Ken Ducey, Jr. - Principal Consultant

Ridgefield, CT

Ken has over 20 years of experience working within the financial industry both as an entrepreneur seeking funding, and as a decision maker with venture capital firms seeking to deploy their capital. Ken understands what investors are seeking, and has developed multiple presentations to provide the information in a format that exploits the valuable assets of a growing company.

Ken has been sought after as a consultant for many startup companies in a diverse set of industries, from defense contractors, to technology, manufacturing and medical device companies. Ken engages with the company to not only put together a plan, but to identify potential investors. Ken’s vast experience with growing companies assists owners to develop a strategy that will drive the company to success.

Ken has been a founder of multiple companies, and recently a President/CFO of a publicly traded firm with over $70 million in annual revenue in the Homeland Security Industry. Ken understands the differences in managing investors in a publicly traded firm, and how to present information and strategies accordingly.

Every business Ken has been involved with utilized Mergers & Acquisitions, for both growth and exit strategies. Ken started Fairfield Capital at the request of his clients based on his success of buying and selling companies with revenue less than $75 million in revenue. Ken has represented companies in manufacturing, agribusiness, and oil industries.

Ken has developed business plans and ran business development teams in a variety of industries including Technology, Homeland Security, Internet, Manufacturing, Telecommunications, and Outsourcing. Ken has raised over $18 million from a variety of funding sources including angel investors, venture capital, private equity, PIPE transactions, and hedge funds.

Jenifer Grant, MBA - Principal Consultant

New York, NY

Jenifer has been involved with finance, strategy, and marketing in a wide variety of roles and industries for over 15 years. In addition to third-party clients, she developed plans and implemented strategies for internal new businesses within IT and investment banking during the corporate phase of her career. Jenifer’s clients range from start-up through high middle market companies in fields including IT, software, green tech / renewable energy, telecom services, wireless, financial services, Internet/e-commerce, media/entertainment, healthcare products and wellness, consumer and industrial products, retail, mining and commodities, energy and tourism.

Prior to working as an independent consultant, Jenifer structured and managed transactions in global merchant banking and derivatives, and held strategic planning and management positions within investment banking and IT functions at Bankers Trust Company. Earlier, she worked in credit corporate finance at Manufacturers Hanover and portfolio strategy, equity and fixed income research at Kidder Peabody.

Jenifer has an MBA in Finance from Wharton and a BA in Economics from Columbia.

Charles Kickham, MBA - Principal Consultant

New York, NY

Charles brings 17 years of experience in finance, strategic partnership development, organizational restructuring, real estate development, and small business development to Cayenne Consulting. Charles' experience extends from Wall Street to small internet start-ups, delivering large-company fiscal and operational discipline to emerging companies whose structures are most fragile in their early years. Operating both in the trenches as an entrepreneur and on the outside as an investor/advisor, Charles understands the needs and demands of both. Such experience lends well to start-ups, not only in their quest for capital but also in their need for sound judgment in getting their business off the ground. This includes organizational management, process and technology roadmaps, revenue and cash flow projections, financial models and forecasts, legal and capital structures, advisory board and ramp-up strategies, technology development, and team building.

Charles' core financial strength blends operational efficiency with a mandate to always improve on existing structures and best practices. Such strengths were evident at TD Waterhouse where Charles, originally brought on board to help turn around global treasury operations, rose to provide leadership for one of its most profitable and critical business units, directing strategic/operational planning, forecasting, budgeting, firm funding, cash management, and risk management initiatives, with ultimate responsibility over the firm's cash maximization. Charles employs such tactics in the start-up environment where the early years of launching are some of the most critical.

Charles has been, and continues to be, a founding member of multiple internet start-ups and prior to joining Cayenne, operated as a managing partner in two real estate development firms.

Charles holds MBA degrees from both New York University's Stern School of Business and the London School of Economics, and is a mentor both at NYU's Berkley School of Entrepreneurial Studies, and with entrepreneurial programs involving inner-city New York City high school students.

George Papaioannou, MBA - Principal Consultant

Princeton, NJ (Serving Philadelphia and New York)

George Papaioannou has 15 years of experience in developing, analyzing, evaluating and executing business models, from an investment as well as an operational perspective.

George worked on Wall Street for a total of eight years, analyzing investment opportunities and positioning them with institutional investors. As a research analyst for Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, he covered the media & entertainment sector. While at DLJ, George played a central role in more than two dozen public offerings and M&A transactions worth a total of over $3 billion. As product manager for Thomas Weisel Partners, George oversaw all aspects of the equity research department's daily product output. He collaborated with the firm's research analysts to develop thematic investment ideas and position them with appropriate investors. George was a member of TWP's Research Review Committee, which reviewed and approved stock rating changes.

