Investment Committee

John Toomey is one of two members of the Firm’s Executive Management Committee, which serves as HarbourVest’s CEO; and is also a member of the Portfolio Construction Committee. He first joined the Firm in 1997, as a member of the direct investment team. He rejoined HarbourVest in 2001 after business school, and has focused on secondary investments since 2003. John was involved with the 2007 initial public offering of HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited (HVPE) on Euronext Amsterdam and served as Chief Financial Officer from the IPO through September 2008.

John’s previous experience includes an analyst role at Smith Barney in the Advisory Group focusing on mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructurings.

John received a BA (cum laude) in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard University in 1995 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2001, where he was awarded the Loeb Fellowship for outstanding achievement in finance.

Gregory Stento joined HarbourVest in 1998 and serves as Head of Investments for the Firm. He is a member of the Strategy Investment Committees, the Portfolio Construction Committee, and also serves on the advisory boards of several private equity partnerships.

Greg joined HarbourVest from Comdisco Ventures, where he was a managing director and provided equity and debt capital to startup and emerging growth technology and life sciences companies. Prior to Comdisco, he was a general partner at Horsley Bridge Partners, where he was responsible for making and managing investments in a variety of private equity partnerships and companies. Greg also spent six years in marketing and sales at NCR Corporation, where he focused on information technology solutions for financial institutions.

He received a BS (with distinction) from Cornell University in 1982 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1989.

Carolina Espinal is a Non-Executive Director of HVPE and a member of the HVPE Investment Committee. She is a Managing Director in the Primary team at HarbourVest Partners, and a member of the firm's Global Primary Investment Committee.

Carolina joined HarbourVest in 2004 to focus on partnership investments in Europe and other emerging markets and became a Managing Director in 2015. Carolina focuses on managing European venture capital and buyout partnership investments and has collaborated with the secondary and co-investment groups on several investment opportunities. As a HarbourVest executive she currently serves on the advisory boards of funds managed by Synova, Inflexion, and Advent International. Her previous experience includes two years as a financial analyst with the Merrill Lynch Energy and Power M&A team in Houston.

Carolina graduated from Rice University with a BA in Managerial Studies, Policy Studies, and Economics in 2000. She received an MSc in Finance from the London Business School in 2003.

Richard Hickman, Managing Director for HVPE, is responsible for the day-to-day management of the company. Richard is on the investment committee who manage HVPE’s asset allocation and exposures in line with the strategic direction set by the HVPE Board.

Richard joined HarbourVest in 2014 after seven years with 3i plc. His experience also includes working as a manager in Deloitte’s finance and operations management team in London. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and received a BSc in Economic History from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2001.