Jonathan Mitchell (CEO)

Jonathan M. Mitchell has served as our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors since our inception.

Mr. Mitchell founded Pacific Capital Partners, an international private investment firm, in January 2009 and sits on the advisor board of all its portfolio partners companies. Pacific Capital Partners makes investments in companies where it can add strategic value and capital to accelerate corporate growth. Deal origination is through the firm’s proprietary global network, adding a solid balance of due diligence and entrepreneurial expertise into its investments.

Mr. Mitchell currently serves as a non executive director of Chanticleer Holdings, a publicly held hedge fund listed in the United States and Germany. The fund is an activist investor in value-based opportunities that are small, privately held or publicly traded micro-cap companies.

From June 2005 to September 2008, Mr. Mitchell served as an equities manager at Cullen Investments where he managed the Cullen Equities global special situation hedge fund based in London. He managed a team of traders and analysts in London and Auckland for the company, including a team at Cullen’s partner, Fortis Investment Management, with ultimate responsibility for fund performance. The portfolio strategy was to identify opportunities in corporate restructurings, turnarounds, bankruptcies, unique growth opportunities and special situations. In addition, the company employed a significant SPAC arbitrage portfolio. The main portfolio company’s criteria was to invest in companies that had high cash flow generation, growth potential, profitability and the potential for yields with barriers to entry in the market for Cullen’s goal of long-term capital appreciation through special situations and event-driven investing.

From September 2004 to June 2005, Mr. Mitchell served as an associate at JP Morgan’s graduate program working across international markets, initially in interest rate derivatives and culminating in a position in equity derivatives.

Mr. Mitchell graduated with distinction from Bristol Business School specializing in Economics and Financial Markets.

Mr. Mitchell’s qualifications to serve on the board include his business relationships and contacts as well as his experience in capital markets.