Asurionleadership

Kevin is the cofounder and Chairman of Asurion. Under his leadership, the company has grown from 40 to 20,000+ employees and acquired more than 300 million customers, making it the world’s largest tech care provider.

Prior to founding Asurion, Kevin was chairman and president of investment firm Mill River Corporation and worked in mergers and acquisitions for Salomon Brothers. He’s a faculty member at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) where he teaches entrepreneurship courses in the MBA program. He also previously served on Stanford GSB’s advisory council and management board and the Board of Trustees at Caltech.

Kevin serves on the Board of Directors of ResponseLink, LLC, a provider of medical alert systems, and Banyan Software, Inc., a company focused on acquiring and growing software businesses. Most recently, Kevin joined the Board of Trustees for American University Beirut and Middle East Institute.

Kevin received a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University and went on to graduate from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1992. In 2001, he was awarded the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Guru Gowrappan brings more than two decades of leadership experience across global technology, media, financial services, and e-commerce companies. He is recognized for his ability to drive growth and transformation, scale global businesses, advance digital innovation, and build enduring customer relationships.

Before joining Asurion as Chief Executive Officer, Guru served as President of Viasat, Inc., a global communications company providing broadband and satellite connectivity across enterprise, defense, and consumer markets, where he helped accelerate growth and integration following its acquisition of Inmarsat. Previously, he was CEO of Verizon Media Group, where he led iconic brands including Yahoo, a multi-billion-dollar business with a global audience of nearly 900 million monthly users, and drove cultural and strategic transformation that reignited innovation and growth across the organization.

Earlier in his career, Guru was Global Managing Director at Alibaba Group, where he led the international expansion of key consumer and enterprise products. He also held pivotal operating roles at category-defining technology companies, focusing on emerging initiatives and guiding organizations through periods of rapid growth, including initial public offerings.

Guru earned an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, completed the Business Bridge Program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Madras in Chennai, India. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of BNY (The Bank of New York) and Water.org.

Sabrina Ellis has 25 years of experience leading product teams and serving on boards in the technology industry. Her most recent operating role was as the Chief Product Officer at Pinterest, where she oversaw the Product Management, Product Marketing, and Design teams.

Prior to joining Pinterest, Sabrina was Vice President of Product Management at Google, where she held multiple leadership positions during her 12-year tenure. She led work on Google Pixel and helped define Google’s smartphone vision, strategy, and roadmap, as well as led the company’s Kids and Family efforts. Before Google, Sabrina was the Vice President of Product Management at a startup called Kosmix (acquired by Walmart). She also spent 8 years at Yahoo! in a number of leadership roles, including as Vice President and General Manager of Messenger, Voice, and Chat.

Sabrina also currently serves on the board of theguardian.org. She earned a BS in Computer Science as well as an MBA, both from Stanford University.

Ross began his career over 20 years ago in private equity. He worked at Bain & Co. and in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley & Co. before joining Berkshire Partners in 1993. Ross became a managing director of Berkshire in 2000 and has been a director of a number of companies in consumer products, retailing, manufacturing, and business services.

Ross earned a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Denise most recently served as GM of the Champs Sports brand at DICK’S Sporting Goods and previously was DICK’S Chief eCommerce Officer, overseeing Dicks.com and GolfGalaxy.com.

Prior to DICK’S Sporting Goods, Denise spent three years as the CMO of SiriusXM and Pandora, where she was responsible for all marketing strategies supporting listener growth for both the SiriusXM and Pandora brands. Before SiriusXM, Denise spent six years as the CMO of TD Ameritrade. She also held multiple marketing positions across top-tier brands and advertising agencies, with a focus on digital marketing strategies to drive brand and business growth.

Denise earned her BA in Marketing from the University of Notre Dame, where she was the captain of the women’s soccer team.

James is a cofounder and managing director of Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP). He oversees MDP’s investing efforts in the communications industry. He was responsible for MDP’s early investments in the wireless industry, including Nextel and Nextel Partners; Omnipoint, which was subsequently merged with Voicestream and acquired by Deutsche Telecom; Clearnet Communications, a PCS provider in Canada that was acquired by Telus; and MetroPCS, which was acquired by T-Mobile.

James also serves on the boards of directors of Centennial Towers, Liquid Web, Topps Company, and Univision Communications. He has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Jeff is the retired president and CEO of CUNA Mutual Group, based in Madison, Wisconsin. The company is the leading provider of insurance and financial services to credit unions and their members worldwide.

Prior to joining CUNA Mutual, Jeff was president and CEO of Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, a position he held for more than three years before resigning in 2004. As CEO, he led an impressive financial turnaround in the company, improved underwriting results by more than $1 billion annually, and repositioned the company to market leadership in five business segments. In his 10 years with Fireman’s Fund, he also served as the company’s CFO and chief actuary. He has more than 30 years of insurance industry experience and is a fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society.

