The Alfred Street Partners team includes entrepreneurs, managers, and investors with a successful history of leading marketing, communications, and creative services companies through periods of accelerated growth and outstanding performance. Our principals have led companies from start–up to sale, transformed underperforming companies, and managed multinational industry leaders.

Leadership Partners

John Brady

Managing Partner

For the last two decades, John Brady has founded, operated, invested in, and advised a number of highly successful marketing services and communications companies. Brady established Alfred Street Partners to generate wealth by providing outside capital and management expertise to small- and mid-sized companies.

Brady’s largest success to date is The Direct Impact Company. Founded by Brady in 1988 as a bootstrapped venture, Direct Impact became the nation’s leading provider of grassroots lobbying and public education campaigns, serving major corporations, trade associations, government agencies, and ad hoc issue coalitions. As Chairman and CEO, Brady established a dominant market position for Direct Impact through innovations in service line, pricing, and business structure. In the 14 years from founding until its sale to Young & Rubicam, Direct Impact had compound annual revenue growth of 43%, compounded annual EBIT growth of 81%, and exceeded all post-sale earnout targets. Direct Impact was listed as #241 on the 1995 Inc. 500 list.

In July 1997, Brady and his Direct Impact partners acquired a majority interest in Democracy Data & Communications (DDC), which provides technology, communications, and support services to the public affairs departments of corporations, trade associations, and interest groups. Brady served as Chairman and CEO from July 1997 through September 1999, and remains a shareholder and member of DDC’s operating committee. DDC, which reached #72 on the 2002 Inc. 500 list, now counts as clients nine of the Fortune 10 and two-thirds of the Fortune 50.

Brady is also an active investor in several other innovative marketing services and communications firms.

Arthur D’Angelo

Partner, Operations and Finance

Since 1987, Art D’Angelo has established a proven track record for increasing shareholder value through conceptualizing, developing, and implementing management programs for leading marketing services companies.

Prior to joining Alfred Street Partners, D’Angelo served as Chief Financial Officer for McCann Worldwide—the largest subsidiary network of the Interpublic Group, with over 16,000 employees in 130 countries, and more than 300 reporting units. D’Angelo led the company’s effort to introduce transparency into the financial management process and restore financial credibility after McCann’s multi-year restatement of financial results.

From 1997 to 2003, D’Angelo served as Chief Financial Officer and Director of Cordiant Communications Group, the eighth largest marketing communications services group prior to its acquisition by WPP. He was in charge of all financial, administrative, procurement, and information technology matters for the 170-office company, which operated in 80 countries. In addition, D’Angelo was responsible for all Cordiant acquisition activity, completing more than 40 acquisitions between 1997 and 2003.

From 1994 to 1997, D’Angelo was Chief Financial Officer of Bates Worldwide in New York. From 1987 to 1994, he was President of Saatchi & Saatchi Holdings (USA), responsible for the U. S. corporate function of Saatchi & Saatchi plc, including acquisitions and dispositions.

Alex Diaz-Asper

Partner, Investments

Alex Diaz-Asper joined Alfred Street Partners from the London office of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein Private Equity, where he served as Director of the DrKW Technology, Media, and Telecom Portfolio. He oversaw a portfolio of investments, including both early- and later-stage businesses in marketing services, enterprise software, telecom services, business services, and advertising. Diaz-Asper’s responsibilities included managing follow-on investments, sourcing and executing exits, and providing operational support to portfolio companies, including strategic, financial, workout, sales, legal, and recruitment. Diaz-Asper served as a board member in four portfolio companies and board observer in three others. Prior to joining DrK W, Diaz-Asper held a variety of finance and operating positions in the domestic and international divisions of PSINet and MCI Communications.

