Management

Jim Koehr has been growing as an entrepreneur and investor since 2001 when he left life as a corporate IT, Sales, Quality, Planning and Operations Vice President to run without a net.

As a Venture Capital, Private Equity and Real Estate investor, Mr. Koehr has completed 112 investment deals with private companies and 117 investment deals for various kinds of real estate as of December 2022.

Jim has been an active member of the IrishAngels and the New Dominion Angels since 2012, from where he sources the majority of his deals.  In 2024, Jim received the highest honor awarded by the IrishAngels, the IrishAngels Golden Legacy Award.

While his primary activity remains his Manufacturing Representative company, supplying toilet paper and paper towels to very large distributors and retailers nation-wide, he has helped found or acquire numerous entrepreneurial ventures including one that has grown into the largest commercial flooring company in central Virginia, and two (2) other private equity roll-ups that have grown into significant food service operations on both coasts. Jim also founded and recently liquidated several other enterprises including real estate investment companies in the Shenandoah Valley, Northern Virginia and Richmond, VA, and several real estate services companies including two title and settlement companies and a real estate brokerage.

Jim proudly graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a BS in Mechanical Engineering (Energy Option), with honors, in 1985. At 50 years old, Jim completed an Executive MBA in the top 10% of his class at the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia. Sorin Capital Funds was the result of an independent study project he completed with project partner Danica Elliott while he was at Darden.

Jim sits on the Board of Directors for six (6) of Sorin Capital’s portfolio companies, he is a member of the Advisory Board for Middleburg Capital Development, and he formerly served as the independent director for Clean Earth, a middle market portfolio company of the public private equity firm Compass Diversified Holdings (CODI).

Jim is also very active in school and community. He has coached ten (10) Virginia State Championship high school swimming teams, 46 conference championship teams and been recognized as the Conference Coach of the Year 16 times and the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA) Coach of the Year twice. Jim served on the Executive Committee of VISAA Swimming for 14 years starting in 2003, ran seven (7) Virginia State Championship swim meets and a total of 207 high school swim meets since 2002.  Jim earned the Outstanding Educator award from the Virginia Governors School for his work as a volunteer high school math teacher, and served (serves) as Chairman of three charitable foundations. Jim has been involved in numerous other school and community activities, especially the Boy Scouts of America where he is an Eagle Scout and has led eleven (11) High Adventure expeditions.

Married since 1985 to his college sweetheart from the University of Notre Dame, Jim and Colleen have 12 children, six of whom (including one son-in-law) are or were military officers, all of whom have been deployed into harm’s way, one of whom is a Catholic Priest, and nine (9) of whom are Eagle Scouts. Jim and Colleen also proudly have seventeen (17) grandchildren – and counting.

Danica Elliott was Jim Koehr’s project partner for the creation of Sorin Capital Funds as an independent study project at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business in 2013.

Danica currently provides Human Capital services for Public, Private Equity, and Venture Capital-backed leadership teams across all industries, focusing on pre-investment organizational due diligence, executive-level talent assessments, executive coaching programs, and post-acquisition Human Capital and HR support.

Previously, Danica worked with Frazier Healthcare Partners as Director of Human Capital on the Growth Buyout Human Capital team and later led Human Capital for Frazier’s Life Sciences private and public early-stage drug discovery portfolio. Prior to Frazier, Danica worked in management consulting, and she also ran a marketing consulting company for many years that provided strategic solutions for growing businesses at all stages.

Danica has an MBA from University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business, a BFA from SUNY New Paltz, and certifications in executive coaching and several talent assessment tools. She lives in Berkeley, CA with her husband and two children.

Dr. Robert S. Harris was Jim Koehr’s faculty Advisor for the creation of Sorin Capital Funds as an independent study project at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business in 2013.

Robert S. Harris is the C. Stewart Sheppard Professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business in Charlottesville, Virginia (USA). Bob has served as Darden’s dean and prior to that, as chief learning officer and vice president of United Technologies Corporation. A graduate of Davidson College (summa cum laude), Bob received his Ph. D. (Economics) from Princeton University and has served on the faculties of the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School), University of North Carolina (Kenan Flagler School) and as a visitor at London Business School and Oxford University (Said School of Business).

