Gabriel is a seasoned founder and senior executive with a track record of building innovative consumer companies, including starting Virgin Voyages cruise line at Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, starting a neighborhood platform that was acquired by Airbnb, and growing Singularity University globally.

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His experience spans B2B and B2C services, platform businesses, family offices, licensing, and community development across industries such as travel, healthcare, tech, finance, education, and hospitality.

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With strengths in vision, strategy, product development, and partnerships, Gabriel focuses on solving significant problems and driving impactful innovation.

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Gabriel established one of California's first Public Benefit Corporations and he holds a BA in Economics from Duke and an MBA from Stanford.

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He lives in Austin, Texas, with his family and their three rescue dogs, Plato, Vera, and Laika.

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From search funds to “sits”, Ryan brings a diversity of pet experiences across investing, operating, and dog training. He has a unique mix of industry knowledge and hands-on expertise.​

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Ryan’s career in pets began with a passion for dog training and experience as a professional dog trainer.

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Since then, he has led a search fund focused on local pet services and acquired dozens of pet businesses working in M&A at Destination Pet, a PE-backed pet aggregator.

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Before entering the pet industry, Ryan worked in family office investing, corporate strategy, & consulting.

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He earned an Economics degree from DePauw University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

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​Ryan is passionate about improving the human-pet relationship. He lives in Richmond, Virginia with his dog, Zuko.

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Brock is an entrepreneur, board member, advisor, and executive. He has been a leader in the pet space for over 15 years.

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Brock is a 4x startup Founder & CEO. He has founded, led, and sold three leading pet companies, Pet360, Pet Coach, and Great Pet Care, which spanned across Ecommerce, digital media, and telehealth. 

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He has also been a C-suite leader for some of the world’s largest pet companies. Brock was the Chief Digital Officer at PetSmart as well as the Chief Innovation Officer at Petco.

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Today, Brock is an active investor, board member, advisor, and executive coach to dozens of leading companies in the pet space, including Pet Lab Co., Trusted House Sitters, and PetShop.uk, among many others. 

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Brock is one of the most distinguished, respected names in the pet industry. He has worked across all segments of the space, and he has the knowledge, wisdom, & network to show for it.​

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A serial entrepreneur, Anna has founded and led four businesses. Most notably, Anna founded Basepaws, a leading animal health and pet genetics company focused on using DNA technology for early disease detection.

 

Basepaws won numerous awards and made three appearances on Shark Tank. In 2022, Basepaws was acquired by Zoetis.

 

After running Basepaws at Zoetis, Anna is now an active investor and board member in the pet industry. With a deep background in scaling businesses and building brands, Anna advises companies on everything from navigating acquisitions to strategic growth. 

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​She is a Partner at Ani.vc, a pet-focused venture fund, and a board member at Petco Love, a non-profit focused on improving pet health. She’s also considered an expert in the cat segment industry.

 

Anna lives in Santa Monica with her two cats, Sunny and Stormy

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Adam is a veterinarian, founder, executive, and board member.​ He has spent +15 years advancing global animal health through innovation at the intersection of technology and veterinary medicine.

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Adam has held many innovation focused positions across the pet space, including leading Veterinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Texas A&M University. He has also founded and led several vet tech starts ups and consultancies.

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He envisions a future where veterinarians lead the way in delivering real-time, personalized care for every animal, addressing challenges like food security and infectious disease.

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Passionate about transforming his profession, Adam believes veterinarians can drive global change benefiting humans and animals alike.

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Adam lives near Vancouver, BC, with his family and two Clumber Spaniels, Neil and Walter.

With over 15 years of experience as a startup founder and product leader, Ann has been an instrumental part of building industry-defining technologies.

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​As Mahana’s President and Chief Product Officer, she scaled the company from 10 to ~100 people, raised $82M, and launched four CBT-based digital treatments.

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Before Mahana, Ann was a senior product leader across major tech companies like Intercom & Airbnb. She was also the CEO/Co-Founder of NabeWise, which was acquired by Airbnb.

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Ann thrives working with growth-stage, mission-driven startups. She is an expert at collaborating with brilliant, humble teams to create meaningful, innovative solutions.

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She lives on a small Bay Area vineyard with her husband, two children, and a lively Jack Russell Terrier.

Rob is an experienced founder, investor, operator, and pet industry innovator with a robust background in M&A strategy. He has served as the CIO for L2L Capital, a Hong Kong-based family office, a portfolio manager for Monoceros Growth Fund, a late-stage growth equity fund, and an Operating Partner at Clarke Capital Partners, a family investment office.

 

Rob has over 20 years of investment experience including M&A, divestitures, fundraising, investment management, and high-value business development transactions. He has deployed significant capital in more than 20 transactions with many successful exits including 3 in public offerings. Before transitioning to investing, Rob co-founded and exited 3 of his own companies.

 

Rob entered the pet space by leading Clarke Capital Partner’s Pet Opportunities fund, a dedicated investment platform focused on the pet health industry. He has also been the CEO of P3 Technologies, a pet health-tech company that Rob grew to encompass insurance, pharmacy, and E-Commerce business lines.

 

Rob lives in Miami with his dog Ace.