Joe Murello

Partner, Chief Information Officer

Joe Murello has more than 25 years of systems integration, administration, and support experience with major worldwide organizations in the advertising, marketing and communications, branding and design, Internet services, consulting services, and business technology industries. Prior to joining Alfred Street Partners, Murello served as Senior Vice President/Chief Information Officer for Cordiant Communications Group, the world’s eighth largest marketing services conglomerate prior to its purchase by WPP. Murello also served as CIO for Bates Advertising Worldwide and Backer & Spielvogel Advertising in New York.

Investment Partners

Robert J. Flanagan

Robert Flanagan is Executive Vice President of Clark Enterprises, Inc., a Bethesda, Maryland-based holding company that is the ownership, investment, and asset management arm of the various Clark entities, which have interests in construction, real estate, and private equities. Through CNF Investments, LLC, the private equity investment division of Clark Enterprises, Inc., he manages investments in start-up and expansion stage companies and other private equity funds. Flanagan is a member of the board of directors of The Clark Construction Group, Inc., ILD Telecommunications, Martek BioSciences, Prestwick Pharmaceutical, Eagle Oil & Gas, and Marc Global Holdings. Prior to joining Clark, Flanagan was the treasurer, secretary, and member of the board of directors of Baltimore Orioles, Inc. and began his career in Washington, D.C., as a member of Arthur Andersen’s audit division.

Alan Gottesman

Since 1970, Alan Gottesman has established himself as a leading strategic and financial analyst of the marketing services industry and has served as a nationally ranked equity analyst with a broad range of sell-side experience in the media and advertising industries. He published his first sell-side report in 1982, was first selected to Institutional Investor’s All-Star research team in 1983, and was re-elected in subsequent years. From 1988 to 1995, Gottesman was Senior Equity Analyst, First Vice President of PaineWebber. Managing Director of West End Communications/Consulting since 1995, Gottesman provides capital market and strategic counsel to public and private companies and advises on merger and acquisition transactions.

Joe del Guercio

Joe del Guercio is a Director at CNF Investments, LLC, the venture capital division of Clark Enterprises in Bethesda, Maryland. Prior to joining Clark Enterprises, he was responsible for strategic planning, new product development, and acquisitions at LPL Financial Services, a Boston- and San Diego-based independent broker dealer. Del Guercio has also served as a Senior Associate at Robertson Stephens and a Financial Analyst at Goldman Sachs, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, private and public equity financings, and restructurings.

Edward J. Mathias

Based in Washington, D.C., Ed Mathias is a Managing Director of The Carlyle Group. Prior to joining Carlyle in January 1994, Mathias was a member of the Management Committee and Board of Directors of T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. Mathias was instrumental in the founding of The Carlyle Group and assisted in raising the firm's initial capital. Now focused on venture capital activities, Mathias serves as a member of the Investment Committees for Carlyle Venture Partners, Carlyle Europe Venture Partners, and Carlyle Asia Venture Partners.

Andrew Sherman, Esq.

Sherman, a corporate and transactional attorney, is a senior partner with Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky, where he manages a significant corporate and transactional practice representing Fortune 500 corporations, as well as entrepreneurs, emerging growth companies, and government contractors. Sherman is the author of 11 books on business growth, capital formation, and the leveraging of intellectual property, including the best-selling and critically acclaimed Raising Capital (Kiplingers, 2000), Mergers and Acquisitions from A to Z (AMACOM Books, 1998), The Complete Guide to Running and Growing Your Business (Random House, 1997), Franchising and Licensing: Two Ways to Build Your Business (2nd edition, AMACOM Books), and Fast Track Growth Strategies (Kiplingers, 2002).

Cal Simmons

Cal Simmons is a highly successful business executive, venture capitalist, longtime angel investor, and business author. Simmons is the co-founder and manager of three early-stage venture funds that manage more than $40 million in investments spread across a current portfolio of 20 primarily high-tech businesses. He has personally invested in some 30 early-stage deals and currently serves on the boards of a dozen companies. He has been a founding investor in three companies that have gone public and returned significant multiples to early investors. In 2001, he co-authored the popularly acclaimed investment guide, Every Business Needs an Angel, published by Random House/Crown Business.