PEI’s Investment Professionals

PEI Management Team

New York

Chuck Stetson - Managing Director
David B. Parshall - Managing Director
Gunnar B. Fremuth - Managing Director
Richard Vietor - Venture Partner
Benjamin Wilson - Vice President
Kellen DiStefano - Associate
Jeanne Liou - Controller
Edward Muradian - Assistant Controller & Chief Compliance Officer

Regional Partners

William H. Robb - Chicago
Lucien Ruby - San Francisco
Koichiro Watanabe - Tokyo

PEI Corporate Ventures

Kenneth W. Rind - Partner, PEICV

Chuck Stetson: Mr. Stetson is a Managing Director and co-founded PEI in 1992. He is an industry pioneer of secondary purchases of both limited partnership interests and portfolios of directs, having completed his first secondary transaction in 1978.  Prior to forming PEI, he was a Managing Director of Venture Capital Fund of America, leading the fund's U.S. investments.  Before that, he was an investment banker at Davis Skaggs in San Francisco and Bache Halsey Stuart, in New York and in San Francisco.  Mr. Stetson is a graduate of Yale University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and has an L.L.B. from Concordia University.

To Email Chuck Stetson please click here.
Direct telephone: 212-750-2933

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David B. Parshall: Mr. Parshall is a Managing Director and co-founded PEI in 1992. He has 30 years of related investment banking and private equity experience. Prior to forming PEI, he was a Managing Director of The Blackstone Group and a member of its Advisory Committee. Before that Mr. Parshall was a Managing Director of Lehman Brothers, where he had broad experience over a period of 14 years providing corporate finance and merger and acquisition advisory services for clients covering a cross section of economic sectors. Mr. Parshall worked at Lehman Brothers in Investment Banking in both New York and San Francisco. Mr. Parshall is a graduate of Columbia College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

To Email David Parshall please click here.
Direct telephone: 212-750-7132

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Gunnar B. Fremuth: Mr. Fremuth is a Managing Director and joined PEI in 1996. Prior to that, he was an investment banker with the boutique firm LT Private Placements, which specialized in raising early-stage capital for medical device and technology companies. Prior to that, he served as a Director and Controller of a publishing company. Mr. Fremuth is a graduate of New York University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. 

To Email Gunnar Fremuth please click here.
Direct telephone: 212-750-9361

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Kenneth W. Rind: Dr. Rind is a Co-founder and Partner of PEI Corporate Ventures, which focuses on the purchase of venture investments from corporate sellers. Dr. Rind has worked with PEI since 1996. He is an internationally active venture capitalist, who has been both a practitioner and long-time observer of corporate strategic investing. Dr. Rind has been a corporate development executive and strategic investor for Xerox, and a founder of 10 venture capital funds, including the Oxford Venture Funds. He was also an investment banking/venture capital partner at Oppenheimer (now CIBC), an advisor on investments to the Rockefeller family office, the portfolio manager of a technology-focused mutual fund, and a founder of an early technology consulting group. Dr. Rind was a founding Director of the National Venture Capital Association and is currently a Director of the Venture Investors Association of New York and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts. Dr. Rind is a graduate of Cornell University and Columbia University.

To Email Ken Rind please click here.
Direct telephone: 212-838-6633

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William H. Robb: Mr. Robb is a Regional Partner responsible for originating deal flow in the Midwest. He has worked with PEI since 1996 and was a general partner of FIL Partners, LP, a PEI affiliate. He has over 20 years of experience in corporate development and equity investments as a partner of Platte River Ventures, Managing Partner of Sentry Financial Corporation Accelerator Fund, VP Corporate Development of Fruehauf Trailer Company and President of Fruehauf International Limited, Partner of Ridge Capital Corporation, Managing Director of Continental Bank Mergers and Acquisitions Group, and Manager of A.T. Kearney. Mr. Robb is a graduate of Northwestern University and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

To Email Bill Robb please click here.
Direct telephone: 847-854-2673

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Lucien Ruby: Mr. Ruby is a Regional Partner responsible for originating deal flow on the west coast. He has been associated with PEI since 1992. He has over 25 years of private equity experience, including as General Partner of Crown Advisors, Founder and General Partner of Quest Ventures, and as a Principal at Brentwood Associates. Prior to that, he was a consultant for the Strategic Planning Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts and managed Vermont Investment Capital, a small SBIC. He is a graduate of Duke University and the Harvard University Graduate School of Business.

