OUR TEAM
We have an experienced and dedicated team with backgrounds in private investments, strategy and operations management, financial analysis and investment banking.
Veena Anand
Managing Partner
Veena co-founded Ample Bright Capital along with a seasoned healthcare M&A professional. She has more than twenty years of experience in finance, operations, investment and strategic consulting across a variety of industries including technology, healthcare, food and beverage, manufacturing, and financial services. In addition to bringing private investment experience at two separate middle market focused private equity firms in Chicago, she has successfully negotiated corporate alliances and mergers on M&A teams. As a management consultant, Veena has provided strategic advisory services to middle market companies and facilitated their market share increase through domestic expansion and entry into new international markets. She has helped improve private and public companies' top line growth through identification of new revenue channels and bringing new products into the market place, and implementing levers for operational improvements. Veena has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a B.S. from the Delhi College of Engineering.
Reed Prior
Senior Advisor
Over the course of his career, Reed has been the CEO of ten bioscience companies, including 3 biotech companies, 5 medtech companies, and 2 in vitro diagnostics companies. Of these, 8 were privately held and venture capital backed, and 2 companies were publicly held NASDAQ listed firms. Most needed substantial restructuring or repositioning. His companies have ranged in location across the US from the West coast, to the Midwest, to the East coast, as well as in the UK. He led 3 companies to their first FDA product approvals. He has successfully negotiated a number of corporate alliances and mergers with both domestic and international partners, and has raised $183 million in equity and debt capital from a variety of sources. Among others, Reed was formerly Chairman and CEO of Seragen, Inc., which he sold to Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LGND), and earlier had served as President and CEO of i-STAT Corporation, now a part of Abbott Laboratories. Before becoming a CEO, Reed served as a venture capitalist for Marine (later Bank One) Venture Capital, Vice President-Marketing for Promega Corporation, and Director of International Marketing for the Waters Associates subsidiary of Millipore Corporation. Reed holds a B.S. in Biophysics from Michigan State University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Grace McCauley
Senior Advisor
Grace McCauley has more than 40 years of experience in home care leadership roles, including 20 years as the visionary leader and CEO of Trinity Home Health Services(THHS), a multi office home care and hospice organization and subsidiary of Trinity Health (2nd largest Catholic Health System in the U.S.). Grace has served as the president and CEO of THHS since 2001. She also served in various roles as the vice president of clinical services, vice president of long term care and home care clinical services, and vice president of operations before her appointment as CEO in 2001. During her tenure, Grace guided revolutionary change, instituting the move to the prospective payment system (PPS) and point-of-care electronic medical records, as well as the development of a home-based services sales force, cross continuum clinical care paths, transitional and palliative care programs, as well as initial work on interoperability to share information across health care settings and establish a consumer portal. Before joining Trinity, she had held several positions at Kimberly Quality Care, a national provider of home care services, including Vice President of Quality Improvement. Prior to that, Grace had served as Project Director for the development of the Home Care Standards at TJC (The Joint Commission) as well as holding numerous roles as Director and Vice President of Home Care for a regional home care organization. Grace is an RN, having received a Masters of Science degree in Rehabilitation Nursing with honors from St Xavier College in Chicago Illinois and was also a recipient of the Sigma Theta Tau scholarship. She also received her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from St Xavier. She has served on various state and national professional organizations and committees, and has been a contributor in professional publications.
Gerry Anderson
Senior Advisor
Gerry has over 25 years of experience in the food & beverage industry with large, multi-national organizations as well as small businesses and start-ups. Earlier in his career he held financial roles as Vice President and Controller of the Sara Lee Bakery and CFO of Superior Coffee, a division of Sara Lee Corporation. Gerry later moved into sales and operations and served as President of Superior Coffee, a $350 million direct to store sales and delivery operation serving almost 30,000 customers in the restaurant and hospitality industry. Gerry was an investor in and held operating roles in two small businesses; Crummy Brothers Cookies, a line of organic and all natural chocolate chip cookies and Rolly’s Convenient Foods, a line of stuffed tortillas sold in the convenience store channel. Gerry has experience in national rollout of new products, acquisition negotiations, due diligence and integration, strategic planning and business restructurings. Gerry has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a B.S. in Accountancy from the University of Illinois - Urbana.
Bill Wells
Senior Advisor
Bill is an accomplished executive with extensive experience leading change and delivering results in complex, multi-functional organizations. His broad background includes strategy development and deployment, organization design and development, ERP implementation leadership, M&A analysis and integration, S&OP implementation and leadership development. He is currently Vice President Manufacturing and Supply Chain for ACH Food Cos., Inc. Bill started his career and spent 23 years with Procter & Gamble Co. in manufacturing and supply chain operations across a variety of consumer products businesses. Prior to joining ACH, Bill was president of Heartland Fields, LLC, a start-up company manufacturing premium soy-based meat alternatives and snack products. He has served on Boards of Directors for both corporate and not for profit organizations. Bill has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Bob Taylor
Senior Advisor
Bob Taylor is an accomplished entrepreneur and executive leader with a strong portfolio of successes orchestrating the start-up, growth, and optimization of telecommunications and information technology businesses on a global level. In 1999 Bob was the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and in 2000 CIO Magazine named him one of the top CIOs in the USA. Bob has been the CEO of several telecommunications carriers, both public and private, has consulted on numerous restructurings and is currently a Senior Advisor to Duff & Phelps. Bob has served on numerous Boards of Directors in a number of international markets including Argentina, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Guam and the USA. Bob is also a frequent guest lecturer at the Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago and has served on the various University boards. Bob has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a B.S. in Engineering from University of Denver.