OUR TEAM

Chris Casgar comes to The Newcastle Network with over 25 years of experience as an investor, operator, and entrepreneur. As Managing Partner, Chris oversees all aspects of the firm, the development of its people, and the execution of its strategy. Prior to founding Newcastle, Chris had investing roles as a Managing Director at LCatterton and Partner at Webster Equity Partners following a career as an operator, technologist, and consultant. Chris received his BS from Cornell and his MBA from Wharton where he was a Palmer Scholar.

Kevin McCafferty joins Newcastle with 20 years of experience as an investor, operator, and entrepreneur. Kevin directs the investment process at Newcastle leveraging his expertise in deal diligence, execution, and sourcing. Previously, Kevin was a Principal at Yellow Wood Partners, a consumer focused private equity firm. Kevin’s enthusiasm for the consumer industry started when he was the COO of Superior Cake Products, an extension of his investment role at New England Capital Partners. Kevin received his AB from Harvard and his MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where he graduated as a Tuck Scholar with high distinction.

Michael has spent the majority of his 25 year career developing cutting edge technology solutions for many of the nation’s largest and fastest growing enterprises as well as for millions of independent small businesses worldwide. He is a catalyst for innovation, combining relevant data, thoughtful research, powerful analytics, compelling storytelling, agile development, and pragmatic implementations. Michael holds a BA from Brown University and an MBA from the Wharton School.

John comes to The Newcastle Network following a decade working as a data scientist, analytics manager, and technologist. As Head of Data Science, John leads the development of models and software that underpin deal sourcing, diligence, and value creation at Newcastle companies. Prior to getting his MBA from Harvard, John worked as an applied mathematician and software engineer at Draper Laboratory, where he built predictive models for NASA, the Defense Department, and IARPA.

Vickie is one of the leading global voices in social marketing and commerce today using performance-driven advocacy marketing strategies to market top tier brands. Vickie is also the Founder of Village Marketing, one of Business Insider’s Top Influencer Agencies in 2020. Village is known as a leader in developing the connection between community and commerce, helping digitally-native consumer disruptors convert influencers into their top acquisition channel. Vickie is our resident marketer, focused on both brand communication and performance marketing through the lens of community. Vickie graduated from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business and resides in Chapel Hill.

Jonathan leads Business Development at Newcastle, targeting investment and network opportunities within our priority categories. He has spent the last five years as the founder of a baby/toddler snack company with distribution in 10,000+ doors and 10+ countries before exiting the business in 2020. Prior to launching his own business in the consumer space, Jonathan spent five years at Merrill Lynch in private wealth management. Jonathan graduated from UMASS Isenberg School of Management.

For 25 years, Pete has been driving disruptive businesses as an entrepreneur, operator and, most recently, as Managing Partner. In every case, he’s focused on leveraging innovation to create sustainable, profitable growth. In 2005, Pete helped launch Fahrenheit 212 to help CEOs, founders and PE firms make innovation a reliable driver of their value creation. At F212, Pete impacted all aspects of firm-formation, drove growth for clients across sectors and established strong relationships with a global network of innovators. In 2016, Pete co-led F212’s sale to Capgemini SE and helped scale the business globally. At The Newcastle Network, Pete is responsible for leveraging innovation throughout the investment lifecycle, driving firm evolution, and activating our unique network model to support portfolio companies and access top-notch talent. Pete holds an AB honors from Harvard, where he was a John Harvard Scholar and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Ellen is a highly accomplished marketing executive building purpose-driven consumer brands. After nearly 20 years leading teams on the brand side, she founded the consultancy Ro+Co where she advised investors, founders, and CEOs in a variety of brand and marketing capacities. At Ro+Co she often operated as a fractional CMO to lead organizations from early-stage startups to global corporations. Before starting her consultancy, Ellen held senior marketing roles during pivotal growth and inflection points at Equinox's Blink Fitness, Whole Foods Market, and Pret A Manger. This brand-side experience enables her to fly high on strategy while bringing operational expertise to execute vision. At Newcastle, Ellen drives value creation for portfolio companies by offering brand and marketing leadership with a keen understanding of operational realities. Ellen graduated from Drake University with a degree in Marketing and Journalism.

Laurie is a skilled business leader and entrepreneur with expertise in talent and people strategies. She specializes in aligning human capital to leadership in a way that transforms operational excellence and drives business impact. At The Newcastle Network, Laurie is responsible for accelerating leadership, team, and organizational performance. Laurie began her career at Accenture as a management consultant implementing large-scale and complex initiatives with cross-industry clients. She advanced her leadership development and executive coaching expertise as a Partner with Kenning Associates, and a Coach in the Executive Education organizations at several business schools. She is an International Coaching Federation certified executive coach and holds a BA from Bucknell University and an MBA from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Laurie and Chris started their working relationship almost 25 years ago.

Amanda is a pioneer with a passion for launching and growing businesses. She spent the early days of her career in marketing building new ventures for iconic media brands (e.g., Oprah Winfrey, The Food Network, Rachael Ray and Lifetime). Amanda’s experience in media naturally extended to a leadership role on lululemon’s widely admired community team. She helped drive growth for the activewear leader from 2009 – 2021. This tenure included the company’s early expansion in the U.S., to launching lululemon’s first store in Europe. She pioneered the brands success in APAC leading expansion efforts out of the Hong Kong office from 2014 – 2018, a time in which lululemon grew from 0 to 100 stores in eight new countries. Amanda now consults for startups and brands looking to drive growth by catalyzing strong visions into reality. She is an executive coach helping passionate leaders hone their values and purpose. Amanda is also Co-Founder of Hysterical, a multi-media brand dedicated to creating whisper cultures.

As a Senior Analyst, Connor assists with the investment process and deal team at Newcastle, conducting strategic analyses, sourcing, and financial modeling. He leverages his experience in company research, financial modeling, and due diligence at L Catterton and Houlihan Lokey to identify investable opportunities for Newcastle companies. Connor earned BA in Economics from Denison University.