Marc D. Kirshbaum

As a business leader and advisor who builds, grows and turns around businesses, Marc’s hands-on approach has consistently delivered sustainable and measurable results for investors, employees and customers.

Over the past 20 years, Marc’s ability to bridge technology and business has proven effective for growing $200M+ global businesses and establishing
early-stage ventures across healthcare and financial/information services technology. He is passionate about creating and aligning high functioning, world-class teams that transform ideas and businesses into market leaders by focusing on strategy, leadership and execution to:

  • Prioritize and focus on the key business drivers
  • Ask tough questions and solve tough problems
  • Do what is right for the business
  • Stay aligned as a team
  • Establish & build trusting and respectful relationships
  • Communicate honestly, consistently and often
  • Continuing to learn and grow

In 2010, Marc was asked by the family founders of Allegro Ophthalmics to join them as chief operating officer to build a business based upon their discovery of a novel molecule to treat millions of patients at risk of blindness. Marc focused on positioning the company for continued growth and maximizing its strategic options. In less than five years, the company received $40 million to fund its R&D goals, diluting the founding family’s equity stake by less than 25% and increasing the company’s valuation from $5 million to $150 million.

Prior to joining Allegro, Marc was the President & COO of Private Access, an early-stage healthcare information company that developed a platform for individuals to grant “private access” to their health information to improve care and accelerate research. Marc led several key milestones for the company, including a $6 million strategic investment/partnership with Pfizer and the initial, revenuegenerating product launch. The company was recognized as #12 on Forbes’ 2009 List of America’s Most Promising Companies.

Marc’s successes in early-stage companies were greatly influenced by his six years as a senior executive at Experian plc, a $4B+ global information services company that provides data and analytics tools to clients around the world. Marc held three key executive positions at Experian that were focused on turning around and growing businesses, culminating with Group President, Business Information Solutions – a $200 million, 400-person group of software, data and analytics businesses for business credit and marketing. Under Marc’s leadership, the group achieved double-digit EBIT growth and focused on the products that met client needs and created stickier client relationships.

Marc’s promotion to Group President was on the heels of turning around the company’s Fraud & Identity Solutions business. As a result of revamping the management team that brought focus and renewed energy to the organization, the business hit its EBIT target for the first time since inception, corresponding to a 65% increase in the monthly revenue run rate and an increase in profitability of almost 90% over two years.

Marc’s initial role at Experian, Senior Vice President of Client Support & Strategic Relations, included leading a program for 3,000 employees that focused on “making it easier to do business with Experian” to drive client loyalty and grow revenue. This role complemented his additional roles of directly leading the credit bureau’s operations, corporate development and strategic partnerships.

Prior to Experian, Marc held various roles with mid-cap public companies where he was entrusted by executive management to establish and build key strategic relationships that were critical to the companies’ business success. First, At Electronics for Imaging, Inc., Marc cultivated and strengthened the relationships with the company’s global distribution partners, especially in Japan. Second, as Vice President at Wink Communications, the innovator in interactive television, Marc was responsible for the single largest product launch in the company’s history – launching to more than 3 million DirecTV customers.

In addition to serving on the board of companies he has led, Marc has volunteered as the president of numerous organizations and as a board member of others, including the Board of Governors of the USC Alumni Association, the Jewish Community Relations Council, Californians For An Open Primary, Junior Achievement and Beth Jacob Congregation of Irvine. In addition to leading businesses directly, Marc provides his knowledge and experience as an advisor to investors, CEOs and management teams. He also speaks and writes on the topic of strategy, leadership and execution.

Marc received his law degree from The University of Chicago and his Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science magna cum laude from the University of Southern California. He lives in Irvine, California with his wife and their two daughters.