Our Team

Finance and ops ninja.  Voice of reason to founders around the world (dozens between PHL and NYC).  Too many financings, exits and other transactions under his belt to count.




Outside of Venturef0rth, Jay is President of Star Advisory Services, a boutique consulting firm. He has significant experience in mergers & acquisitions, strategy development & execution, operations and finance. Over the past 20+ years, he has been involved with 30+ successful acquisition/divestiture transactions with an aggregate purchase price of over $1 billion. He has also been involved in doubling revenues and profits of companies through organic growth and acquisition growth. He has worked in several industries, such as, healthcare, media/publishing, talent management, financial services, hospitality, apparel, asset management and not-for-profit.

Over the last 7 years, Jay is/has been involved with several companies as their outsourced CFO and helped them with fund raising, corporate finance as well as exits. These companies include

• CareGain, Inc (consumer-directed health plan technology company, sold to Fiserv)
• HxTechnologies (heathcare IT company, sold to MEDecision)
• IntegriChain (a pharmaco-informatics company)
• SkillSurvey, Inc (web based reference checking company)
• Current Analysis, Inc (competitive response solutions)
• Miami International Holdings  (financial services)
• EuroMed  (medtech for wound care)

Jay has also been involved in several special projects – Commonwealth Business Media (circulation project for OAG), Apprise Media, LLC (acquisition due diligence on an Events Management Company), Seguin Partners (acquisition due diligence), Appliedinfo Partners (Fund Raising), Center for Vein Restoration (partial sale to Private Equity).

Prior to starting his own consulting firm, Jay held several progressive positions within Haights Cross Communications. Haights Cross Communications, formed in 1997, was a $180MM private equity (Great Hill Partners & CSFB) backed roll up within the supplemental education industry. Over his tenure at Haights Cross, from 2000 to 2004, Jay held several progressive positions. His last position was President & CEO of Buckle Down Publishing, a test prep publisher. Prior to Buckle Down, he was EVP, COO & CFO of Triumph Learning, another test prep publisher. Prior to Triumph Learning, Jay was VP of Corporate Development for the parent company, Haights Cross Communications.

Prior to Haights Cross, Jay was at Primedia (formerly known as K-III Communications), a $1.8 billion publicly held media company, started by private equity firm KKR in 1989. During his tenure at Primedia, from 1993 to 2000, the company grew from $745 MM in revenues to over $1,500 MM and went public. Jay held several progressive positions within Primedia. His last position was VP Operations & CFO at Films for the Humanities & Sciences. Prior to Films, Jay was the Director of Acquisition Analysis and Manager of Internal Audit, at Primedia, the parent company.

Prior to Primedia, Jay was with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, from 1987 to 1993. He was in their EBS (Emerging Business Services) group and was promoted from Staff Accountant to Manager (4 promotions) during the time at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Jay holds a BS in Accounting from New York University, and an MBA from Columbia University. He is also a New York State Certified Public Accountant.  He serves as an advisory board member for the CFO Alliance and for New Jersey Technology Council’s CFO Advisory Board.  He lives outside Princetonhis wife and three children.