Brett Nesland | Managing Director

Leadership Team

Brett Nesland – Managing Director, Capital Markets

Mr. Nesland is an investment management, private equity and strategic finance professional. He brings to The University Funds over 15 years of experience in managing strategic transactions in the capital markets arena, as well as funding, advising and growing early stage companies. Most recently, he has served as the Principal of Armada Capital, a Seattle-based private equity and advisory firm, which he founded in 2005. As an investment professional, Mr. Nesland has served in key advisory and management positions with several national firms, including PaineWebber, US Bancorp, Fleet (Q & R division) and KeyCorp.

Mr. Nesland’s experience includes numerous investments and advisory engagements involving early-stage debt and equity transactions for both public and private companies. As Principal at Armada, his engagements have included serving as lead investor in several privately-held, Northwest-based companies. Current portfolio investments include BaconSalt (www.baconsalt.com), Linqware (www.linqware.com), and VioGuard (www.vioguard.com). At Armada, Mr. Nesland has syndicated several transactions to fulfill the capital needs of these and other client companies, including co-lead on a $17 million Collateralized Debt Obligation transaction.

While at KeyCorp / McDonald Financial, Mr. Nesland served as Western Regional Manager, where he had responsibility for $1 billion in firm assets and oversaw the Client Investment Advisor team and operations for the Western Division. Mr. Nesland also was instrumental in rebuilding the Sales Investment Division in the Pacific Northwest. McDonald Financial was subsequently acquired McDonald Financial by UBS. As Northwestern Regional Manager for Fleet Bank Boston Q&R Division from 2001 – 2004 (Acquired by Bank of America), Mr. Nesland personally managed $100 million of a total $600 million in managed client assets, earning him recognition as one of Fleet’s Top National Performers in three consecutive years. Prior to his tenure at Fleet, Mr. Nesland worked at US Bancorp Investments as Western Washington Manager. Prior to that, he served as an Investment Advisor for PaineWebber (Acquired by UBS).

Mr. Nesland currently serves on several Advisory Boards, including BaconSalt, Linqware, International Gold and Montavo. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Hawaii/Hilo.