To Email Lucien Ruby please click here.
Direct telephone: 415-782-1414

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Koichiro Watanabe: Mr. Watanabe is a Regional Partner responsible for deal origination in Japan. He has worked with PEI since 1997 and is President of Sojitz Private Equity, Inc. (formerly Nichimen Private Equity, Inc.) in Tokyo, in which PEI is a shareholder. Mr. Watanabe previously worked in Tokyo at Sojitz Corporation (formerly Nichimen Corporation), a major Japanese general trading company, in charge of private equity investment.  Sojitz Private Equity, Inc. and its predecessor have generated approximately $1 billion of transactions for PEI.

To Email Koichiro Watanabe please click here.
Direct telephone: [81] 03-5210-3603

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Richard Vietor: Mr. Vietor joined PEI in 2006 as a venture partner focused on healthcare. He has over 35 years of experience in the healthcare sector.  Presently, he is an industry consultant, specializing in providing advice on corporate strategy, financing and communications to specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.  Prior to PEI, his major consulting assignment was as Senior Advisor to Lehman Brothers Healthcare Investment Banking Division.  He spent most of his career at Merrill Lynch, where he was a top institutionally ranked senior research analyst and global manager of Merrill's team of analysts specializing in the research of large and emerging global pharmaceutical companies.  He then became a Managing Director of Merrill Lynch's Healthcare Investment Banking Unit, where he was involved in a number of major M&A and financing transactions.  Mr. Vietor presently serves as a Director of a number of private companies, including: Longitude Health, which specializes in wellness and prevention strategies; Nuclea Biotechnologies, which is developing diagnostics; and InfaCare Pharmaceutical Corporation, which is developing neonatal drugs.  Previously, he was a Director of QLT, a public company specializing in treatment of diseases of the eye, and Atrix Labs, a public company focused on drug delivery technologies.  Mr. Vietor received a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

To Email Richard Vietor please click here.
Direct telephone: 212-750-3028

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Benjamin Wilson: Mr. Wilson is a Vice President and joined PEI in 2008 upon his graduation from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.  Prior to pursuing his MBA, Mr. Wilson spent five years in investment banking, first with Deutsche Bank Securities and then with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co.  He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University and is NASD registered (Series 7 and 63).

To Email Benjamin Wilson please click here.
Direct telephone: 212-750-1408

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Kellen DiStefano: Mr. DiStefano is an Associate and joined PEI in 2008 upon his graduation from The King’s College with a Bachelor’s degree in management. Prior to graduation, Mr. DiStefano worked as an intern at Oppenheimer & Company, Inc. while attending school. He has passed his Series 7 General Securities Representative Exam.

To Email Kellen DiStefano please click here.
Direct telephone: 212-750-1357

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Jeanne Liou: Ms. Liou joined PEI as Controller in 2006. Ms. Liou had previous experience with similar responsibilities at M.D. Sass Investors Services and Bear Stearns Asset Management. Ms. Liou also had prior work experience with PricewaterhouseCoopers. She is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Master’s degree in Professional Accounting.

To Email Jeanne Liou please click here.
Direct telephone: 212-750-4791

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Edward Muradian, CPA: Mr. Muradian joined PEI as Assistant Controller & Chief Compliance Officer in September 2010. Mr. Muradian had previous experience with similar responsibilities at Phoenix Realty Group. Prior to that he worked in both audit and tax groups at Deloitte & Touche focusing on private equity clients. He is a graduate of Binghamton University with a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and is a New York State Certified Public Accountant.

To Email Edward Muradian please click here.
Direct telephone: 212-750-7256

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