Chris Advansun

Chris Advansun is a marketing strategist and entrepreneur who has launched ventures in multiple industries as well as initiatives in the volunteer sector.

In 2002, Chris launched “Our Changing Planet”, a public education campaign communicating a science-based analysis of climate change to secondary school students in the form of interactive workshops

In 2005, Chris co-founded Blue Horizon Media, a boutique marketing agency specializing in viral marketing for corporations and non-profit organizations.

In 2006, Blue Horizon Media morphed into Rethos Inc., an online media company that builds social media properties that enable civically minded individuals to explore their passions for environmental sustainability and social justice. In his role of CEO, Chris oversaw Rethos’s seed investment and the expansion of new social media properties.

In March 2008, Rethos Inc. was acquired by Alternative Media Initiative Inc. (AMI), a Montreal-based online media company whose mission is to build and commercialize web 2.0 properties devoted to sustainable development. Chris served as VP Product at AMI until August 2008, when he left to pursue new opportunities.

In 2009, Chris joined Venture Communications, where he served as a digital content strategist until the fall of 2010.

In September 2010, Chris founded First Person Digital, a boutique consultancy offering large consumer brands and leading media companies content strategy services. First Person Digital works with its clients to conceive, develop and launch successful digital media properties in various consumer verticals such as finance, entertainment and health. In the construction of a new digital media property for a client, First Person Digital considers itself the architect that crafts its blueprints.

Chris is also executive producer of the Branded Content Summit (BCS), an annual conference that brings together marketers, media industry executives and content producers to better understand rapidly changing trends in digital media and content. The second annual BCS will be held in Toronto in June 2011.

In addition to his entrepreneurial pursuits, Chris has volunteered and offered consulting services for leading organizations such as Ashoka Canada, The Nature Conservancy and the Ontario Board of Education.

Chris Chaney

Chris Chaney is the president and chief executive officer of Chaney Sportainment Group, and the founder and executive director of the Ivy Sports Symposium.

Chris founded the Ivy Sports Symposium, formerly known as the Princeton Sports Symposium, in 2006 and has already established it as one of the global sports industry's premier conferences. The Symposium aims to advance the sports business by facilitating interaction among students and professionals, providing a forum for communication and debate, and enabling some of the most successful executives in the industry to share invaluable knowledge with their peers and successors. The Symposium has gained industry-wide recognition since its inception, featuring more than 180 unique speakers from around the world representing all facets of the sports business, and welcoming student attendees from over 30 colleges and universities.

In 2008, after working at the National Basketball Association in Global Marketing Partnerships and servicing clients such as Coca-Cola, Haier and Nike, Chris launched Chaney Sportainment Group (CSG), formerly known as Chaney Sports Group, a boutique sports and entertainment agency with two core businesses: Events and Consulting. The internationally-focused agency has carved out a distinctive niche in the sports and entertainment landscape, guiding the growth and success of an elite yet diverse roster of clients. CSG engages in a broad range of corporate consulting projects, which include sports mergers/acquisitions, merchandising/licensing as well as marketing strategy/sponsorship sales. It also specializes in property development, particularly creating experiential and live event concepts.

Chris is a native of Germany and a dedicated athlete. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University. At Princeton, he served as the manager of the men's basketball team for three years, and was recognized with the Princeton Varsity Club Distinguished Undergraduate Athletic Service Award as well as the Spirit of Princeton Award honoring his contributions to the University community.

Charles Columbus

Charles H Columbus, COO at NRS, brings a long career in structured and corporate finance. His expertise includes an ability to lead, manage and develop new ventures.  He has successfully developed co-venture and private equity fund businesses. At HSBC, as Head of Real Estate Investment Banking, he was responsible for the launch of the HSBC Amanah Global Properties Income Fund (GPIF), the first open-end, Shariah-compliant fund with over $2 billion in real estate portfolio assets. As Managing Director of WestLB's NY Structured Finance Department, he formed and managed the bank's successful entry into project and aircraft financing, asset securitization, and  leveraged finance.