As a management consultant for IBM Global Services, George specialized in the development and execution of Internet strategies for Global 2000 media companies. At online music retailer CDNOW, he formulated a strategy and business model for selling digital downloads. Most recently, George was director of business development for Clique Communications, a provider of Web-based video communication technologies. At Clique, he was responsible for developing commercial applications for the technologies, finding new business opportunities and forging strategic partnerships.

George serves as a Mentor for the Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship at Columbia University. He earned his BA from Cornell University and his MBA from Columbia Business School.

Eric Powers, MBA - Principal Consultant

New York, NY

Eric is a small business and business plan consultant who has worked with a variety of clients, while specializing in service sectors. He endeavors to make sure clients ask the right questions first and then help them to dig deeper into their strategy. Eric’s clients include a skin care product, a water filtration provider, a cellular phone retailer, web software services, a language training center, social service organizations, consulting firms, and a theater company. Projects have included business plans, executive summaries, mission statements, strategy and operations consulting, and technology implementation. Eric developed over forty sample business plan templates for business plan consulting firm clients to help small businesses launch more easily.

He has written numerous articles on business planning, private placement memoranda, and entrepreneurship. Eric has served pro bono non-profit clients through the Net Impact Service Corps and volunteers for the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) as a mentor.

Prior to working as a consultant, Eric was Associate Director in charge of operations at Helen Mills Event Space in New York where he sold event rentals to corporate, non-profit and private clients and helped to grow a startup business. He was a founding editor of offoffonline.com and ran development and office management as Administrative Director for Target Margin Theater.

Eric holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management from Baruch College and a BA from Williams College.

Vic Singh, MBA - Principal Consultant

New York, NY

Vic is a co-founder and VP of business development at a mobile software startup. He brings over ten years of experience in the software sector as a consultant, investor and manager. His areas of expertise include business development, product and project management, marketing, strategy, sales, financial planning and capital raising for technology startups.

Previously, Vic was a venture capitalist with RRE Ventures, an early stage venture firm with $850MM under management. At RRE, he focused on investments in cleantech, consumer internet, digital media and mobility. He led the firm's investment in Adaptive Blue, a semantic web startup and closed several deals including Clear, Flipswap, M-Via, Mobo, Payfone and Tendril.

Before RRE, Vic was a software consultant at Andersen and PwC and helped launch a business at Unisys that grew from a cost center to $70MM by selling and implementing ocean cargo tracking systems leveraging telecom infrastructure. He has implemented software solutions for major corporations including Bose, MetLife, LG, Sara Lee and Unilever and has provided guidance to several startups including Hopstop, Exergen, Organic Motion and Remote Reality. He also served as a product manager for Metiom, a venture backed provider of e-marketplaces.

Vic holds a BSE in Mechanical Engineering with minors in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania where he was awarded the National Science Foundation Fellowship and an MBA from Columbia Business School where he was a Robert Toigo Foundation Fellow, an InSITE Fellow and Co-President of the Venture Capital and Private Equity Club.

Josh B, MBA - Principal Consultant

Tel Aviv, Israel and New York, NY

Josh has over fifteen years of experience in the financial services and healthcare sectors, and has functioned in a variety of leadership roles. Josh currently serves in a leadership position within a top 15 multinational pharmaceutical company where he oversees licensing of pre-clinical stage innovative products across a number of therapeutic areas.

Previously, he served as a founding executive of a VC-backed P2P financial company, where he was instrumental in strategy, business development, operations, and capital raising.

Prior to this, Josh was a portfolio manager for a major international asset management company in New York, where he oversaw $3 billion of institutional equity in the financial sector, which included banks, thrifts, fiduciaries, credit card, and diversified financial companies. During his tenure, his investments performed in the top quartile relative to his peers. In addition, he served as a research analyst (sell-side) at a Tier-1 investment bank, where he followed the large- cap commercial banking space and frequently interacted with company management, institutional investors and sales traders. Earlier in his career, Josh worked in the financial services group of a Tier-1 investment bank, where he executed M&A transactions and public and private financings for commercial banks, S&Ls, home equity lenders, mortgage REITs and real estate related companies. Additionally, Josh performed regulatory compliance at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, with a specialization in credit risk and capital adequacy.

He earned an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School, and B.A. in Economics from Yeshiva University.