Meet our Teachers' Venture Growth team
We take an agile and pioneering approach to help late stage venture companies grow.
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Olivia Steedman
Olivia Steedman is Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Teachers' Venture Growth (TVG). Olivia joined Ontario Teachers' in 2002 as a founding member of the Infrastructure and Natural Resources group, where she served in various senior roles before standing up TVG in 2019. Before joining Ontario Teachers', Olivia was an Assistant Vice-President in the project finance and privatization group at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She also practiced civil engineering at Marshall Macklin Monaghan. A Professional Engineer and Chartered Professional Accountant, Olivia earned a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Queen's University and has ICD.D certification from the Institute of Corporate Directors. In 2018 she was recognized by Women's Executive Network as one of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women.
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Avid Larizadeh Duggan
Avid has been involved in the startup ecosystem as a developer, product manager, founder, and investor for over 20 years. She started her investing career at Accel Partners in 2006 and was a General Partner at GV (Google Ventures) from 2014 to 2018. With a portfolio of over 25 companies, Avid is also an active angel investor in high growth technology companies globally.
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Rick Prostko
Rick Prostko leads direct investment strategy and execution for Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVP) in North America. Additionally, Rick is responsible for supporting TVG’s global investment strategy and collaboration efforts between TVG’s portfolio and the broader set of asset classes at OTPP.
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Kelvin Yu
Kelvin Yu is based in Hong Kong and leads Teachers Ventures Growth (TVG) 's direct investing efforts in Asia-Pacific. Kelvin has more than 20 years of extensive experience in venture capital, private equity and investment banking. Prior to joining Ontario Teachers', Kelvin was an Executive President with Fosun Group, leading the setup of the "New Retail" strategic investment team within the organization, and has held senior positions at private equity, venture and growth capital funds, including Partners Group (where he was a Managing Director and Head of China), Sequoia Capital, Capital Today, and Barings Private Equity. He has led both venture and growth stage investments in various sectors, including New Retail, Consumer, Logistics, Financial Services, Automotive and the TMT/Internet space. Kelvin holds a BBA (Honors) from the National University of Singapore as well as the CFA and CPA (Aus) designations. He also earned a Global EMBA degree from the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS).
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John-Christian (J.C.) Bourque
John-Christian (J.C.) Bourque is responsible for a variety of strategy, relationship-building, investment, and leadership activities for Ontario Teachers’ globally and across asset classes. He has been a member of Global Strategic Relationships since 2017. He works closely with the Teacher’ s Innovation Platform focusing on late stage venture and growth equity opportunities.
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Michael Powers
Michael Powers joined Private Capital in 2013 and is currently part of the team responsible for private equity fund investing, focusing on Venture Capital and Growth Equity.
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Meet our North America team
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Rick Prostko
Rick Prostko leads direct investment strategy and execution for Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVP) in North America. Additionally, Rick is responsible for supporting TVG’s global investment strategy and collaboration efforts between TVG’s portfolio and the broader set of asset classes at OTPP.
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Brad Leufkens
Brad Leufkens has significant experience structuring and executing investments globally. In his current role, he leads a variety of strategy, relationship building, investment and leadership activities to support the build of Teachers’ Innovation Platform. Brad was involved in the energy and infrastructure sectors for over 10 years and played a leading role in the investments of several companies including Cubico Sustainable Investments, First Infrastructure Capital, Stem, Inc. and Trillium Storage. Brad currently serves on the boards of BluEarth Renewables, Anbaric Development Partners, and Trillium Storage.
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Emma Norchet
Emma Norchet joined Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG) as Principal in 2020. Based in San Francisco, she plays a key role in the execution of TVG’s direct investment strategy for North America, covering digital assets and enterprise investments, and currently acting as board observer for Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP). Prior to joining Ontario Teachers’, Emma worked at several venture capital firms covering the enterprise and consumer internet sectors whilst supporting management teams on their growth plans. She holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Montreal, was admitted to the Bar in 2010 and holds an MSc Finance from the City University of Hong Kong.
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Andrew Jang
Andrew joined Teachers’ Innovation Platform in 2020 as an Investment Associate. His role involves enabling the execution of TIP’s global strategy in North America for both direct and fund investments with a focus on late-stage venture and growth equity.
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Jonathan Watkin
Jonathan joined Teachers’ Innovation Platform in 2020 as an Investment Analyst. He plays a key role in executing TIP’s global strategy with a focus on direct late-stage venture capital and growth equity investments.
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Jean Yang
Jean Yang is an Investment Analyst in Teachers' Venture Growth (TVG) . Based in Toronto, she joined Ontario Teachers' in 2021 and focuses on direct investing in North America. Prior to joining Ontario Teachers', Jean completed internships at Ant Financial, CDH Investments, HSBC and Sixty Degree Capital. She graduated from the University of Toronto in 2022 with a B.Com. in Finance.
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Sean Zheng
Sean Zheng joined Ontario Teachers’ in 2021 and is a member of the Teachers’ Innovation Platform (TIP). Based in Toronto, he plays a key role in implementing TIP’s global strategy in North America for direct venture capital and growth equity investments.
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Meet our EMEA team
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Avid Larizadeh Duggan
Avid has been involved in the startup ecosystem as a developer, product manager, founder, and investor for over 20 years. She started her investing career at Accel Partners in 2006 and was a General Partner at GV (Google Ventures) from 2014 to 2018. With a portfolio of over 25 companies, Avid is also an active angel investor in high growth technology companies globally.
