P2M
Ben Sopranzetti, Ph.D.
Principal
Ben J. Sopranzetti, Ph.D. is a Principal at Partners2Market, LLC. He is one of the country’s foremost experts in the areas of Business Valuation and Investment Banking.
Dr. Sopranzetti is a professor of Finance at Rutgers Business School. He serves on several corporate boards and is a leading valuation consultant and trainer at numerous Wall Street banks, including Bank of America, Bank of China, Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Rothschild, Citigroup, UBS, and others. He also has worked with and trained senior management from Sanofi-Aventis, Johnson & Johnson, Getinge, ITT, Boeing, General Motors, General Electric, among others. He has published in the Journal of Business, Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and other well-respected academic journals.
Professor Sopranzetti is widely recognized as a master teacher. He is the recipient of fifteen awards for excellence in teaching, and serves as a founding member of the Rutgers University Teaching Excellence Center. In 2008, he was honored by BusinessWeek as one of the world’s top twenty “Favorite Professors”.
Braun C. Kiess, MBA
Principal
Braun C. Kiess is a Principal of Partners2Market, LLC. He is a successful financial executive, serial entrepreneur, educator, and investor. With over 18 years of experience in a diverse range of industries, Mr. Kiess’ professional roles have included: Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Vice President of Sales & Marketing, and Director of Business Development. Mr. Kiess spent 2 years with the BEST (Business, Engineering, Science and Technology) Institute of Rutgers University as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. While at BEST Mr. Kiess worked closely with university researchers and the institute’s directors to help commercialize Rutgers’ Intellectual Property (IP).
Mr. Kiess sits on multiple corporate Boards of Directors, and is an Adjunct Professor of Finance & Entrepreneurship at Rutgers Business School, where his courses include Evaluating New Business Ventures, Venture Capital, and Managing Growing Ventures, at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
In addition to being a member of the Rutgers faculty, Mr. Kiess is a widely recognized expert on Financial Statement Analysis and Financial Strategy. He is a preferred instructor for Rutgers Business School Executive Education programs. Mr. Kiess regularly consults to Fortune 500 companies and IP-based startups on valuation. He holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Finance (Summa Cum Laude) from Rutgers University and has Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degrees from both Columbia Business School and London Business School.
Lawrence P. Horowitz, MS, MBA
Senior Partner
Lawrence (Larry) Horowitz is a Senior Partner at Partners2Market, LLC. and brings deep corporate and strategic expertise in the medical technology space. His past appointments include Principal with HVA which advised private and small cap life sciences companies on their business development transactions, Vice President of Development at C.R. Bard and Senior Director Business Development at American Cyanamid Company (acquired by American Home Products and now part of Pfizer).
Larry’s academic involvement includes the Rutgers Center for Management Development, Rutgers Business School, and the University of Umea (Sweden) Biotech Incubator where he has taught courses in life-science entrepreneurship and financial analysis of R&D investment. He is the author of Leveling the Playing Field – A Guide to Successful Business Development Transactions for Private and Small Public Life Sciences Companies and co-author of Patent Strategies Create Value in Life Science Business Development and M&A Transactions published in IP Today, July 2009. Larry also gave a Campbell Series Lecture, Choosing the Right Strategic Partner, at Rutgers Graduate School of Business and at New Jersey Licensing Executive Society, Derisking Phase III.
Larry has an MBA in Finance from Columbia Graduate School of Business, an MS in Industrial Engineering from NYU, and a BA in Mathematics from Rutgers College where he graduated with highest honors as a Henry Rutgers Scholar.
Jillian Nguyen, Ph.D.
Senior Associate
Jillian Nguyen is a Senior Associate at Partners2Market, LLC. She holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Rutgers University, working on mathematical models of human decision-making. Jillian became a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-Funded Rutgers Biotechnology Training Grant Fellow in 2010, and received the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship in 2012. Prior to attending Rutgers, Jillian obtained her BS in Biomedical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). At NJIT, Jillian was recognized as a Ronald E. McNair Scholar, a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa National Honors Leadership Society, and became an inducted associate member of the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society.
Aside from her academic pursuits, Jillian is contracted by MKTG INC. to represent the Diageo Wines & Spirits portfolio at various on-premise and off-premise events, as well as at trade shows, fundraisers, and high-profile venues. Her expertise in communicating brand knowledge and driving targeted consumers to purchase resulted in the recognition by event managers and clientele as one of the top brand specialists in New Jersey. She has also interned at Integra LifeSciences’ Neurosurgery Division, working on product development and medical affairs to assist in marketing and potential market expansion of product lines.
Jillian applies her interpersonal skills and aptitude for high-level thinking to the financial markets for smarter decision-making.