Ben is the Managing Director at Peterson Ventures. He has been with Peterson Ventures since inception, raising over $300 million in capital and overseeing investments in over 100 deals in his 10+ years of experience including leading the firms investments into 6 unicorns in the last 10 years including Allbirds (BIRD), Ethos Life, Lucid Software and Nomi Health among others. Prior to joining Peterson Ventures, Ben was the first employee hired at an enterprise tech startup based in Northern Virginia and spent several years at Charles River Associates, a leading global economic and business consulting firm headquartered in Boston. Ben received an MBA and a B.S. in Finance from Brigham Young University, where he was a Hawes Scholar.

Ilana Stern is a Partner at Peterson Ventures.  Stern is an active angel investor and board member, a lecturer in entrepreneurship at Stanford GSB and the Founder and former-CEO of Weddington Way, a direct to consumer brand, which was acquired by Gap Inc. in December 2016.  After selling Weddington Way to Gap Inc., Stern joined the executive team at Gap Inc. and was a leader in customer experience and innovation for the company. She began her career in NYC as a buyer for Bloomingdale’s. Identified as an “Accelerator” by WSJ, “40 under 40” by SF Business Times, Stern approaches brand building with unwavering focus and industry-changing boldness. Stern has an MBA from Stanford GSB and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania.

Taylor is a Principal at Peterson Ventures. Prior to joining Peterson Ventures, Taylor was the co-founder and COO at Blue Matador, a cloud infrastructure monitoring startup. Prior to Blue Matador, Taylor worked in partnership and sales strategy roles at Google and marketing and finance roles at American Express. Taylor holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Accounting from Brigham Young University.

Carolyn is a Talent Partner at Peterson Partners and Peterson Ventures. Prior to joining Peterson Partners, Carolyn was the Vice President of Talent at All Raise, a venture funded organization designed to support female founders and build diversity in the Board Room. Carolyn built out their Board Xcelerate program, which placed diverse candidates onto pre-IPO corporate boards. Prior to All Raise, Carolyn spent several years as an executive recruiter. Most recently as Managing Director at The Leadership Group, a boutique executive search firm focused on placing C-level executives, VPs, and Board candidates within early, late-stage, and public companies.

CJ is an Associate at Peterson Ventures. Prior to joining Peterson Ventures, CJ was an Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley in Los Angeles. While at Morgan Stanley, CJ worked with companies primarily in the consumer and digital commerce industries on a variety of M&A and equity transactions. CJ graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. degree in Finance.

Emily is a Senior Associate at Peterson Ventures. Prior to joining Peterson Ventures, Emily worked at the Blackstone Group, where she was an Analyst on the Portfolio Operations team. In this role, Emily was responsible for ensuring operational and commercial synergies across the entire portfolio. Before Blackstone, Emily was the first business hire at Boom Supersonic, a Y Combinator company focusing on commercializing supersonic travel. Emily completed her internships at Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and Boeing during her time at Babson College where she graduated with a B.S.

Laurel Mills currently holds the position of Executive Assistant for the Venture Team at Peterson Partners. Her previous role was as Executive Assistant to the Chief Product Officer at Overstock. Before transitioning to the corporate world, Laurel devoted eight years of her career to the education industry, teaching and mentoring students. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Education from Utah Valley University and a Master’s degree in Learning and Technology.

Sam is an Associate at Peterson Ventures. Prior to joining Peterson Ventures, Sam was a Consultant at Bain & Company in Dallas, TX. While at Bain, Sam worked across several industries, including Private Equity, Technology, and Telecommunications, helping companies with M&A, growth strategy, and transformation. Sam previously worked as a software engineer for a venture-backed startup in Utah and graduated from Brigham Young University with a B.S. degree in Computer Science.