About Athena
Company
Athena believes in taking mission-driven businesses to market with the support of our elite, women-led advisory board of founders, operators, investors, dealmakers, and CEOs
Athena by The Numbers
Athena Emereges
In the summer of 2020, fintech founder and venture capitalist Isabelle Freidheim reflected on the nascent special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) boom.
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She visualized the typical story unfolding where women were left out of yet another male-dominated field — but she wouldn’t accept that.
Inspired by Athena, the embodiment of wisdom and strength in Greek mythology, Freidheim began assembling a formidable group of leaders to create the Athena Network, an organization of women-led SPACs brimming with advisory talent and experience that rival anyone else in the market.
The Athena Network
The Athena network includes more than 20 CXOs today. Having been operators and investors themselves, the women of the Athena network add expertise to further accelerate sourcing, diligence, and value-creation.
Each member understands the passion, dedication, and expertise needed to drive meaningful growth and transformation. They also maintain strong relationships with their companies even after the business combinations are complete. Together as a group we currently generate over $9 billion in revenues created from scratch as founders. Our sectors of expertise expand across areas of technology, with a particular focus on FinTech, cybersecurity and technology enabled DTC. In aggregate, we have been on a number of public boards, including Oracle, American Airlines, NBC, BNY Mellon, GroupOn, Draft Kings, Citi, Comcast among others and over 30 private company boards.
Founder of Athena, venture capitalist and entrepreneur, co-founder & former CEO of Magnifi (acquired by Tifin in 2020)
First female partner at Softbank, former head of Facebook India, former board member of WeWork (NYSE: WE), has taken public four companies via SPAC transactions. Founder of Virtualness.
Investment professional with 15 years of experience in investment banking and private equity at JP Morgan and Evercore.
CEO of Zuckerberg Media and current board member of The Motley Fool and Life360. Former radio host of her weekly talk radio show "Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg.”
Economist and Regulator; Former Chief Economist U.S Department of State
Trier (tree-air) Bryant has 10 years of experience as an officer in the Air Force, formerly at Goldman Sachs. Currently the President of 82VS, the venture studio of Alloy Therapeutic. Co-founder of Just Work with Kim Scott.
Former head of talent at SpaceX, former head of talent at Oculus, former head of talent at Citadel, founder of Terra Talent.
Former head of corporate development at Alibaba, former CEO of Alibaba Pictures, board member of Ralph Lauren.
Co-Founder of Shift (NASDAQ: SFT); founding partner of TenOneTen venture; former Project Manager at Google;
CEO & Founder of Tokki and former CEO and Founder of Julep
Chair of the board of directors of Blue Apron, board member of The Woolworth Group. Former CEO/President of Peapod, Groupon and former COO of JCrew.
Executive roles at Inspo Network, Zulily (acquired by QVC), glassybaby, Thrive Causemetics, and aQuantive (acquired by Microsoft). Owner of Conta Consulting
Founder of Athena, venture capitalist and entrepreneur, co-founder & former CEO of Magnifi (acquired by Tifin in 2020)
Chairman & CEO of Madison Square Garden Sports (now USA Network), Co-Founder & Chairman of Springboard Enterprises
CEO of Robinson Hill, Inc. and former Associate Product Director at Johnson & Johnson
Founder and CEO of S’Well sits on the UNICEF USA New York Regional Board, is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Business School and a mentor in the Fortune-State Department Global Mentoring Program.
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Board member at Apparel Group, former President of Old Navy, former CEO of SteinMart.
Lauren is the founder of LMB Group, a boutique marketing and strategic advisory firm that partners with innovative and high-growth consumer brands, helping founders and executives meet their strategic goals. She previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of digitalundivided, the leading nonprofit leveraging data, programs, and advocacy to catalyze economic growth for Black and Latina women entrepreneurs.
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Co-founder of Gilt, GlamSquad, Fitz, and founding partner of growth investment fund Clerisy Capital.
Chief Growth Officer for Pura Vida and Founder of Catalyst Consulting
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Founder and CEO of XTreme Solutions, a cybersecurity training company with a state of the art proprietary ethical hacking technology.
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Founder and Managing Director at Grace Global Capital, a boutique investment banking advisory firm providing M&A financial advisory, restructuring, and valuation services
Founder of Athena, venture capitalist and entrepreneur, co-founder & former CEO of Magnifi (acquired by Tifin in 2020)
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Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The ActOne Group
Chairman & CEO of Madison Square Garden Sports (now USA Network), Co-Founder & Chairman of Springboard Enterprises
Head of the trading and markets practice within Davis Polk’s FIG group. Former SEC Commissioner.
Co-Chair of the National Academy of Medicine Climate and Health Initiative
Chairman of the Salsano Group and Chief Investment Officer and L Investments
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Board of Directors for Blend, Fortitude Re, AppHarvest. Former Senior Managing Director at Evercore.
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Former CEO of Diane Von Furstenberg and current Board Member for Big Lots Stores and Fabric
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Former Chief Technology and People Officer at Forescout, senior executive at FireEye, Autodesk, McAfee, and Oracle. Board member at Axon Enterprises, HeartFlow, Inc and AaDya Security.
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20+ years as the Managing Director for BlackRock and current Board Member for Aperture Investors and Marston, Inc.
Co-Founder of Shift (NASDAQ: SFT); founding partner of TenOneTen venture; former Project Manager at Google;
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Managing Partner and Founder at Primetime Partners and Board Member at Thrive Global, Former Senior Vice President of Strategy and Growth for SoulCycle Inc.
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Board member of DraftKings, Envestnet, Groupon, and Eaton Vance’s family of mutual funds. Former portfolio manager at Wellington. During her 20-year tenure, she served on the firm's industry strategy group.
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Current president for Baggallini and former North American CEO of DeBeers Diamond Jewelers, former president of Givenchy and CMO of Gap.
Board member at Apparel Group, former President of Old Navy, former CEO of SteinMart.
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Chairman & CEO of Pinnacle Group, Inc. and founding member of Startup America Partnership
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Managing General Partner at Rain Capital and Board Member of Fortune 500 Company MDU Resources Group (NYSE: MDU)
Co-founder of Gilt, GlamSquad, Fitz, and founding partner of growth investment fund Clerisy Capital.
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Founder and Managing Partner for 11.2 Capital also an Investor and Board Member at Passage AI
Athena Grows
Athena is a special purpose acquisition company where investments are made with wisdom and strength, and partners are empowered to reach their full potential.
Athena SPACs are architected with market-leading talent, access to capital, and transaction experience to facilitate access to the equity capital markets for leading companies. Athena views its potential partner companies as just that—partners. By blending their deep management and operational experience with high-quality investors who believe in the team and its mission, Athena SPACs set their potential partner companies up for long-term success.
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Athena, taking mission-driven companies to market