Investments Team
The Investments Team advises, assists and directly invests in companies that demonstrate the potential to attract follow-on capital, create or support high-paying jobs and generate revenues that will increase Northeast Ohio economic wealth.
Lynn-Ann Gries
Chief Investment Officer
Lynn-Ann Gries joined the team at JumpStart Inc. after working as the Fund Manager for JumpStart, LLC, a venture capital fund dedicated to making investments in start-up companies in Northeast Ohio. Prior to joining JumpStart in August 2001, Lynn-Ann worked in the Investment Banking division of McDonald Investments. At McDonald, she had extensive experience with public equity issuance and worked on stock offerings for many McDonald clients. Prior to joining McDonald, Lynn-Ann worked for Morgan Stanley in institutional equity sales and, prior to that, for Smith Barney in Project Finance. She graduated from Smith College in 1984 with a BA in Economics and received her MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business in 1990. She currently serves on the board of the Fund of the Future of Shaker Heights, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to making pro-integrative home loans, and the Great Lakes Science Center. She is also a partner in Cleveland Social Venture Partners (CSVP), a venture philanthropy organization.
Kerri Breen
Vice President of External Finance
Kerri Breen joined JumpStart Inc. with several years experience in capital markets and banking. Prior to JumpStart, Kerri was a Vice President in the Syndicated Finance group at KeyBank where her emphasis was on structuring and distributing large corporate lines of credit and construction loans. From 1997 to 2002, Kerri served in the Investment Banking division at McDonald Investments, where she was involved in public and private offerings of debt and equity securities, corporate mergers and acquisitions and real estate asset dispositions. Kerri received her MBA with a focus on finance from the Weatherhead School of Management and her BA in marketing from Ohio State University.
Remsen Harris
Investment Associate
Rem joins JumpStart with 15 years of experience in the information technology industry, with experience at both large corporations and entrepreneurial startup organizations. His experience includes leadership roles in operations, sales and marketing. Most recently Rem was with Hyland Software where he developed and managed strategic distribution relationships with national partners including Fortune 500 organizations. Rem came to Cleveland to join Responsive Database Services (RDS), a Cleveland-based startup database publisher in 1995. While at RDS, Rem headed the sales and marketing functions and led the introduction of the company’s web distribution platform. RDS was sold to Thomson International in 2000. Prior to joining RDS Rem worked for a division of Lockheed Martin in Los Angeles where he managed production operations for the company’s data processing and information management business. Rem holds a BA from UCLA and an MBA from John Carroll University.
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