A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Jeff grew up in the Midwest and received his Bachelor of Business Administration, majoring in Actuarial Science, from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Since 2001, Bret has served as either CEO or chairman of Asurion. He’s currently the Co-Chairman, overseeing the growth and success of Asurion’s strategies and business operations. He brings over 35 years of proven leadership, business management, and consulting experience to Asurion’s executive team.

His prior business experience includes CEO, COO, and general manager positions at Excite@Home, Kendara, Risk Management Solutions, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He also worked at McKinsey & Company, consulting to Fortune 500 companies.

Bret has served on the Stanford University Board of Trustees, the Board of Directors of Stanford Health Care, as a trustee of Stanford Management Company, and on the Stanford Graduate School of Business management board. Bret also served as an officer of the board of directors for CTIA—The Wireless Association for 17 years and spent 12 years as a board member of Coaching Corps/Positive Coaching Alliance.

Bret graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering. He earned an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

Anthony J. de Nicola is Chairman of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a New York private investment firm which manages over $31 billion in its various funds. Mr. de Nicola joined WCAS in 1994 and has served on the firm’s Management Committee since 2000. He was appointed President in 2007. Mr. de Nicola has led the firm’s investment activities in the technology industry and has been involved with some of the firm’s most successful and profitable investments. He serves on the board of directors for a number of the firm’s private and public companies. Prior to joining WCAS, Mr. de Nicola worked in the private equity group at William Blair & Company and in the merger department at Goldman Sachs & Co.

Mr. de Nicola earned his BA degree from DePauw University, where he graduated summa cum laude with an economics major and a minor in computational mathematics. He also earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

Mr. de Nicola serves on a number of nonprofit boards including The Inner-City Scholarship Fund and The Catholic Foundation for the Archdiocese of New York. He is also a member of the Finance Committee and the Pension Investment Committee for the Archdiocese. He is a founding board member of Brilla College Prep, a public charter school in the Bronx. Previously, he served on the Board of Trustees and the Investment Committee of DePauw University.

Bruce is Managing Director and Head of Integrated Strategies Group for CPP Investments, which enables the Fund to hold, manage and make investments that enhance the total Fund but fall outside defined investment strategies. Reporting to the Chief Investment Officer, the team helps the Fund identify areas to leverage flexibility, scale and the ability to invest as One Fund.

Since joining CPP Investments in 2007, Bruce has held various leadership positions. Prior to ISG, he established and led the combined Sustainable Energies group and one of its predecessor groups, focused on Power and Renewables. He was also responsible for the Americas and Australia in Infrastructure.

Previously, Bruce led the private markets infrastructure team at OPTrust. Before that, he spent several years with Macquarie Bank in London and Toronto in corporate finance. He has also worked in investment banking at RBC Dominion Securities. Bruce holds a BCom from the University of Alberta and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Toronto.

George Kadifa is a Managing Director and Co-Founder at Sumeru Equity Partners. He was formerly Executive Vice President/General Manager of HP Software, a member of Hewlett-Packard Company’s Executive Council, Operating Partner, Silver Lake Partners, and Vice President of Global Delivery at IBM Global Technology Services. 

George is a graduate of the California Institute of Technology (MS electrical engineering ‘82) and of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (MBA ‘89)

Jon is the chief executive officer of DVx Ventures, an early and growth-stage venture platform with offices in Silicon Valley, New York, and Boston. From 2015 to 2018, he was president at Tesla, at which time the company grew its revenues from $2 billion to $20 billion. In 2018, he became the COO at Lyft, helping take the company public. He began his career at Bain & Company.

Jon serves on the boards of Lululemon, General Motors, Asurion, CrossFit, Stash, Cambridge Mobile Telematics, and Tier.

In 2012, he was given the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 2013, he was named “Most Admired CEO” in Boston. He is a graduate of Northwestern University.

David is a senior managing director of Providence Equity Partners based in Boston. He co-leads the firm's private equity investment activities in North America and is a member of the firm’s investment, portfolio review, executive and ESG committees. In addition to serving on Asurion’s board of directors, David is also currently a director of Accelerate Learning, Seesaw, TCP, Tenstreet and Worldwide Express.

His previous board memberships include Anthology, Archipelago Learning, Ascend Learning, CSDVRS, PADI, Vector Solutions and Vistage. Prior to joining Providence in 2005, David was a Luce Scholar and assistant director of business development at Hutchison Whampoa China. Previously, he worked at Goldman Sachs in the principal investment area.

David holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University.

Ira is a Principal in the Capital Solutions group at CPP Investments, which he joined in 2024. He has been with CPP Investments since 2015, initially as a member of the Direct Private Equity team.

Before joining CPP Investments, Ira held investment roles at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in its Private Capital group and at Kensington Capital Partners.

He holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, a BBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University, and is a CFA charterholder.