The Top 25 Technology Investment Bankers of 2022

Top CFOs is pleased to announce The Top 25 Technology Investment Bankers of 2022. This year’s awardees have an expertise rooted deep in industry knowledge. They are accomplished technology and software-focused investment bankers providing financing, M&A advisory and strategic advisory services to growth-stage and established companies. They have completed countless transactions for clients across various sub-sectors including SaaS, cybersecurity, and internet, among other related areas. Their keen insights as well as their relationships and personal connections within the industry help form the foundation of their success in guiding their clients.

Among this year’s awardees is Tammy Kiely, Partner and Co-Head of Technology Investment Banking with Goldman Sachs, who was one of the advisers to Qualcomm Inc. as it explored a $117bn deal with Broadcom Ltd. in 2018. Awardee David Chen, Head of Global Technology Investment Banking for Morgan Stanley, has advised on M&A transactions including the $1.7bn sale of J.D. Edwards to PeopleSoft, $7.7bn sale of McAfee to Intel, and the $1.3bn sale of AVG to Avast. Also awarded is Yogesh Amle, Managing Director & Head of Software Investment Banking for Credit Suisse, who has been involved in a number of high-profile transactions in the software space including deals such as Dell International’s spinoff of VMWare Inc. and Thoma Bravo’s take-privates of Proofpoint and RealPage.

Please join us in celebrating the accomplishments of The Top 25 Technology Investment Bankers of 2022.

 

1. Tammy Kiely
Partner & Co-Head of Technology Investment Banking, Goldman Sachs

Tammy Kiely is a Partner and the Co-Head of Technology Investment Banking with Goldman Sachs. She has over 25 years of experience primarily focused on technology industry finance and strategic transactions. Her specialties include mergers and acquisitions, financings, and anti-raid/activism defense with extensive cross border experience.

Before joining Goldman Sachs, Kiely was in the finance department at PDI / Dreamworks. Earlier in her career, she worked with KPMG as a supervising senior accountant. Kiely graduated from Stanford University Graduate School of Business with an MBA and from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo with an undergraduate degree in business administration.

 

3. Mark Dolins
Managing Director & Global Head of Technology Group, Lazard

Mark Dolins is a Managing Director and the Global Head of the Technology Group with Lazard. He first joined the firm in 2007. Lazard, one of the world's preeminent financial advisory and asset management firms, operates from more than 40 cities across 25 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Central and South America. With origins dating to 1848, the firm provides advice on M&A, strategic matters, restructuring and capital structure, capital raising and corporate finance, as well as asset management services to corporations, partnerships, institutions, governments and individuals. Its well-known M&A group has advised on some of the largest, most complex M&A deals of the past 100 years.

Previously, Dolins was a managing director at Cowen and Company, and before that, a head of business development at shoes.com. Earlier in his career, he worked with Nutter as an associate. Dolins earned a JD from Duke University School of Law and an undergraduate degree in history from Denison University.

 

4. David Chen
Head of Global Technology Investment Banking, Morgan Stanley

David Chen is the Head of Global Technology Investment Banking with Morgan Stanley. He first joined the firm in 2014 as global head of software banking. With over twenty years of investment banking experience, he has advised some of the most disruptive technology companies on their financial and strategic objectives. Chen has had the privilege of advising on key transactions including the direct listings for Palantir and Slack and IPOs for Salesforce.com, NetScreen Technologies, Palo Alto Networks, and FireEye, among others.

Chen first got his start in 1998 as an associate director at UBS Investment Bank. He earned an undergraduate degree in biology from Stanford University.

 

5. Herb Yeh
Senior Managing Director of Software & Technology Investment Banking, Evercore

Herb Yeh is the Senior Managing Director of Software and Technology Investment Banking with Evercore. Evercore is a premier global independent investment banking advisory firm. They are dedicated to helping clients achieve superior results through trusted independent and innovative advice on matters of strategic significance to boards of directors, management teams and shareholders, including M&A, strategic shareholder advisory, restructurings, and capital structure. Evercore also assists clients in raising public and private capital and delivers equity research and equity sales and agency trading execution, in addition to providing wealth and investment management services to high-net-worth and institutional investors. Founded in 1995, the firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices and affiliate offices in major financial centers in North America, Europe, South America, the Middle East and Asia. Yeh has 35 years of experience. He began his career in 1987.

Before joining Evercore, Yeh was a global co-head of technology investment banking, and vice chairman of banking, capital markets, and advisory at Citi, and before that, a managing director of technology investment banking at Bank of America. Earlier in his career, he worked with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP as an associate in corporate and securities law. Yeh graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a JD and an undergraduate degree in economics.

