Klaas Baks / Tiger 21
Klaas P. Baks PhD (www.klaasbaks.com is a recognized thought-leader in alternative investments and entrepreneurial finance. Dr. Baks is the co-founder and executive director of the Emory Center for Alternative Investments, whose international board consists of chief executive officers of pension and sovereign wealth funds with over $1 trillion in assets under management. Dr. Baks has been a Finance Professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School since 2002.
Dr. Baks’s research and teaching focuses on issues in alternative investments, entrepreneurial finance and investment management, and he has published papers in numerous academic and business journals, including the Wall Street Journal. He teaches courses in private equity, venture capital and entrepreneurial finance at Emory and has been recognized by students and alumni with four teaching awards, including Emory University’s highest award for teaching excellence, the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Marc F. Adler Prize for Teaching Excellence awarded by alumni. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Luxembourg School of Finance, where he teaches a course in private equity in their Executive Program in Wealth Management.
Dr. Baks is the Atlanta Chair with TIGER 21, North America’s premier peer-to-peer learning network for high-net-worth investors. TIGER 21’s approximately 380 members collectively manage more than $27 billion and are entrepreneurs, inventors and top executives focused on improving investment acumen, as well as exploring common issues of wealth preservation, estate planning and family dynamics.
Dr. Baks serves as director or advisor for over 13 companies in a variety of industries, including Brightwood Capital Advisors (fixed income), Kruger Capital (private equity), Panton Equity Partners (private equity), Peachtree Hotel Group (real estate), Transcardiac Therapeutics (health care), Triton Value Partners (strategic consulting) and TWO Capital Partners (real estate). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Michael C. Carlos Museum.
Prior to joining Emory University, Dr. Baks held positions at Fuji Bank in Tokyo, Japan, Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong and the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC.
Dr. Baks studied at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (PhD in Finance), Brown University (Master’s in Economics), Groningen University (Master’s in Econometrics) and Leiden University (Diploma in Japanese Language and Business Studies). He spent two years at Harvard University as part of his doctoral research at Wharton on the performance of actively managed mutual funds.
Born and raised in the Netherlands, Dr. Baks resides with his wife and son in Atlanta, Georgia.
Steve Freedman / Tiger 21
Steve founded Getmembers.com in 1994 and sold a majority interest in 2007 to private equity firm, Lake Capital. Between 2007 and 2012 we grew the parent Company (Hyper Marketing, Inc) organically and via acquisitions into the largest independent marketing services firm in the US which we sold to Epsilon, a $1.3 Billion division of Alliance Data in November, 2012. Steve served on the board of Hyper Marketing, Inc since 2007 and was the President of the local marketing division which delivered turn-key direct marketing campaigns generally via direct mail and direct prospect e-mail to our clients in multiple verticals and we specialized in franchise organizations. After 19 incredible years of building and leading the company, he decided to move on to the next chapter in his professional career.
Beach Ball Capital, LLC focuses on short and long term alternative investments in the areas of commercial and residential real estate, select service hotels, distressed and senior secured debt, private equity, venture and select operating companies with a unique selling proposition. We are both active and passive investors depending on the investment opportunity.
Steve is a graduate of Emory University and a licensed CPA in Georgia. He lives with his wife, Lisa and 2 daughters in Sandy Springs.