Bob’s research has focused on corporate finance, private equity, financial markets, mergers and acquisitions. Dr. Harris has been widely published in leading academic and practitioner journals in finance and economics and received both research and teaching awards. In addition to teaching undergraduate, graduate and executive audiences, he has authored financial textbooks, computer tutorials and dozens of business cases and teaching notes.

Dr. Harris has been an active consultant and adviser to corporations, government agencies and has held a range of offices in professional societies. He is currently a trustee of Financial Management Association International, Chair of the Board of the Williamsburg Investment Trust and heads the advisory board of the Private Equity Research Consortium.

Joe Carlin was part of the leadership team that took Argon ST from a start-up to a public company and subsequently to its acquisition by Boeing.

After the Boeing acquisition, Joe served as an operational Vice President, a role from which he retired. After a career as an engineer, entrepreneur and corporate executive, he began to apply his gifts and energy to early stage companies and nonprofit organizations.

Joe is the founder and principal of several holding and investment companies which focus on early stage investing and mentoring. In this role, he serves formally on multiple Board of Directors and Advisors, informally mentoring organizational leaders. Joe is currently a member of the Board of Directors for Veda Data Solutions and the Board of Advisors for Beltway Brewery and Sorin Capital Funds..

Joe holds Bachelor of Science degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Maryland, a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and an MBA from Georgetown University. In addition, he completed advanced study work in innovation management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Joe lives in Virginia with his wife and their daughter.

Mark Brostowski has over 30 years of experience in the Investment business. He is currently the Principal of Virian Capital LLC. Mark actively consults with Jim Koehr in all of his investment decisions on deals with the IrishAngels.

Mark is an active angel investor. He is a member of Arten Capital. He is currently invested in many start-up companies. He is actively involved with several of these companies by assisting in generating new business, strategic planning, and financial reporting and accounting systems management.

Previously, Mark was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Regiment Capital Advisors, LP. Mark was one of the few members of Regiment when it began operations in 1999. Regiment was a multibillion dollar credit hedge fund that specialized in high yield and distressed corporate securities. In addition to portfolio management, Mark also took an active role as a member of many restructuring committees for companies going through the restructuring process.

Mark also established a direct lending and origination business that had approximately three billion dollars under management and was subsequently sold to Trust Company of the West.

From 1997 to 1999, Mark was a Managing Director in the High Yield Group of Bancboston Securities, Inc. He was directly responsible for managing the High Yield Trading Desk and was an Executive Committee member of the High Yield business.

Mark began his investment career in 1987 at Salomon Brothers Inc. After completing the training program, he became an analyst in High Yield Research. He subsequently became a Director and senior member of the High Yield Trading Desk where he traded high yield debt securities and bank loans, distressed debt securities and bank loans, and trade claims.

Mark holds a BS from Michigan State University and a MBA from the University of Notre Dame. He was formerly a Director of IVS BULK PTE LTD, a Singapore based shipping company. He was formerly a Director of Mad River Distillers, a Vermont based distilling company. He previously served as a member of the Board of Hill House in Boston, Massachusetts, and as a member of the Board of Teddy Ebersol Red Sox Field Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts.

Mark relocated to Florida, from his long-time hometown of Boston, Massachusetts, with his wife Maribeth, who was formerly a partner in Lewis Interiors, a Boston based interior design firm. They have two children, Ginger and Ian.

Dan Fallon has more than 35 years of experience motivating and mentoring people and organizations to improve performance – ranging from Fortune 100 companies to start-ups.  Dan brings a pragmatic perspective to helping people navigate issues and opportunities.  He helps teams debate, decide, and do, while course correcting along the way.

Dan has invested in 30 start-ups and other alternative investments, as well as served in an operating role in one of his portfolio companies.  He is an active angel investor, serving on the Investment Committee of IrishAngels in Chicago, IL.

