Investors

James Lawson is CEO and a member of the Board of Directors at AdTheorent, a programmatic digital advertising leader using advanced machine learning technology and privacy-forward solutions to deliver measurable value for advertisers and marketers.  As CEO, James is focused on continuing the company’s aggressive growth, innovation and technology leadership.  James has been a part of AdTheorent since its inception, serving in different executive capacities including Managing Partner & General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer.  During James’ tenure, the company has grown from a new startup to a publicly traded company and established market leader.  AdTheorent’s products and solutions have been recognized regularly with industry accolades such as Frost & Sullivan’s Digital Advertising Leadership Award (six-time recipient), the B.I.G. Innovation Awards, The Drum Digital Advertising Awards and the MMA Smarties.  A company that puts a strong emphasis on its people and culture, AdTheorent is also an eight-time recipient of Crain’s Best Places to Work in New York City.

James is an attorney and entrepreneur and has served in executive level capacities with several VC-backed and publicly traded companies.  Prior to joining AdTheorent, he co-founded Augme Mobile in 2008, which later became publicly traded Augme Technologies, Inc.

Before turning his focus to technology ventures and emerging businesses, James was a Partner in the Washington, DC office of the law firm McDermott, Will, Emery, LLP, where he represented Fortune 100 companies and growing businesses in both litigation and corporate counseling capacities.  James was a Managing Partner of Mogility Capital, one of the initial investors in AdTheorent.

James is a graduate of Bucknell University (1994) and Loyola University Chicago School of Law (1997).

Mr. Black has served on our Board of Directors since 2021. Most recently, he was a Senior Advisor with H.I.G. Capital, LLC following his role as the Head of H.I.G. Growth Equity, H.I.G. Capital’s dedicated growth equity investment group, since he led its formation in 2010. Prior to his role as Head of H.I.G. Growth Equity, he was a Managing Director in H.I.G.’s lower middle market buyout funds, which he joined in 1996.  Mr. Black served on the investment committees for funds in several of H.I.G.’s investment strategies including growth equity, lower middle market buyouts, and H.I.G. Realty Partners, the firm’s real estate investment platform, since its inception. Mr. Black opened the firm’s Boston office in 2002.   During his tenure at H.I.G., Mr. Black played senior roles in many of the firm’s investments in a wide range of industries, including e-commerce, technology, software, digital adtech, media, healthcare, consumer, and business service companies.
 
Prior to H.I.G., Mr. Black was a senior professional with several leading firms working with lower middle market businesses to identify and implement operational initiatives to enable the businesses to realize their full growth potential. Mr. Black has held several executive level management positions, including Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.
 
Mr. Black began his career in the Corporate Finance Group at Ernst & Young. 
 
Mr. Black received his Bachelor of Arts in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University.
 
Mr. Black serves on the Board of Lulu’s Fashion Lounge Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLU).  He is the Chair of its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and a member of its Audit Committee.

Kihara “Key” R. Kiarie career has been finance and private equity with over $25 billion of direct principal investing experience and extensive corporate financial management responsibility with public and private companies.  Mr. Kiarie has developed industry expertise in media and telecommunications and has established global relationships.

Kiarie worked as Chief Financial Officer at Bloomberg Media.  As CFO of the premium 24/7 media network, Mr. Kiarie oversaw the financials for the company’s global media outlets and operations. Prior to joining Bloomberg Media, Mr. Kiarie served as Chief Financial Officer, Media at Geller & Company, a consultancy firm that specializes in providing custom strategic financial advisory and wealth management solutions. He has also served as Chief Investment Officer of the Media Development Investment Fund for which he executed media deals across the globe. As Chief Financial Officer of Revolt Media & TV, Mr. Kiarie oversaw finance, business development, strategy, and operation as the organization launched its 24/7 programming through cable television and a network of digital properties and assets. In addition, Mr. Kiarie has experience at leading global investment banking and investment firms including JP Morgan, AEA Investors and Saban Capital Group.

