Robert E. Grady

As an Advisory Partner, Bob works closely with Summit’s investment teams, particularly in the Growth Products & Services and Technology areas, to identify new investment opportunities and collaborate with portfolio company leaders to help shape growth strategies focused on long-term value creation. Bob also assists in the firm’s business development activities. Bob currently serves on the board of directors at CollisionRight and OTR Solutions.

Bob brings over 30 years of investment experience. His investments and board seats have included Align Technology (Nasdaq: “ALGN”), Authentec (Nasdaq: “AUTH”, acquired by Apple), Blackboard (Nasdaq: “BBBB”, acquired by Providence Equity), eScreen (acquired by Alere/Abbott Labs), Maxim Integrated Products (Nasdaq: “MXIM”, acquired by Analog Devices), Pacur, Potter Global (acquired by KKR), Thomas Weisel Partners (Nasdaq: “TWPG”, acquired by Stifel Financial), Transportation Insight, Viator (acquired by Trip Advisor), Wall Street Institute (acquired by Pearson), and Washing Systems (acquired by Kao Corporation).

Immediately prior to joining Summit, Bob was a Partner at Gryphon Investors, where he served as Head of the Industrial Growth Group and oversaw both Business Development and the creation of the firm’s software practice. Previously, Bob was a Partner at Cheyenne Capital Fund, a private equity fund-of-funds and co-investment fund, and Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Investment Policy Committee for the New Jersey State Investment Council, which oversees the state’s $78 billion pension fund. Bob served for a decade as a Partner and member of the Management Committee at The Carlyle Group, where he was the Global Head of Venture & Growth Capital. While at Carlyle, Bob served as Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Bob began his finance career at Robertson, Stephens & Co., where he was a Partner and served as a member of the firm’s Management Committee.

Earlier in his career, Bob worked in the White House as a senior policy advisor to President George H.W. Bush. He held several key roles, including Deputy Assistant to the President, Executive Associate Director of the Office of Management & Budget (OMB), OMB Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy and Science, and chief speechwriter on the successful 1988 Bush-Quayle presidential campaign. He began his career as Legislative and then Administrative Assistant to U.S. Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick and as Director of Communications and Policy for New Jersey Governor Thomas H. Kean.

Bob holds an AB, cum laude, from Harvard College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he taught for over a decade as a Lecturer in Public Management. Bob has served as a director of more than two dozen private and public companies. In addition to the Summit board and investment experience listed above, Bob is currently a member of the Board of Directors at Stifel Financial (NYSE: SF), the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the Board of Trustees of Proctor Academy.  He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.