John May is the founder and managing partner of New Vantage Group, a Vienna, VA firm that innovatively mobilizes private equity into early-stage companies and provides advisory services to both funds and private investors. Mr. May’s experience in private equity capital over the last 20 years ranges from venture capital fund management to angel investing.
Mr. May co-founded The Dinner Club, an investment group of 60 regional angels who collectively invested in regional early-stage ventures. A larger private investor pool, the eMedia Club with 75 members, followed it, and in 2000, the Washington Dinner Club with 75 members was started. Active Angel Investors, a “pledge” fund was created in 2003. New Vantage Group administers all of these groups. Additionally, in 2006, New Vantage Group partnered with Focus Enterprises in the launch of Seraphim Capital, an expansion-stage, UK venture capital fund.
Mr. May has been at the forefront of the angel investor movement. In 1991, he co-founded the Investors' Circle, a national non-profit group of 125 family and institutional investors working to grow the social venture capital industry. Additionally, in 1996, he co-founded and became executive director of the Private Investors Network, an angel network sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association, which he led until 2002. John is now Chairman of the Angel Capital Association (formerly a program of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation), is a lead instructor for the "Power of Angel Investing" seminars, and is co-author of two books, Every Business Needs an Angel (Crown Business: 2001), and State of the Art: An Executive Briefing on Cutting-Edge Practices in American Angel Investing (Darden Publishing: 2003).
Mr. May holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Arts from Earlham College.
He is married, has two adult children and resides in McLean, Virginia.
Sam Sezak
sam@newvantagegroup.com
Sam brings a diverse background to the New Vantage team. Sam Sezak is a Sr. Associate at New Vantage Group. He has participated in over 10 private equity financings and has performed extensive diligence on over 50 companies in the mid-Atlantic region. He has been an active philanthropic participant in the DC community having served on the Board of Advisors for both Community Harvest, a non-profit organization whose mission is to create a locally rooted, sustainable food system that meets the needs of both underserved communities and small farmers in the Washington, DC region and Dress 4 Development, an award winning project created to provide employment opportunities for skilled and underprivileged seamstresses by giving them access to overseas markets. Prior to joining New Vantage Group, Mr. Sezak worked for Merrill Lynch’s Global Markets and Investment Banking Group in New York, NY and served as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine as a business development advisor. Mr. Sezak holds an MBA from Georgetown University with a focus in international business and entrepreneurship.
Wendy Granat
wendy@newvantagegroup.com
Wendy has been working with New Vantage Group for six years in a variety of capacities and is now responsible for the internal and external communications and event planning for the various funds. Wendy has over 25 years in the field of administrative management and is familiar with the entrepreneurial world, being a small business owner herself and also having owned and operated a successful wholesale cookie business in the past.
John May