Baird Capital Hires Kandinata and Reim, Promotes Gura and Szyman

CHICAGO (Aug. 2, 2022) – Today, Baird Capital, the Venture Capital and Global Private Equity arm of Baird, announced two new hires and two promotions in its Chicago office: 

Melissa Kandinata joins the Venture Capital team as Vice President. She joins Baird Capital after recently completing her MBA at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. During graduate school, Kandinata worked at Cisco Investments in venture investments and M&A. Before Kellogg, she spent two years at FHI 360, one of the largest global development organizations. Before that, Kandinata spent three years in investment banking at Citigroup. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Richmond, where she studied business administration and finance and played NCAA Division I tennis.

John Reim joins the Venture Capital team as Associate. Before joining Baird Capital, Reim spent two years as a senior investment banking analyst at Citigroup, where he served as an advisor on both the buy- and sell-side of transactions. He advised numerous billion-dollar transactions during his time there. Reim also holds experience in both M&A investment banking and equity. He graduated with a B.S. degree in finance and accounting from Boston College.

Matt Gura has been promoted to Senior Associate on the Venture Capital team. Before joining Baird Capital in 2020, Gura was an investment banking analyst at Baird, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity offerings for clients within the technology & services sector. He graduated with a B.S. in finance from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

Andrew Szyman has been promoted to Senior Associate on the Global Private Equity team. Before joining Baird Capital in 2020, Szyman was an investment banking analyst at CIBC Cleary Gull, focusing on mergers and acquisitions for lower middle market clients in the industrials, business services and consumer sectors. He graduated with B.S. degrees in accounting and finance from Marquette University. 

These hires and promotions come on the heels of the group announcing a new Venture Capital partner, Mark Donnelly. Donnelly will work to deepen Baird Capital’s B2B technology and services footprint given his prior investment experience and relationships with SaaS, Analytics and Healthcare IT companies.

“Our deeply experienced and talented team is a major aspect of the group’s continued success,” said Gordon Pan, President of Baird Capital. “We are proud of what we’ve built and excited about what we’ll accomplish together.”

Baird Capital works as one global platform, partnering across the world to support its portfolio. For more information on the team and past investments, visit BairdCapital.com.

About Baird Capital

Baird Capital makes venture capital, growth equity and private equity investments in B2B technology & services-focused companies around the world. Having invested in more than 335 companies over its history, Baird Capital partners with entrepreneurs and, leveraging its executive networks, strives to build exceptional companies. Baird Capital provides operational support to its portfolio companies through teams on the ground in the United States, Europe and Asia, a proactive portfolio operations team and a deep network of relationships, which together strive to deliver enhanced shareholder value. Baird Capital is the direct private investment arm of Robert W. Baird & Co. For more information, please visit BairdCapital.com.

For additional information, contact:

Rachel Berkowitz
Baird Public Relations
publicrelations@rwbaird.com

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