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Blue Horizon’s team offers a unique blend of investing and operating expertise. The team has significant experience in private equity, consumer products, business services, technology and investment banking, with a track record of building shareholder value and delivering exceptional investment returns. The team has worked together in various capacities over multiple years.
Managing Directors
Scott Wu Mr. Wu has over 17 years of experience in private equity and investment banking. Prior to Blue Horizon, Mr. Wu participated on the investment team of a $125 Million middle market investment firm, where he helped establish a comprehensive deal sourcing strategy, and was actively involved in two successful natural resources investments. Prior to this, he was a co-founder and General Partner of FTVentures (FTV), a private equity firm with over $1 Billion of capital under management. For most of his tenure at FTV, Mr. Wu was the partner with primary responsibility for identifying key trends, deal sourcing, and managing the firm’s investment team and investing activities. He led or co-led over a dozen of its successful investments. FTV’s two funds, during Mr. Wu’s tenure, were each top quartile for their vintage years. Mr. Wu was an active speaker and panelist at conferences and executive events hosted by leading industry organizations, investment firms and Fortune 500 corporations. In May of 2001, he was named by “Future Banker” (Thomson Financial publication) as #10 on the list of “25 Most Influential Personalities in Financial Services.”
Companies sold include:
- Avesta Technologies-Acquired by Visual Networks for $393 Million
- Bluegill Technologies-Acquired by CheckFree Holdings for $256 Million
- eCredit-Acquired by Internet Capital Group at valuation of $1.5 Billion
- E-Loan-Acquired by Popular, Inc. for $300 Million
- Servicesoft-Acquired by Broadbase Software at valuation of $645 Million
Companies taken public include:
- Corillian Corporation-IPO market value of $236 Million
- 724 Solutions-IPO market value of $1.0 Billion
- Valicert-IPO market value of $219 Million
Mr. Wu previously served as an investment banker at Montgomery Securities (now Bank of America Securities), responsible for building and leading the firm’s Financial Technology Practice. Mr. Wu also focused on consumer retail and real estate corporate finance at Morgan Stanley & Co. During his investment banking tenure, Mr. Wu was involved in 60+ transactions with an aggregate value of over $25 billion in financial services, business services, technology, consumer retail and real estate. His transaction experience involved mergers and acquisitions, public and private equity offerings, debt offerings, and restructurings. Mr. Wu has been actively involved for over a decade as a Director of several local and national non-profit organizations. Currently, he is the President of Aim High, an educational organization focused on inner city disadvantaged youths, and an Executive Officer of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a 100 year old organization based in Washington, D.C. Mr. Wu earned a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Harvard University.
John Hommeyer. Mr. Hommeyer brings over 21 years of general management, marketing, sales and M&A experience in a wide range of businesses in the U. S. and abroad. Throughout his career, Mr. Hommeyer has led business units and teams to drive profitable growth in a variety of operational situations, including: mature businesses, start-ups, turn-arounds, major business disruption recovery and mergers. He has demonstrated an ability to spot trends early, operate businesses effectively, lead diverse teams and build shareholder value.
Mr. Hommeyer held a wide range of operational, strategy and corporate development roles at the Clorox Company. As vice president/general manager of Clorox’s laundry business from 2003 to 2006, Mr. Hommeyer led a comprehensive strategy and business plan overhaul of this historic, yet declining business. The new strategy and plans impacted every department and all seven legacy manufacturing facilities, resulting in revitalized revenue and profit growth. As Vice President of Growth and a member of the Clorox Leadership Council from 2006 to 2008, Mr. Hommeyer led growth strategy, mergers and acquisitions, environmental sustainability and corporate development activity. Mr. Hommeyer was at the forefront of the Burt’s Bees acquisition and creation of Clorox’s new Eco-Office, a multi-functional team leading risk mitigation, footprint reduction and growth initiatives.