Mr. Kiarie has served on the Board of Directors of Somos since 2015 and previously served on the Board of Directors for Josh Talks, Grupa Eurozet, Colab, and Bezeq (TA: BEZQ). 

Mr. Kiarie received a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Vineet Mehra is the Chief Marketing Officer at Chime, overseeing Chime’s growth initiatives across the U.S. in addition to developing impactful marketing and advertising initiatives. Vineet joined Chime from Good Eggs, where he was Chief Growth and CX Officer. Prior to Good Eggs, he was Global Chief Customer Officer at Walgreens Boots Alliance where he helped steer the company through the peak of the pandemic across the U.S. and U.K and Global Chief Marketing Officer at Ancestry where he and his team transformed the brand and brought consumer genetics into the cultural mainstream making Ancestry DNA one of the best-selling products in the category. He also served as Global President of Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Care Division and Global President of their Marketing Function.

Vineet is a recognized leader, and was named by Forbes as one of the world’s 50 most influential CMOs, and in 2019, AdWeek named him as one of their Top 20 Tech CMO’s. He recently passed over the reins of Global Chairman of the Board at Effie Worldwide, and is on the Advisory Boards of Spotify and WPP. He also serves on the boards of publicly listed AdTheorent and LoveSac, and is a board observer for Knotch.

Danielle is a Managing Director at H.I.G. Growth Partners in the Boston office and focuses primarily on the technology-enabled services, internet, media, and consumer sectors. Danielle has responsibility for all aspects of the investment process and sits on the Board of several H.I.G. portfolio companies.

Prior to joining H.I.G., Danielle was with Alliance Holdings, a private equity firm focused on lower middle market companies in a wide range of industries. Previously, Danielle co-founded Veritat Advisors, a financial advisory firm and technology platform acquired by LPL Financial. She began her career at McKinsey & Company, consulting to Fortune 500 companies in variety of industries, including financial services, health care, and media.

Danielle received a B.S. in Economics (The Wharton School) and B.A. in History from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Ben Tatta is a media industry pioneer with over 30 years of experience across all facets of media including advertising, sales, marketing, distribution, technology, data and analytics. Prior to his current role as Chief Commercial Officer of ad tech firm Operative, Ben served as President of ad intelligence business Standard Media Index (SMI), where he drove unprecedented growth leading up to the successful sale of the company.   

Prior to SMI, Ben was Co-founder and President of advanced TV analytics company 605, where he played an instrumental role in the formation and growth of the company into one of the industry’s top measurement and ad attribution businesses. Prior to 605, Ben served as president of Cablevision Media Sales, leading growth initiatives including the industry’s first full deployment of addressable TV and the launch of a new census-based audience measurement business. Prior to Cablevision Ben held senior leadership positions at blue-chip media and commerce companies including USA Networks/IAC, ABC, IBM, Lagardere, and eBay/GSI Commerce.  

Ben received a B.A. in Economics from Villanova University and currently serves on the Board of Directors of AdTheorent and the Stevens Institute of Technology. 

Eric Tencer is a Managing Director at H.I.G. Growth Partners an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, a leading global alternative investment firm with $45 billion of equity capital under management and 400+ investment professionals across 18 offices in North America, Europe and South America.   Eric focuses on growth equity investments in SaaS software, internet & digital media and technology-enabled services companies.    

Prior to joining H.I.G., Eric was a Principal with The Mustang Group, a Boston-based private equity firm.  Eric began his career at Bain & Company where he helped lead initiatives evaluating new product introductions, creating business unit growth plans and conducting due diligence for acquisitions.   

Eric received his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Duke University and received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Felicia is a Vice President at H.I.G. Growth Partners, and is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, executing and monitoring investments.

Prior to joining H.I.G., Felicia worked for Comcast, where she focused on investments and acquisitions across the technology, media and telecom sectors. Felicia began her career at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in investment banking, based in New York.

Felicia received her Bachelor of Arts in both International Relations and Economics from Mount Holyoke College and an M.B.A from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.