View the complete list of awardees.

 

11. Yogesh Amle
Managing Director & Head of Software Investment Banking, Credit Suisse

Yogesh Amle is a seasoned technology investment banker and advises clients in the enterprise software & systems sector on strategic advisory and capital raising. He currently serves as a Managing Director and Head of Software Investment Banking for Credit Suisse. In addition to covering corporate and start-ups, he proactively works with leading private equity and venture capital firms by bringing innovative and out-of-box ideas to the table on new investments and for existing portfolio companies. By coupling business development responsibilities with his hands-on transaction execution experience, Amle has a solid understanding of the strategic and financial playbook of the large cap technology players and valuable insights into how the disruptive themes of cloud, SaaS, security, mobility, big data and social are rapidly changing this landscape.

Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Amle was the head of software investment banking for BMO Capital Markets, and before that, the head of software at Union Square Advisors. He has worked at Citi, Barclays and J.P.Morgan in various roles in their TMT Investment Banking groups. Prior to J.P.Morgan, Amle spent several years as a technology entrepreneur at a successful VC backed .com start-up and was responsible for new ventures, corporate development and product management. The technology sector has been the core anchor of his professional achievements over the last 21 years. He started his career as a strategy consultant working for the largest conglomerate in India, where he helped the TATA Group of companies navigate through multiple assignments spanning internal strategy planning to executing future roadmaps. Amle graduated from Indian Institute of Technology with an undergraduate degree in technology, from The National University of Singapore with a master’s degree in engineering research, and from NYU, Stern School of Business with an MBA.

 

12. Lisa Byrnes
Managing Director of Technology Investment Banking, Canaccord Genuity

Lisa Byrnes is the Managing Director of Technology Investment Banking for Canaccord Genuity. Canaccord Genuity is the global capital markets division of Canaccord Genuity Group Inc., offering institutional and corporate clients idea-driven investment banking, M&A, research, sales and trading services from offices in North America, U.K. & Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East. Byrnes is a highly experienced technology investment banker with more than 20 years of experience representing a wide range of public and private technology companies. She has a strong background advising clients on a variety of public and private financings as well as mergers and acquisitions.

Byrnes first got her start in 1999 in technology investment banking at Robertson Stephens before moving on to SVB Alliant, her most recent position prior to joining Canaccord Genuity. Byrnes graduated from The Wharton School with an MBA and from the University of New Hampshire with an undergraduate degree in economics.

 

13. Daniel Lee
Managing Director of Technology & Innovation Investment Banking, CIBC Capital Markets

Daniel Lee is the Managing Director of Technology & Innovation Investment Banking for CIBC Capital Markets, a broker-dealer and a subsidiary of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) that provides investment banking, capital markets and lending and treasury services. It is a leading provider of M&A advisory, debt and equity financing, corporate banking, trading, hedging and research. Lee has over a decade of capital markets experience focused on the technology sector. He has successfully closed well over 50 M&A and capital raise transactions across a broad range of sub-sectors including enterprise software, SMB SaaS, blockchain/cryptocurrencies, fintech, digital media, AdTech, telecom, and semiconductors.

Lee is relentlessly hustling to achieve exceptional strategic outcomes for founders, executive teams, and shareholders of technology companies. Before joining CIBC Capital Markets, Lee was a partner in investment banking and technology at Paradigm Capital. Earlier in his career, he worked with M Partners in equity research in technology. Lee graduated from the University of Toronto with a JD and a master’s degree in financial economics, and from York University with an undergraduate degree in economics.

 

14. Markus Salolainen
Technology Corporate Finance Partner, EY

Markus Salolainen is a Technology Corporate Finance Partner at EY. EY offers investment banking services through industry-dedicated teams with a focus on the middle market. They leverage their global network of investment banking professionals to deliver insightful, objective and strategic deal advice on M&A, debt and equity capital market transactions. Salolainen has over 25 years of experience in investment banking and specializes in fintech, cyber, mobility and software technologies.

Salolainen started his career in TMT Investment Banking with UBS and HSBC. After working as a principal at BlueRun Ventures and a general partner at Nokia Growth Partners, he joined Arma Partners where he was a senior managing director focusing on software companies globally. Most recently, Salolainen was a managing director and head of Europe at AGC Partners. He has closed M&A deals with Apple, ARM, Nokia, NXP, Deltek, SEGA, Sky, BT, Invensense, Borderfree, u-blox, Providence Equity, Baird Capital, EQT, Constellation Software and Lionbridge, among others. His VC investments have been acquired by AMD, AMS, Dolby, Qualcomm, Nokia, AVG and Websense. Salolainen graduated from The London School of Economics and Political Science with an MS in economics, and from the University of Surrey with an undergraduate degree in management studies.