Prior to Clorox, Mr. Hommeyer served as a top executive at two start-ups, Pets.com and Hotwire. Most notably, Mr. Hommeyer helped create one of the most successful travel companies in recent history as chief marketing officer at Hotwire, an enduring brand franchise that enjoys high customer loyalty. Mr. Hommeyer’s insight and operational expertise was instrumental in enabling Hotwire to survive the events of 9/11 and emerge with new plans that helped restore growth and put the company back on a path to profitability. Hotwire was sold to InterActive Corporation in 2003 for just under $700 million and continues to grow profitably today.
Mr. Hommeyer spent eleven years in Procter & Gamble’s brand management operation with leadership roles of increasing responsibility in U.S. and international markets. He helped lead the global launch of Pantene–now the #1 hair care brand in the world–and was extensively involved in countless marketing, customer management and supply chain solutions. Mr. Hommeyer also led many successful new brand launches and turn-arounds, including revitalization of P&G’s Pampers business in Japan by ending four years of losses and tripling both market share and profitability. Mr. Hommeyer earned his BA from Dartmouth College.
Associates
Rushi Bhanderi. Mr. Bhanderi is an Associate at Blue Horizon Equity where he focuses on sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities. Prior to joining Blue Horizon, he was an Investment Banking Analyst at Houlihan Lokey, focusing on middle-market transactions. Mr. Bhanderi received a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology (Biochemistry), B.A. in Economics, and B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.
Deal Partners
Alan H. Nichols, Jr. Alan Nichols has over 25 years of experience in private equity, operations and investment banking. Most recently Mr. Nichols was an Operating Partner at Golden Gate Capital, a $9 Billion middle market investment firm. Prior to Golden Gate Capital, Mr. Nichols held senior management roles in two highly successful business turnaround situations. From 1993 to 1999, Mr. Nichols was EVP and CFO of Chronicle Publishing, a diversified media company engaged in television, publishing and various Internet businesses. Mr. Nichols implemented an extensive financial, operational and strategic repositioning that resulted in significant improvements in shareholder value, and founded the New Media Division, which consisted of 11 Internet properties, and SF Gate, one of the most successful local information portals in the U.S. Prior to his time at Chronicle Publishing, Mr. Nichols was EVP and CFO of BET, a cable programming service. Mr. Nichols was responsible for the finance and operations functions of the Company and then worked with the Founder and CEO to grow the business organically and through acquisitions. BET was later taken private and then sold to Viacom for $3 billion. Mr. Nichols previously served as an investment banker at Salomon Brothers and CSFB. Mr. Nichols earned his BA from Stanford University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Investors/Advisors
Our investors are prominent investment and operating executives with outstanding track records and are actively involved as advisors in firm activities. This premier group provides us a unique view of the marketplace and contributes to enhancing our decision making, providing expertise to our portfolio companies, and increasing the value of our investments.
A partial list includes:
Richard Bartlett, Head of Equities - Americas, Citigroup
Vito Bialla, Founder & CEO, Bialla & Associates, and of Bialla Vineyards
Kirk Bradley, Executive Technical Advisor, Oracle
Rob Combi, Co-Founder & Managing Director, BridgeStreet Consulting
Erik Christoffersen, ED, The Mint Project/San Francisco Museum & Historical Society
Stephanie DiMarco, Founder / CEO, Advent Software
Bob Falkenberg, former Senior Executive, Babcock and Brown
David Girouard, President, Google Enterprise
Kevin Griffin, Head of Agency MBS Trading, Cantor Fitzgerald
Jim Harleen, Private Investor
Cory Higgins, Area Chairman, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
Jeff Huber, SVP of Engineering, Google; Director, Electronic Arts
James Katzman, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs
Matt Landa, COO, Active Network
Alissa Lee, COO - Legal Department and Associate General Counsel, Google
Brett Matthews, Founder / former CEO of Imagitas
Tim Prichard, Co-Founder & Managing Director, BridgeStreet Consulting
John Replogle, CEO, Burt's Bees
John Scott, President & CEO, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts
John Sinik, MD, Towerbrook Capital/former Global Head of Leveraged Finance, UBS
Dave Stanton, Founder & Partner, Francisco Partners
Mark Whiting, Founder / Managing Director, Drawbridge Partners