birmingham, AL. He has been a guest lecturer on venture capital for the MBA programs at the University of Alabama, the University of Alabama-Birmingham and Birmingham-Southern College. He holds a degree in law (J.D.) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business management from the University of Alabama.

David C. Gerstenmaier, Jr. (also known as Chip) is an Associate with Harbert Growth Partners. Mr. Gerstenmaier joined HMC in July 2016 to assist in the areas of financial analysis, deal sourcing, portfolio company monitoring, and new investment due diligence. Mr. Gerstenmaier currently serves as a member of the TechBuzz Selection Committee for the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association (“MAVA”) and is a Mentor with Startup Virginia, a Richmond-based incubator program.  Prior to joining HMC, Mr. Gerstenmaier worked in the Investment Banking Group at BB&T Capital Markets where he participated in a variety of sell-side M&A, leveraged buy­out, and capital markets transactions across a broad range of industries including transportation, third-party logistics, and specialty distribution. Mr. Gerstenmaier holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.

William T. Holly (Tyler) is a Senior Analyst with Harbert Growth Partners who joined the firm in July 2019 to assist with financial analysis, investment due diligence, deal sourcing, and portfolio company monitoring. Prior to joining HMC, Tyler was a Chief of Staff for Capital One’s B2B payments sales leadership team, and also spent time working with the US Government and in management consulting and investment banking roles with Accenture and Deloitte Corporate Finance (McColl Partners). Mr. Holly holds a Bachelor of Arts in Leadership and Public Policy from the Frank Batten School at the University of Virginia.