Prior to his decade at WestLB, he was a Managing Director of Chase Manhattan Bank, where he helped launch the bank's investment banking effort over his 20 year career. Charles was responsible for the bank's private placement business and was a senior member of the team advancing its investment banking product introductions, including, euro-bond and domestic underwriting, securization, derivatives and its general corporate advisory businesses. 

He started his career at Equitable Life as a Senior Investment Analyst.  He holds a BS degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from NYU Graduate School of Business and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.  Mr. Columbus is an Adjunct Professor - International Finance and Capital Markets, Brooklyn College.

Royce N. Flippin Jr.

Royce N. Flippin Jr. currently serves as Vice Chairman, NRS Associates.   He is a Founding Trustee, Lead Independent Trustee, and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Ariel Investment Trust, overseeing an NAV of over US$4 billion in a variety of funds.  He also serves as a member of their Management Contracts and Governance Committees. 

In addition, since it's inception, he is a Senior Business Advisor to the GDP Global Real Estate Opportunity Fund, a Private Equity Fund.   Mr. Flippin is also a Director of the Independent Directors Council of the Investment Company Institute in Washington D.C., the national association of U.S. investment companies, including mutual funds, closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and unit investment trusts (UITs).  He is a also on the Board Member of Terracycle, which is emerging as a leading consumer products company in the "green' sector of the economy producing a wide range of upcycled and environmentally friendly  products for some of the countries largest retailers and consumer goods companies.  Previously, he was the Chairman of the Board of Thorium Power, a [now] publicly traded leading developer of non-proliferation nuclear fuel technology, which also provides advisory services for emerging nuclear programs.  He had also previously held marketing and finance positions with Exxon, General Foods and Smith Barney Citigroup.  

Mr. Flippin continues his commitment to the educational field as well.  He is a Board Member of Technical Career Institutes, inc., a for profit technical college in New York City.  He is President of Flippin Associates LLP, a consulting firm focused on career planning and leadership skills for leaders in wide variety of fields, including leaders in business and education.  Mr. Flippin previously served as a tenured professor and Director of Program Advancement at MIT, Director of the Department of Athletics at both MIT and Princeton University, President of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), and Executive Committee Member of the NCAA.  He received his BA from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard University, and served as an officer in the US Marine Corps.

Patricia Omoqui

Patricia Omoqui is an internationally recognized speaker, executive/life coach and writer. She is the author of Clarify Your Purpose and Live It! Patricia is a Princeton Graduate, former professional basketball player and highly successful business woman and entrepreneur.

Patricia is a featured weekly columnist for Vanguard Newspaper's Allure Magazine (Nigeria) and contributes to the Daily Dispatch (Ghana). In her column she provides ideas that are helping her readers live to their full potential. Her inspirational speaking clips have aired on Silverbird TV (Nigeria), Crystal TV (Ghana) and MindTV (USA).

Patricia helps people wake up to their God-given power and remember they are here on earth for a very important purpose. Her energizing seminars teach practical principles that help individuals transform their lives quickly and simply. Patricia delivers keynote addresses at global events with Fortune 500 executives, government officials and community leaders in attendance.

Drawing on her experience as a business consultant, corporate manager, Six Sigma Green Belt, and mediator, she provides customized business training on topics such as Leadership, Teamwork, Excellence in Work and Life, Process Improvement, and Customer Service.

Patricia offers one-on-one or group coaching to business executives and established leaders who want to expand their potential to a new level of satisfaction and success.

Patricia Omoqui is an American married to a Nigerian. She is a passionate agent of change, working earnestly to positively influence the world. Patricia was recognized in 2010 by Timeless Magazine for her positive contributions to writing in Nigeria. She is also the recipient of Now Leadership Inc.'s Legends of Leadership Award 2010.

