Our Senior Team
Our team is a diverse group of individuals that bring expertise from the intersection of investing, financial technology, and operational strategy.
ERIC TAYLOR
FOUNDER, CEO & CIO
Eric Taylor is the Founder, CEO and CIO of Trident and oversees all day to day operations. He also leads the firm’s Investment Committee and makes final decisions on all additions to the portfolio. Mr. Taylor began his career at Goldman Sachs, where he spent four years in the Special Situations Group, focused primarily on lower and middle market companies. After Goldman and prior to Trident, Mr. Taylor was a Portfolio Manager (credit) and Originator (equity) at Brightwood Capital, a lower-middle market asset manager that invests debt and equity primarily in companies with $5 million to $75 million of EBITDA. Mr. Taylor holds an AB from Harvard University with Honors and is a CFA Charterholder.
ARON BETRU
CHIEF STRATEGIC OFFICER & COO
Aron Betru is the Chief Strategic Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Trident. Mr. Betru leads the Strategy & Operations Team, which includes post investment value creation and social impact initiatives for Trident and portfolio companies. Mr. Betru is also a member of Trident’s Investment Committee and its Executive Committee. Mr. Betru has more than 20 years of financial sector, strategic consulting, and social impact experience. Prior to Trident, Mr. Betru was the Managing Director of the Milken Institute’s Center for Financial Markets, leading a financial markets public policy team with a focus on financial innovations for social good. Mr. Betru was a member of the steering group for the Blended Finance TaskForce launched by the Business & Sustainable Development Commission as well as Co-Chaired the Partnership for Lending in Underserved Markets, a joint initiative with the U.S. Small Business Administration. Prior to the Milken Institute, Mr. Betru was the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Financing For Development, specializing in innovative financing solutions for international development. Mr. Betru’s extensive experience includes economic development roles at the United Nations Foundation, TechnoServe and Dalberg Global Development Advisors as well as private sector experience at McKinsey & Co. and Goldman Sachs. Mr. Betru is a member of Board of Directors for Calvert Impact Capital, National Bankers Community Alliance, African Leaders Malaria Alliance, and FHI Foundation, as well as an Senior Advisor to Milken Institute, Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator, and Wells Fargo MDI Investment Committee. He holds an MBA from Columbia University, an MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS, and a BA in Economics and International Studies from Northwestern University.
NICHOLAS WOOD
CO-FOUNDER, CTO
Nicholas Wood is the co-founder and head of technology at Trident. At Trident, Mr. Wood leads the development and integration of software to make the entire sourcing and investment process data-driven and more efficient. Prior to Trident, Mr. Wood was a product lead at Addepar. Addepar provides software to family offices and wealth advisories that service ultra-high net worth clients. While at Addepar, Mr. Wood led the team developing features and products for core product functionality around portfolio analysis, reporting and financial analytics. During that time, Addepar expanded to over $1 trillion in assets being managed on its platform. Prior to Addepar, Mr. Wood was a business designer at IDEO and a product manager at Amazon. Mr. Wood holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and Masters and Bachelors of Engineering from the University of Toronto.
ALEXIS RATHBORNE
MANAGING DIRECTOR, INVESTMENTS
Alexis Rathborne is a Managing Director of Investments at Trident. Since joining Trident in 2019, Ms. Rathborne leads the Investment Team with Mr. Taylor. She oversees the sourcing, underwriting and acquisition of portfolio companies at Trident. Post-close, Ms. Rathborne works with the Strategy Team in implementing value creation strategies. She currently sits on the board of all Fund investments. Prior to Trident, Ms. Rathborne led direct investing at Clear River, a single-family office in New York City, with a focus on restaurant investments. At Clear River, in addition to investments, Ms. Rathborne ran strategy implementation and oversaw operational overhauls at the portfolio company level. Ms. Rathborne successfully built the largest franchisee in the northeast of a publicly traded QSR company. Previously, she was an investment banker at KeyBanc Capital Markets covering middle market consumer companies, with a specific focus on retail, apparel and personal care. Prior to Keybanc, Ms. Rathborne was at Four River Holdings, an investment firm focused on buying and building companies in frontier markets. Ms. Rathborne holds an AB from Harvard College and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Our Advisory Board
The Advisory Board provides strategic assistance, advice and connections to resources to assist the Trident team.
RAYMOND McGUIRE
FORMER VICE CHAIRMAN, CITI
TAMEKA ALSOP
CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER, MOODY’S CORPORATION
SHELLEY STEWART, JR.
CHAIRMAN, BILLION DOLLAR ROUNDTABLE
MAURICE JONES
CEO, ONETEN
Richelieu Dennis
CEO and Executive Chairman, Essence Ventures
FREADA KAPOR KLEIN
FOUNDING PARTNER, KAPOR CAPITAL
CLARENCE OTIS
LEAD DIRECTOR, VERIZON & FORMER CEO, DARDEN RESTAURANTS
Interested in joining the team?
We are always looking to expand our team. If you have a background in private equity investment or building financial technology and engineering please reach out to us here.
