Management Team
CHRISTOPHER COX
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Christopher serves as CEO of Lightswitch Capital Management, L.P., a biotech private equity fund. He has extensive experience in senior leadership, international relations, and private equity investments.
Prior to Lightswitch, Christopher served as Vice Chairman of Brightsphere Investment Group, a top global asset manager with $240 Bn AUM.
Christopher also Co-founded OC Global Partners, LLC, a business consulting and advisory firm with a strong focus on China and the Middle East. He serves on the Board of Richard Nixon Foundation.
Christopher earned a JD from New York University and AB in Political Science from Princeton University.
SHAHRYAR OVEISSI
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Shahryar serves as Co-Founder & Chief Carbon Officer of Argali Carbon Corporation.
Over the last decade, Shahryar has been developing projects around carbon offsets. Previously, Shahryar was a partner of Rose Capital, a leading Ag fund. Prior to joining Rose Capital, Shahryar spent eight years as an Operating Partner of Pegasus Capital Advisors, a U.S. Middle Market private Equity firm with $2Bn AUM, with a focus on sustainability and health/wellness.
Shahryar has served on the boards of Six Senses Hotels Resorts & Spas, GYRO HSR, Zero Base Energy, and currently, Todd English Enterprises & A&R Ventures.
Shahryar graduated from New York University Stern School of Business with a BS in Information Systems and International Business.
PETER SCHWEINFURTH
Partner
Peter is a global strategic financial executive and sustainability practitioner with three decades private equity, hedge fund and venture capital investing experience, including fourteen years’ experience in renewable energy and related energy efficiency projects.
Peter has served as a portfolio company advisor and executive, and previous positions include SVP, Avenue Capital (New York and London) managing distressed debt and direct debt investments in North America and Europe, and head of the private equity group at Perry Capital. Previous experience included a dozen years as a US domestic private equity investment professional.
Peter earned an AB from Harvard University, an MBA from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, a Certificate in Business Sustainability, NYU Stern School and is currently a Certificate of Corporate Sustainability and Innovation candidate at Harvard Extension School.
BO CUI
Chief Financial Officer
Bo has developed experience in Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions. He successfully served as Managing Director of China for Brightsphere Investment Group, a $240Bn AUM asset manager listed on NYSE.
Previously, Bo was Director of Direct Investments, CCB international, the Investment Banking and Asset Management arm of China Construction Bank, closing investments and acquisitions in consumer, mining, real estate, financial services, and shipping and logistics sectors.
Bo graduated from Georgetown University Law Center with a JD in Law, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science
CONNOR SMITH
Associate
Connor has extensive experience in financial analysis and strategic planning. As the former Director of Strategy and Operations at UtilizeCore, a leading enterprise technology company, he oversaw complex operational systems and spearheaded strategic initiatives that fueled the company’s growth.
Previously, Connor worked as an Associate at TMB Partners, a single-family investment group with a focus on real estate and the hospitality industry. Connor was also an analyst at Stifel Financial and Brooks, Houghton & Company where he supported transactions in the industrials, fine chemicals, technology, and consumer products sectors.
Connor graduated with a B.B.A. from the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University.
Advisors
CASPER VAN DER TAK
Casper Van der Tak is a Dutch economist with wide-ranging experience. His work in the last 20 years has concentrated on the issues of environment, energy and climate change, including a decade as international project director for a sustainable industrial development plan.
Casper is best known for the founding and management of Caspervandertak Consulting from a single person company to one of the leading developers of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, with 168 United Nations registered projects to date.
From 2013-2015, Casper was senior climate technology policy specialist and team leader at Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Climate Technology Finance Center, focused on introducing climate technologies in policies, planning, and investment pipelines.
MK MERRIGAN
MK is President of MK Advisors and Former VP of ZeroBase Energy. She has led multiple entrepreneurial endeavors in Sub-Saharan Africa and is working to solve critical issues facing remote communities in the Pacific, Caribbean, and Latin America.
MK began her career in humanitarian aid, working frequently in the developing world. For the past decade, she has led the development of advanced energy solutions that meet the mission of U.S. military, security and peacekeeping forces that are operating beyond secure supply lines.
By opening new markets with creative capital, this work quickly led to border security in support of national security interests, economic development efforts through small businesses, and in developing regions and markets.
Paul Zorner
Paul has held scientific, development, operations and senior administrative positions with start-up and Fortune 500 companies. He has extensive international experience and has been a co-founder of several agricultural, biotechnology and renewable-energy based companies who have had as a specific focus local food and rural economic security.
Paul serves as President, BleuJaune Advisors; Governing Board Chair, Alternative Fuels and Chemicals Coalition; Adjunct Professor of Horticulture, North Carolina State University and Advisory Board member of several organizations focused on sustainable agriculture.
Paul received his undergraduate degree from Lewis and Clark College (Ecology and Secondary Education) and his Ph.D. in Botany and Plant Pathology from Colorado State University where he worked on development of cropping systems for dryland agriculture.
Dr. Thelma Awori
Dr. Awori is a Ugandan professor, active feminist, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa of the UN Development Program. Dr. Awori is an Honorary Consul General, Republic of Liberia.
Dr. Awori served the United Nations for 12 years as Deputy Director for UNIFEM and as Resident Coordinator of the UN System in Zimbabwe. Since 1965, she has been active in the struggle of the Women of Uganda for gender equality. In 2018, she was one of the ten women recognized for making Uganda proud in various fields of human endeavor.
Dr. Awori is the Founding Chair and Co-President, Sustainable Market Women’s Fund, Liberia (formerly Sirleaf Market Women’s Fund) which has directly and indirectly empowered over 15,000 market women in Liberia.
Anthony Zolezzi
Over the last 30 years, Anthony has worked to improve our food supply through organic agriculture, supporting small family farms, and cleaning up the planet through recycling remediation businesses and initiatives.
In 2018, Anthony was named CEO of TwinLab, a 50-year-old nutraceutical company. He eventually left to pursue broader reaching initiatives within the health and wellness landscape.
Anthony and his colleagues recently formed UX Health, a start-up plan to build a platform on which personalized treatments and products will reside. He hopes to improve healthcare by concentrating on products such as personalized cancer treatments, personalized diagnostics, product and lifestyle protocols for pain, depression and anxiety.