Bob has been a senior executive for multiple industry-leading pet insurance groups. He was the VP of Pet Insurance at American Modern Insurance group, leading their Embrace Pet Insurance Agency. He was then a Senior Vice President at Crum & Forster Pet Insurance Group where he grew their business to a successful exit. From there, Bob served as the Chief Partnership Officer and Senior Vice President of Industry and Government Relations for Independent Pet Group, one of the largest pet insurance companies in the world.

 

Bob has also spent nine years on the Board of Directors for NAPHIA, the pet insurance industry’s leading trade association, which covers 98% of the pet insurance industry.

 

Bob has worked across all facets of the insurance industry including regulation, product, distribution, tech integration, and customer experience. With 30 years in the insurance industry and a decade in pet insurance, Bob is one of the leading names in the pet insurance space.

 

Bob lives in Denver with his cat Hank.

After earning his veterinary degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Stewart went on to practice in the US Virgin Islands for nearly ten years, where he owned a clinic and operated as a relief vet, flying between all three islands. After returning to the U.S, Dr. Stewart founded Greenbrier Emergency Animal Hospital, where he is a practicing emergency veterinarian. The Virginia VMA has awarded him the Virginia Distinguished Vet of the Year, and he has been the local Jefferson area VMA president presiding over 80 vets in 30 clinics.

 

Outside of veterinary medicine, Dr. Stewart has a storied entrepreneurial career including acquiring, turning around, and exiting a soapstone mining company and building a high-end multi-family community in Charlottesville. Today, he is the CEO and Co-Founder of Hound Properties, a holding company that buys and holds the real estate under corporately held veterinary offices.

 

Dr. Stewart lives in Charlottesville, VA with his family, one dog, three cats, and parrot.

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As the Founder and CEO of DIGGS, Zel is dedicated to revolutionizing pet products with a focus on safety, innovation, and high-quality design. Zel’s bestselling dog crates, Revol and Evolv, combine intuitive features, thoughtful details, and premium materials. Zel is an omni-channel expert, selling DTC, through major marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart, specialty pet retailers like PetSmart, Petco, and Pet Food Express, and general retailers such as Costco.

 

Beyond DIGGS, Zel serves as a Board Member at Mutuo, a leader in AI-powered digital assistants for healthcare. He is also a Lead Mentor at SKU, where he advises early-stage CPG startups on scaling, strategy, and execution.

 

Previously, Zel was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, leading strategy and operations projects. Before McKinsey, he worked in management consulting at Deloitte and later founded Crampton Supply Chain Consulting. Having lived in five countries and speaking four languages, Zel brings a global perspective to everything he does.

 

Zel lives in New York with his family and their dog.

Julie brings +25-years of hands-on experience across retail, wholesale, and consumer brand start-ups, including +15-years in the pet industry.

 

Julie has had success across a number of senior leadership roles at Petco, including establishing Petco’s Wholesale & International division, which pioneered the company’s global wholesale expansion efforts. She also led Petco’s dog food business unit, where she grew the division to $1.2b in revenue. Additionally, Julie was a member of the Board of Directors for Petco Mexico, led the cat food/treats/litter division, and was the head of business development for the pet services division.

 

Outside of Petco, Julie was the President & Chief Commercial Officer of Made by Nacho, a premium pet food brand. She built led the company through hyper-growth by securing national distribution with PetSmart, Petco, Chewy, Amazon, DTC, and independent pet retailers, as well as developing 60 SKUs across wet & dry food, treats and toppers.

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Today, she lives with her pets in California.

Christine brings a diversity of experience to Pawsitive Holdings across pet-tech, product, dog behavior/training, and animal shelter leadership.

 

Christine has spent 20+ years in tech product development, including serving as the Director of Product for Fitbit and Head of Product for Vida Health. She has also held product and advisory positions at pet-tech start-ups like Waggit (a wearable pet health monitor), Pet Instincts (a hardware/software platform designed to provide dogs with mental enrichment while their humans are away), and Porter Labs (an innovative dog training and entertainment platform).

 

Christine has had a lifelong passion for animal welfare, taking in stray pets as a child and adopting and fostering as an adult. Today she serves as the President of Mountain Humane, an animal shelter in Idaho. While volunteering at shelters, she realized how much behavior factors into a dog’s likelihood of staying in a home. Following this passion for animal welfare, Christine completed two certifications in animal behavior and training.

 

Today she lives in Sun Valley, Idaho with her family and two dogs.

Heidi brings a wealth of pet insurance knowledge and connections to Pawsitive Holdings.

 

At Nationwide, Heidi was the company’s Chief Pet Officer and the President of the pet insurance business line. While at Nationwide, Heidi doubled their pet insurance business to be the largest pet health insurer in the United States, covering almost 1.2 million pets. Before leading Nationwide Pet Insurance, she was a senior executive for a number of healthcare companies including Aetna, United Health Group, and ConnectiCare.

 

Today, Heidi runs her consulting firm, H. Jane, where she helps pet founders and brands drive value in the pet space through her expertise in areas like growth, marketing, and partnerships. She is passionate about empowering companies to help pets live healthy, happy lives.

 

Heidi lives in Los Angeles with her family and pets.