Investment Philosophy Expert Council

Robert F. Mancuso is a pioneer in the alternative assets category and a decades long investor. He was the first President and Chief Executive Officer of Merrill Lynch Capital Partners, Inc., the entity responsible for establishing and growing Merrill’s private equity business, which he helped found. Under his leadership Merrill was the first Wall Street firm to raise a captive private equity fund from institutional investors. He also helped design Merrill’s  very successful strategy of being the White Knight to companies under threatened takeover from raiders who were financed by Drexel Burnham and Mike Milken. While at Merrill he led the team that sourced and closed the first billion dollar leveraged buyout ever done by anyone which was done with KKR as Merrill’s partner.  He subsequently founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of two merchant banking firms, Mancuso & Company and The Dellacorte Group. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Mr. Mancuso was associated with Lazard Freres & Co. He also practiced law with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.  Over his career he has led teams that raised over $7 billion in financing, tapping numerous providers of senior, mezzanine, and equity capital, from both public and private sources. He has also served on the boards of directors of twelve companies ranging in size from $75 million to $4 billion in annual sales.

Mr. Mancuso currently is the CEO of Capri Capital, LLC, his family office , which is a Palm Beach-based private equity-focused investment firm.  Mr. Mancuso is a thought leader in the family office investing space.  He has written five  articles that address the investing needs of Single Family Offices and the challenges of direct investing including (1) The Search for Alpha Goes Private:  Why Single-Family Offices Are Competing to Do Direct Deals and the Risks They Produce; (2)  Searching for Alpha in the Private Market: Why Many SFOs Shouldn’t Bother; (3) Searching For Yield in The Private Market: Why Single-Family Offices Should Stop Thinking Passively and Start Acting Dynamically to Enhance Fixed Income Returns ; and (4) The Illusion of Stability which describes how the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate Bank, and First Republic contributed to the forced take over of Credit Suisse by UBS. 

His most recent article is entitled  Wealth Taxes: A Confusing Signal to Entrepreneurs ? . In it he identifies how the imposition of Wealth Taxes threaten entrepreneurship and innovation. It also documents how Wealth Taxes have been pursued in Western Europe and continue to be a controversial topic of discussion.

In June 2024, Mr. Mancuso spoke  at the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Global Family Office Community conference in London. He described  how confiscatory tax policies threaten the ability of family held  businesses to pass on their legacies to succeeding generations.

Mr. Mancuso has recently established the White Knight Capital: The Capri Hybrid Fund to assist family held businesses in both the United States and Europe in their ability to preserve and pass on their families’ legacies.

Simon Clark is an experienced financial services professional with over 30 years' experience across family offices, asset management and banking.

He began his career in 1996 as a stockbroker in the City of London and progressed into institutional asset management with Barclays and Baring Asset Management, specializing in multi-asset investing. He subsequently joined Coutts, where he led the UK and European UHNW portfolio management team, before moving into the family office sector as CIO and later CEO.

In building a new family office platform, Simon established the investment function, developed governance structures and recruited the investment team. As part of a joint venture between UK and UAE based families, he later led the establishment of a trade finance bank in Abu Dhabi, which was awarded one of the first Tier 1 banking licences in ADGM.

Simon subsequently became Head of Family Office at Barnett Waddingham, a leading independent investment advisory practice, where he advised families on asset allocation, manager selection, investment governance and performance oversight. 

More recently, Simon has worked with families globally, advising on a broad range of investment matters including traditional asset management, project finance, corporate finance and fundraising. 

Simon studied Economics and Geography at UCL and Law at Northumbria University. He was a founding Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment and he has also attended the Judge Business School at Cambridge.

Outside work, Simon enjoys football, skiing and hill walking, but most of all spending time with his family and two dogs.

Yuval Reisman is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in the fields of crypto, finance, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Yuval is the Founder and CEO of Atitlan Asset Management, an award-winning crypto quantitative multi-strategy fund based out of London. He also founded YRD Capital, the OG of a Fund of Funds specializing in crypto systematic funds, launched in March 2018. He has been fully committed to the crypto space since 2017.

He also founded the Asia Israel Blockchain Association. Yuval has been instrumental in promoting blockchain technology and fostering connections in the industry.

In his previous roles, Yuval served as the Managing Director at Hone Capital, a US-China Venture Capital firm, and as the General Manager and Head of APAC China at ironSource, a leading mobile marketing technology platform. At ironSource, he successfully established the APAC office and significantly expanded the company's business in the region.

Yuval's career also includes his role as Assistant General Partner at Infinity Equity, a PE firm focusing on Israeli-Chinese Ventures.

Yuval holds an MBA from INSEAD and a Bachelor of Arts in Geneval and East Asian Studies from Tel Aviv University.

He lives in London with his wife and 2 children.

Amir Barsoum is Founder & Managing Partner, Family Office & InVitro Capital.

He is a serial entrepreneur and long-time investor renowned for founding, scaling, and successfully exiting transformative ventures. Recognized by Fortune as one of the 40 Under 40 Global Leaders.

He founded Vezeeta, the leading digital healthcare platform in the MEA, growing it to + 1,000 professionals serving 30 million patients annually across 5 countries. He exited Vezeeta through a landmark acquisition by the region's largest private equity firm and continues to serve as Chairman.

Following this exit, Amir established a family office in the Los Angeles area, focusing on strategic investments, including various real estate and search funds, and wealth management. He subsequently founded InVitro Capital, a Venture Studio dedicated to launching and scaling high-growth companies leveraging AI technology across traditional industries. Under his leadership, InVitro has rapidly expanded to +170 professionals in 3 years, operating from California (HQ), Boston, Mexico City, Cairo, and Panama City. 

Amir pioneered the venture studio asset class, achieving approximately a 7X MOIC for his first fund, anchored by his family office alongside three other prominent family investors.

Amir also serves as a thought leader in innovation, sustainability, and global business strategy. His notable board memberships include:

• Bloomberg Health Council New Economy
• Endeavor Egypt, the premier global network for high-impact entrepreneurs
• United Nations Global Compact
• African Business Leaders Coalition (Founding Member)

Additionally, he sits on different boards and Investment Committees for fund and tech companies in US, Spain and Germany.

Amir began his professional journey at McKinsey & Company, advising Fortune 500 companies followed by leading the M&A and Strategy of AstraZeneca EMEA. He holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.