Vsevolod Onyshkevych

Vsevolod (Sev) Onyshkevych has held President, CEO, COO, CTO, CMO, CFO and Senior VP titles in e-commerce, technology and software companies and has founded or co-founded eight technology firms, growing them to as many as 800 employees and over $100million in revenues. These include e-commerce sites and dot-com technologies (getCUSTOM.com, EZsize.co, 1by1.com and MyVirtualModel.com), software (Innovative Programming Associates), management consulting and research (RONIN Corp., In Vino Veritas
Consultants) and technology infrastructure (Raritan Computer).  

He sits on the Board of Directors or Advisory Board of 10 public and private technology companies, lectures in 8 MBA programs around the world, and holds several senior leadership positions in Princeton University Alumni organizations.
He has strong international experience, having had postings in 12 countries,
set up international operations in 75 countries, and traveled to 201
countries.  Sev has a BSE in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
from Princeton University and an MBA from the Wharton School.

Sam Salman

Sam Salman has leveraged his multi-faceted background and expertise in technology and science with finance, policy and economics to create, develop, launch and in many cases, lead important and high value initiatives requiring both strategic vision, intellectual property and financial and operational expertise. He has utilized his understanding of advanced quantitative and theoretical sciences to developed proprietary tools for economic, financial and technical analyses and projections.  He is the Chairman and CEO of a unique principal merchant and investment bank called New Reality Solutions (“NRS”) and its affiliated entities. NRS specializes in utilizing proprietary analytics and relationships to conceptualize paradigm financial, technological and demographic transitions, for which it then creates optimal commercial opportunities and structures.  Most notably, NRS specializes on creating 'Game-Changing' platforms; platforms that are likely to alter the preconceived or existing notions of a market and its dynamics.  On a highly aligned basis, NRS also provides strategic investment and merchant banking services to entities it considers as possessing 'game-changing' technologies, knowledge and / or products at critical stages of their development and evolution.

Via NRS's strategic investment and merchant banking activities, Sam also held executive and board leadership roles in major entities. Such roles include: Managing Director of the Bio Opportunity Fund of iNetworks LLC, President of Boymelgreen Global Holdings (a leading real estate infrastructure and green technologies group with operations in twelve countries), and Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Engel East Europe (a publicly traded real estate development entity with operations in Central and Eastern Europe), Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director of GDP Global Real Estate Opportunity Fund (a private equity entity focused on emergent trends demographic markets), President of LibertyPointe Capital (a commercial real estate finance platform) and Senior Advisor to LibertyPointe Bank (with branches in Manhattan and Brooklyn), which operates under a bank holding company structure, which he structured. 

Currently, as a founding member of NRS’s principal businesses, Sam Salman is a co-founder and senior executive of several game-changing initiatives, including: President (Since March 2009) of Errant Gene Therapeutics, LLC, a leading Genetic and Epigenetic Biopharmaceutical entity; and, Co-Founder and Senior Executive of GreenFins Tuna, LLC, a leading sustainable and integrated platform for aquafarming of Blue-Fin Tuna and related species, and co-chairman of Paladin Technologies, an advanced technology holding company.

Alex Salzman

Alex is a determined social entrepreneur. He has applied his drive to do well, by doing good, at ventures in consumer products, advertising, new media, and socially responsible investment.
 
While earning a degree in Economics at Princeton University, Alex took a leave of absence to assist with the launch of TerraCycle Inc., a company producing products derived from and packaged in waste.

Shifting his focus to media, in 2006 Alex co-founded international cause marketing agency, Rethos, Inc. The agency built a citizen journalism blog engine, and produced integrated cause campaigns uniting individuals, non-profit organizations, and shared value businesses on solutions to social and environmental issues. In 2008, Rethos was acquired by Parta.

In 2009, Alex founded VisCap, a 'sustainable' private equity platform advising on, and managing, capital and intelligence amongst investors and owners/operators of companies with commercial value derived from benefits for society/environment.

A thought leader in the responsible business movement, Alex continues to share his knowledge and passion for social entrepreneurship, corporate responsibility, and socially responsible investing at universities and industry conferences.

To apply to join the VisCap team, please contact: careers@viscapfunds.com