View the complete list of awardees.

 

16. Chris Shilakes
Managing Director & Global Head of Technology Media Telecom Investment Banking, Nomura

As Managing Director leading Global Technology Media Telecom Investment Banking, Chris Shilakes has primary responsibility for building out Nomura’s Global TMT Banking platform and expanding the company’s global software sector practice across all product areas, including interfacing with the venture community.

Previously, Shilakes was responsible for developing BofA Merrill Lynch’s Software Investment Banking and Venture Coverage platforms. He has worked on a variety of software IPOs, convertibles, follow-ons and M&A transactions in his career. From 2007 to 2012, he was the technology specialist on the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Institutional Equity Sales Desk in San Francisco, providing technology insights on 300 publicly-traded technology companies and IPOs to Merrill’s premiere technology investors. Before returning to Merrill Lynch, Shilakes was a founding partner of Blueshift Venture Advisors, providing capital raising, operational and strategic advisory services to emerging technology companies. Prior to Blueshift, he was a first VP with Merrill Lynch Equity Research, where he headed the Global Enterprise Software Research team for a decade. While in this role, he was named to the Institutional Investor magazine All-America Research Team for six consecutive years for his coverage of the enterprise software industry, and led research coverage on over 20 IPOs. In the early 1990s, Shilakes worked at Oracle Corporation to position the company’s turnaround for the financial community, and, in the late 1980s was an analyst at Alex. Brown & Sons on its technology research team. He graduated from Princeton University with an undergraduate degree in economics.

 

17. Timothy Monnin
Global Head of Fintech Investment Banking, KeyBanc Capital Markets

Timothy Monnin is the Global Head of Fintech Investment Banking for KeyBanc Capital Markets. With more than 800 professionals across a national platform, KeyBanc Capital Markets has more than $50 billion of capital committed to clients and an award-winning Equity Research team that provides coverage on over 600 publicly-traded companies. Their clients benefit from a deep expertise across seven focused industry sectors, including consumer & retail, healthcare, industrial, public sector, real estate, and technology. In his role, Monnin primarily focuses on M&A and capital raising in the fintech, software, IT and data services, and related technology-enabled business and financial services sectors.

Monnin has over 20 years of experience within investment banking. His recent transactions include go-private buy and sell-side advisory assignments, the largest U.S. IPO, and cross-border sell-side advisory assignments. Prior to joining KeyBanc, Monnin was the global head of fintech and information services for Jefferies. Before that, he served as a managing director and head of fintech, software and systems investment banking for Wells Fargo. Monnin graduated from Brown University with an undergraduate degree in organizational behavior studies and from the University of Illinois with an MBA in finance.

 

19. Vineet Asthana
Managing Director of Media & Technology Investment Banking, Berkery Noyes & Co.

Vineet Asthana is the Managing Director of Media and Technology Investment Banking of Berkery Noyes & Co. He first joined the firm in 2015. Berkery Noyes is an independent investment bank providing M&A advisory to middle-market leaders in the TMT industry. They have advised on more than 500 transactions over the last 30 years. Asthana is a senior investment banking professional providing strategic advisory and financial services to companies throughout the technology, media and telecom industries. He has extensive experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, leveraged buyouts, and public/ private equity and debt financing. His transaction experience includes M&A and corporate finance assignments representing over $30 bn in aggregate value.

Previously, Asthana was an SVP of media & technology investment banking at Centrum Capital, and before that, an SVP of M&A at Citi. Earlier in his career, he worked with Rothschild Inc. as an analyst of M&A. Asthana earned an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an undergraduate degree in accounting and economics from Franklin & Marshall College.

 

20. Gene Kabakov
Managing Director of TMT Investment Banking, Capital One

Gene Kabakov is the Managing Director of TMT Investment Banking with Capital One. He first joined the company in 2019. In his role, Kabakov is responsible for origination, execution, growing profitable client revenue and developing new client relationships. He has executed a variety of investment banking transactions including M&A, leveraged buyouts, IPOs and equity and high yield debt offerings for private equity and corporate clients. His industry and sector coverage includes technology, telecommunications, and media.

Previously, Kabakov was a director of TMT investment banking at Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking. Earlier in his career, he worked with Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. as a VP and director of TMT investment banking. Kabakov earned an MBA from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and an undergraduate degree in finance and computer information systems from Indiana University, Kelley School of Business.

View the complete list of awardees.