Our team is led by two partners who have built businesses as investors, advisors, and entrepreneurs.
Neel Bhargava | Founding Partner
Neel is an experienced investor, operator, and advisor. Prior to NB Group, he was a member of the investment team at Berkshire Partners, a corporate development manager at The New York Times, a co-founder of Foodpanda India, and a management consultant at Bain & Company. He is also the founder of NB Advisory, an advisory and consulting firm working with growth stage businesses on corporate development, strategy, and finance.
At Berkshire Partners, a growth-oriented private equity fund with $15+ billion in assets under management, Neel evaluated new investments in the Tech/Telecom and Consumer/Multi-Unit industries. He also worked closely with the teams of several portfolio companies including retailers Aritzia and Party City, where he was a Board Observer. At the New York Times, Neel evaluated investments in ad technology, business intelligence, and mobile. At Bain, Neel advised clients across industries and worked with several leading private equity funds on strategic diligence.
Neel is a graduate of the University of Michigan and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Ariez Dustoor | Partner
Ariez is an experienced investor, entrepreneur, and advisor. Prior to NB Group, he was a member of the investment team at Audax Group, the Corporate Development team at Yahoo!, a Co-Founder of Scout Finance (sold to a strategic acquirer in 2017), General Manager at Rocket Internet, and started his career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company.
As a Co-Founder at Scout Finance, an enterprise software company focused on the financial industry, Ariez helped lead product development, sales, and fundraising. At Audax Group, a leading middle market private equity fund, Ariez evaluated new investments and worked closely with portfolio companies, including a large business media and data company, and a physical security services provider. At Yahoo!, Ariez was heavily involved in new investments and acquisitions globally in the Mobile and Online services spaces. At McKinsey, Ariez worked with Fortune 500 CEOs in a variety of industries in the US and abroad.
Ariez is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa.
Lindsey Kendall | Associate
Lindsey supports investment diligence at NB Group. Previously she worked at Summit Rock Advisors and Goldman Sachs. She is pursuing an MBA at the Wharton school at University of Pennsylvania and holds a BBA from Vanderbilt University.
Abhay Porwal | Analyst
Abhay is an analyst at NB Group supporting our due diligence, industry research, and business development initiatives.
OPERATING EXECUTIVES
We work closely with a team of seasoned industry executives to help us evaluate investments and work as needed with our portfolio companies as advisors, board members, or executives.
Paul Singh | Healthcare
Paul is currently the CEO of U.S. Dermatology Partners, one of the largest dermatology practice management groups in the country with 100+ locations and 1800+ employees. He is an active board advisor to OnePeak Medical, a NBG portfolio company.
Paul previously served as COO of Northstar Anesthesia, a TPG-backed practice management company with 150+ facilities that was successfully sold in 2018. He has also served as a private equity investor in multiple healthcare sectors at H.I.G. Capital and Code Hennessy. He began his career at Citibank.
Paul holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan.
Jeff Uttz | Multi-Unit & Consumer
Jeff served as the CFO of Shake Shack (NYSE: SHAK) from 2013 to 2017 where he was a key executive leading Shake Shack from being primarily a regional chain in the Northeast to becoming a public company and having a strong global presence.
Prior to Shake Shack, Jeff served as CFO of Yard House USA, Inc., a full service restaurant chain, where he helped grow the company from 3 locations and $20 million of revenue to 39 locations and over $300 million in revenue under private equity ownership.
Jeff also served on the board of directors of Pret a Manger, an international sandwich shop chain that was sold in 2018 to JAB Holdings for ~$2.0 billion. He currently serves on the board of directors of Greenlane Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: GNLN), one of the largest global sellers of premium cannabis accessories, CBD, and liquid nicotine products.
Jeff received his B.B.A from California State University, Fullerton.
John Baldwin | Technology & IT Services
John has spent his entire career in software and technology as a senior executive leading companies through a variety of situations. In the last 15 years, he has been CEO of three private equity-backed software companies and a senior executive at two other companies. John has also been a board member of six software and technology companies in the last decade.
John was formerly CEO of Computron Software, a leading vendor of enterprise scale accounting software, which eventually sold to Aptean, a Vista Equity Partners portfolio company. John was also CEO of Daptiv Software, an early entrant into the SaaS-based project and portfolio management software market with operations in the US, Europe, and Australia. In 2014, Daptiv was successfully sold to Changepoint Corp.
John has a B.A. in Economics from Cornell University.
Rich Kingston | Telecom & Business Services
Rich has had a successful 30+ year career in the telecommunications industry. In addition to his role as Operating Executive at NB Group, he is President of Eclipse, a technology consulting firm based in Chicago.
From 2006 to 2014, Richard was CEO of Business Only Broadband (BOB), a business he launched after successfully negotiating and executing the purchase of the wireless network assets of Convergence Technologies. BOB grew to be the largest fixed wireless broadband provider in Chicago, New York, and New Jersey before a successful sale to Windstream.
Prior to BOB, Rich was President & COO of Burst Wireless/Monet Mobile Networks, a venture-backed mobile 3G data service, Divisional President at Nextlink Communications responsible for the $200 million revenue Midwest market, and VP at American Communications Services.
He began his career in sales with TMC, Sprint, Metropolitan Fiber Systems, and TCG.