Edgewater Funds

David Tolmie is a Senior Partner at The Edgewater Funds, a Chicago-based private equity firm he joined in 2001. Before Edgewater, he served as CEO of Yesmail, Inc., a marketing services provider that completed an IPO and was later sold for $735 million. Tolmie serves on the boards of several Edgewater portfolio companies and nonprofit organizations, including 1871 and the Faraja Foundation Fund, and holds a degree from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Member of Edgewater's Executive Advisory Board; noted in memoriam.

Ava Van Vleck is a Business Development Analyst at The Edgewater Funds, where she works on proprietary deal origination and developing relationships with founder-led businesses. She has a background in neuroscience and experience across healthcare, sales, and lower-to-middle market private equity.

Brennan Smith is Vice President of Business Development at The Edgewater Funds, where he works on the Business Development and Deal Origination team. His responsibilities include sourcing and developing new investment opportunities through direct outreach to owners.

Carol Collins is a Strategic Advisor at VERISIAN with 30 years of experience in the global life sciences and healthcare sector, including CRO, pharma services, clinical development and commercialisation, digital healthcare communications, MedTech, and healthcare data organisations. She has held CEO, C-suite, and non-executive director roles, with expertise spanning strategic, financial, and commercial planning, governance, regulatory oversight, risk management, and fund-raising. Collins currently serves as a strategic advisor or non-executive director to management teams and investors at companies ranging from pre-seed to private-equity funded.

Ryan Trueman is an Executive Assistant to a Senior Partner at Sovereign Capital Partners, with over 10 years of experience managing schedules and international travel for corporate executives and politicians. He previously worked at the London Mayor's office during the Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson administrations, where he reduced scheduling errors by 30%. His event and project management work has included handling business engagements during the 2012 London Olympics and coordinating logistics for the C40 Cities Summits in Johannesburg and Mexico, which hosted over 300 city mayors.