The Lehman Brothers' Lecture Proudly Presents Sonya Brown '94

Please join us for food and drinks at Farmhouse for the 2019-2020 Kapnick Center Lehman Lecture.

Our guest this year is Sonya Brown. Sonya is a General Partner at Norwest Venture Partners. She is focused on investing across a wide range of sectors including information services, software, business services, financial services and consumer. Sonya graduated from Northwestern in 1994 where she earned a Bachelor of Science in communication. She later attended Harvard Business School and earned her MBA in 2002. At Northwestern, Sonya participated in University Theatre, the Waa-Mu Show, the Dolphin Show and the Graffiti Dancers.

Come listen and inquire about Sonya’s extensive experience and unique perspective in “growth equity,” a cross between private equity and venture capital.

RSVP is Required. This event is open to all Northwestern University undergraduate students.

Sonya joined Norwest in 2011 and brings more than 20 years of investment experience to her role as General Partner and co-Head of the firm’s Growth Equity team. Based in Norwest’s Palo Alto office, Sonya is focused on growth equity and buyouts investing across a wide range of sectors with particular interest in consumer products and services, internet/eCommerce, retail and business services. Her current investments include Bailey 44, Jolyn, Junk King, and Kendra Scott (recapitalized by Berkshire Partners). Sonya is responsible for Norwest’s investments in PCA Skin (acquired by Colgate-Palmolive) and The Learning Experience (acquired by Golden Gate Capital). She is a board observer at Madison Reed.

Sonya was previously at Summit Partners, a private equity firm with over $20 billion under management, where she worked for almost a decade in the Boston office and was responsible for leading the firm’s Consumer and Internet Industry Group in North America. Sonya was engaged in all aspects of the deal process including deal sourcing, due diligence, deal negotiations and board representation. Her past board directorships and investments include Aramsco (acquired by AEA Investors), Airborne Health (acquired by Schiff Nutrition), Central Security Group, Physicians Formula (NASDAQ: FACE), Snap Fitness (acquired by TZP Group) and Sparta Systems (acquired by Thoma Bravo).

Prior to joining Summit, Sonya was a founder and General Partner of iXL Ventures in 1999, where she oversaw the funding and growth of numerous technology and Internet companies. In addition, she was Vice President of Corporate Development for the parent company iXL Enterprises, Inc., one of the largest global web development companies at that time.

Sonya began her career in the investment banking division of Bear Stearns where she worked on numerous consumer and media transactions.

Sonya sits on the advisory board of Harvard Business School’s California Research Center. She is an active speaker at numerous industry events and universities including ShopTalk, theBoardlist, Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School and Northwestern University. She also contributes to Women’s Wear Daily and Forbes.

Sonya holds a bachelor of science degree from Northwestern University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In addition, she is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

The Lehman Brothers lecture is made possible by an endowment gift from Lehman Brothers in memory of
Sherman R. Lewis, Jr., WCAS ‘58, and former Vice Chairman of Lehman Brothers.