Previously, Dan was a Partner at Accenture for 23 years, leading transformative programs for clients as well as establishing and managing Accenture’s Global ERP Delivery Centers.  He also was a founding executive of Accenture’s technology outsourcing practice.  Subsequently, as CIO/CTO at two Fortune 250 companies, Dan learned firsthand the critical interaction among strategy, investment, business operations, and innovation.  As the President & COO of a private manufacturing company, Dan learned how to manage, profitably grow, and exit a business while helping people achieve more than otherwise expected.

Dan enjoys helping people and companies improve.  He particularly champions the cause of a workplace in which ideas flourish, mistakes are learning moments, collaboration is key, and people are treated with respect.

Patrick is an experienced senior operating executive with over 15 years of successfully building and managing sales, marketing, customer success & product management organizations in the technology sector.

Having worked for both private and publicly traded companies, as well as on-premise and SaaS software companies, gives Patrick a broad set of skills to assist with company and go-to-market strategy and execution to address demand in growth markets.  His unique blend of having led sales, marketing, customer success and product management organizations gives Patrick distinctive experience in all go-to-market operations for a high growth technology company.

Over the past four years, Patrick has been active in the angel and venture capital investment community with 17 investments in 13 technology companies, and he has served as an advisor to CEO, CROs and CMOs in his investment portfolio.  He actively advises on investment decisions for Sorin Angel Capital on IrishAngel deals.

Patrick is a “Double-Domer”, with two degrees from the University of Notre Dame.  In 2000, he earned a B.S. in Structural Engineering and an MBA in Finance.  Patrick lives with his wife and four children in Houston, TX.

Tres is a regular part of the due diligence team for Sorin Angel Capital investments.

Tres is currently working as an independent communications (i.e. radios, not public relations) and systems integration consultant. Since retiring from the U.S. Navy as Navy SEAL with numerous combat tours, Tres has provided communications and Electro-Optical solutions for a variety of commercial and government customers.

He holds degrees from Norfolk State, Naval Post Graduate School, and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. Tres is also a member of New Dominion Angels and contributes regularly to the group’s due diligence teams.

Tim Sutherland is Founder, Chairman and CEO of Middleburg Capital Development. Previously, Mr. Sutherland was the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Pace Global Energy Services, LLC (Pace Global), a leading global energy consulting and management firm that was established in 1976. In December 2011, Siemens Industries acquired Pace Global.

While serving as CEO, Pace Global maintained long-term relationships in the United States and abroad, supporting clients in the manufacturing, material processing, financial and infrastructure development sectors. Over 40 percent of the organization’s clients were Fortune 500 enterprises, and the average term length of Pace Global’s client relationships was approximately eight years. Mr. Sutherland has client advisory experience in Europe, Russia, the United States, the Middle East, China and Latin America. He has conducted seminars on capital deployment and risk mitigation strategies for senior executives, and has been active on both domestic and international industry panels and boards.

Mr. Sutherland holds a BA from Knox College and an MBA from New York University. Mr. Sutherland is a member of the Board of Trustees at the University of Notre Dame and serves as Chairman of the Finance Committee. He was elected a Fellow of the University in 2014. He is also a member of Notre Dame’s Innovation Park Private Sector Advisory Network. He serves as a Board member for many of the companies where MCD has made capital investments, including SCP, Ionic Liquid Solutions, Trion and Inovateus. Mr. Sutherland served on the Board of Directors at St. Andrew’s School in Middletown, Delaware. He served as the Chair of The Hill School Board of Directors in Middleburg, Virginia for nine years and currently serves as an Emeritus member of the School Board. Mr. Sutherland was named the 2013 Alumnus of the Year at Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha, Nebraska.

Mr. Sutherland lives in Middleburg, Virginia with Martha Sutherland, his wife of over 40 years. They have two grown children, Cristin Wipfler (ND ’02) and David Sutherland (ND ’07, ’10). The Sutherland family boasts two grandchildren, Liam Wipfler and Olivia Wipfler.