With his emphasis on positive leadership, the ability to attract and retain exceptional talent and to raise the necessary venture funding, IntelePeer has grown dramatically. This rapid growth was funded with over $80M in venture financing that Mr. Fawzi secured from VantagePoint Venture Partners, Kennet Venture Partners and NorthCap Partners. In recognition, the company has received numerous awards for its products, customer service and leadership over the past several years, including being named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest-growing U.S. companies and to Deliotte’s Silicon Valley’s Fast 50 Rising Star. In March 2015, Mr. Fawzi was the recipient of the 2014 ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ Award by Stevens Technology Institute. As well as the 2017 University of Michigan/KPMG QuantumShift’s Top Entrepreneur in America award.
Between 1991 and 2001, Frank founded and grew CommTech Corporation to be an early leader in the communications software sector. Recognizing CommTech’s leadership and the management capabilities of Mr. Fawzi and his team, Morgan Stanley provided the company with $15M in funding, which CommTech deployed to fund its aggressive expansion organically and through acquisitions. CommTech was eventually acquired by ADC, a leading provider of software solutions for the telecommunication industry for $178M.
Prior to founding CommTech, Frank worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories. While at AT&T, he worked as the lead data communications architect on a team responsible for AT&T being awarded a $1.4 billion contract from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
Frank received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Master of Science in Management from Stevens Institute of Technology, participated in the Wharton Executive Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business QuantumShift Program.
Paul Deninger is currently a Senior Managing Director of Davis Partners Group (DPG), an advisory firm that provides C-Suite and Board level consulting services. Paul has over 35 years of experience in the technology industry as a CEO, Board Member and banker. He retired from investment banking in 2020, having completed over 150 technology transactions in his career. He currently serves on the boards of GenPhoenix, Resideo Technologies (NYSE: REZI), EverQuote (NASDAQ: EVER) and until recently, Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM), where he served as a board member for 11 years.
Paul was most recently with Evercore, where he was Senior Managing Director and Senior Advisor. Previously, he was a Vice Chairman at Jefferies, where he led the firm’s Technology Group and and it’s entry into the IPO market. Earlier, Paul was CEO of Broadview, a technology M&A firm that he grew from $50M in 1996 to over $300M in 2000, while delivering attractive profits every year. Paul previously served as a member of the investment committees of both Kennet II and Kennet III. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS from Boston College.
Bill Edwards is Chairman of the Executive Advisory Board and has served on the board, advised and/or invested in several Kennet portfolio companies including Revolution Prep, Intelepeer and Daptiv.
Bill was part of the founding executive team at Siebel Systems (serving as vice president of engineering and later as chief technology officer) as well as a founding investor and Advisory Board member of C3 (C3.ai). During his tenure, from 1993 to 2005, Siebel grew rapidly achieving revenues of almost $2 billion in just six years, went public and ultimately was acquired by Oracle for $6 billion. Siebel was one of the most capital efficient high value exits in enterprise software having raised only $8 million prior to its IPO. Prior to Siebel Systems, Bill worked with three other Silicon Valley companies that had successful IPOs during his tenure. He was responsible for graphical authoring systems at Macromedia, was senior vice president of engineering, research and development at Frame Technology, and held engineering management positions at Convergent Technologies and Apple Computer. Bill began his career at Intel. He received an M.S. in Computer Science from Rutgers University.
Jonathan is responsible for finance, administration, and investor relations.
Before joining Kennet, he was the Finance Director at Manzanita Capital and prior to that he worked at Rothschild Capital Management. He began his career at PwC where he gained experience in both Tax and Private Equity deal structuring.
Jonathan is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a BA in Business Management from Newcastle University.
Hillel is a Managing Director of Kennet Partners. Kennet is a leading international growth equity firm that supports entrepreneurial technology businesses with expansion capital to accelerate growth and build exceptional shareholder value.
Current and exited deals that Hillel has led include Eloomi, (HCM SaaS for the mid-market) which was acquired by Ceridian (CDAY:NYSE), Rimilia (robotic process automation SaaS for the finance function) which was acquired by BlackLine, Inc. (Nasdaq: BL), Dext (bookkeeping automation SaaS) which was acquired by Hg Capital, Rivo Software (health and safety SaaS) which was acquired by Sphera Solutions, Scoro (professional services automation platform), eStoreMedia (ecommerce analytics platform), Jiminny (conversational intelligence platform), Codility (SaaS platform for hiring engineers at scale), RealityMine (passive research SaaS), ABA English (mobile video-based language learning) and Spreadshirt (print on demand platform).
Prior to joining Kennet, Hillel was with ETV Capital, a provider of hybrid equity and debt capital to technology companies where he invested in numerous companies in Europe, Israel and the US. Earlier, Hillel worked as a Management Consultant at KPMG, and prior to that he gained operational experience at two growth stage technology companies.
Hillel is a CFA Charter holder. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Law from the University of South Africa, an Honours Degree in Economics and a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Johannesburg.
Michael’s exited deals have included Nuxeo (acquired by Hyland Software), Rivo Software (acquired by Sphera), Sermo (acquired by Abry), Adviva (acquired by Viant), GoViral (acquired by AOL Inc.), Altitun (acquired by ADC Telecommunications), Chipidea (acquired by MIPS), Monis (acquired by Sungard Data Systems), Next Performance (acquired by Rakuten), No Wires Needed (acquired by Intersil), Paragon Software (acquired by Openwave), Sequans (NYSE:SQNS), STS (acquired by SMSC), and Ubizen (acquired by Cybertrust).
Michael founded Kennet in 1997. Earlier, he was responsible for establishing the international operations of investment firm Thompson Clive & Partners in Silicon Valley and in Paris.
Michael holds a B.A. with highest honours from Harvard University and received an M.Sc. from Cambridge University where he was a Marshall Scholar.
Born in the United States, Michael has lived in several European countries and speaks fluent French.