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Ara Yeromian
Ara Yeromian is based in London and is part of the European team leading TIP’s EMEA strategy. Prior to joining Ontario Teachers’, Ara worked as a Senior Associate Director in Temasek’s European direct equity investment team. Prior to that he held investment and advisory roles at Ares Management and Credit Suisse in London.
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Luke Porter
Luke Porter joined Ontario Teachers' in 2018. As a member of the Teachers’ Innovation Platform, he plays a key role in implementing TIP’s global strategy with a focus on direct venture capital and growth equity investments in EMEA. To date, he has been actively involved in a number of key transactions including TIP’s investments in KRY, ComplyAdvantage, Beamery, SpaceX and Epic Games.
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Chalani Allen
Chalani Allen is an Investment Associate in Teachers' Venture Growth (TVG). She joined Ontario Teachers' in 2021 and is based in London. Her role involves enabling the execution of TVG's direct investment strategy in Europe. Prior to joining Ontario Teachers', Chalani was an Investment Banking Associate at Deutsche Bank in London covering the TMT sector, where she was involved with various M&A, acquisition financing and private placement transactions in Telecoms and Technology. Chalani holds a First Class B.A. degree in Economics from Durham University.
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Meet our Asia-Pacific team
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Kelvin Yu
Kelvin Yu is based in Hong Kong and leads Teachers Ventures Growth (TVG) 's direct investing efforts in Asia-Pacific. Kelvin has more than 20 years of extensive experience in venture capital, private equity and investment banking. Prior to joining Ontario Teachers', Kelvin was an Executive President with Fosun Group, leading the setup of the "New Retail" strategic investment team within the organization, and has held senior positions at private equity, venture and growth capital funds, including Partners Group (where he was a Managing Director and Head of China), Sequoia Capital, Capital Today, and Barings Private Equity. He has led both venture and growth stage investments in various sectors, including New Retail, Consumer, Logistics, Financial Services, Automotive and the TMT/Internet space. Kelvin holds a BBA (Honors) from the National University of Singapore as well as the CFA and CPA (Aus) designations. He also earned a Global EMBA degree from the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS).
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Catherine Qian
Catherine Qian joined Ontario Teachers’ in 2017 and is a member of the Teachers’ Innovation Platform (TIP). Currently based in Hong Kong, she plays a key role in implementing TIP’s global strategy across Asia with a focus on direct venture capital and growth equity investments. Previously located in Toronto, she has been actively involved in a number of key transactions including TIP’s investments into Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), Kry and Stem.
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Geoffrey Liu
Geoffrey Liu joined Ontario Teachers' Hong Kong office in 2016 and is focused on direct venture capital and growth equity investments as a member of the Teachers’ Innovation Platform (TIP) team in the Asia-Pacific region. Geoffrey has also worked in our Equities team, conducting direct equity investments across pre-IPO and public market opportunities in Asia.
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Jing Lin
Jing Lin is a Principal in Teachers' Venture Growth (TVG) and is based in Hong Kong. Her role involves enabling the execution of TVG's direct investment strategy in Asia-Pacific. Prior to joining Ontario Teachers', Jing was a Vice President with Sailing Capital, where she led the execution of several growth and buyout investment transactions, globally and in China. Jing started her career in Investment Banking with J.P. Morgan, where she worked on a variety of M&A and capital market transactions. She holds a Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science in Economics (summa cum laude) from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Peng Chen
Peng Chen joined Ontario Teachers’ Hong Kong office in 2021 and is focused on direct late venture capital and growth equity investments as a member of the Teachers’ Innovation Platform. Prior to joining OTPP, Peng was Private Equity Associate at Asia Investment Capital, a Hong Kong headquartered private equity backed by Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, where he was responsible for screening, evaluating and executing private equity investment opportunities in China and Southeast Asia. Peng started his career at Deutsche Bank Hong Kong office, where he engaged in equity offerings for both state-owned enterprises and private companies in Asia.
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Jane He
Jane He is an Investment Analyst in Teachers' Venture Growth (TVG). Based in Hong Kong, she started as an intern with TVG is 2021, and returned to Ontario Teachers' in 2022. She holds a B.Sc. in Quantitative Finance from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
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Meet our Funds team
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Michael Powers
Michael Powers joined Private Capital in 2013 and is currently part of the team responsible for private equity fund investing, focusing on Venture Capital and Growth Equity.
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Vijay Jeevathilagan
Vijay joined Teachers’ Innovation Platform in 2021 as an Investment Associate. His role involves enabling the execution of TIP’s global strategy for venture capital and growth equity fund investments.
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Meet our Portfolio Development team
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John-Christian (J.C.) Bourque
John-Christian (J.C.) Bourque is responsible for a variety of strategy, relationship-building, investment, and leadership activities for Ontario Teachers’ globally and across asset classes. He has been a member of Global Strategic Relationships since 2017. He works closely with the Teacher’ s Innovation Platform focusing on late stage venture and growth equity opportunities.
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Alice Xu
Alice Xu is a member of the Infrastructure - Value Creation & Analytics team and currently focuses on strategy, portfolio construction and investor relations, including valuation and internal reporting. She joined Ontario Teachers' in 2013 and worked for the Capital Markets Operations and Investor Relations & Total Fund Reporting groups before joining Infrastructure and Natural Resources in 2018. Prior to joining, Alice worked as an analyst for CPPIB's Structured Products team.
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