The Team
LARRY SCHNURMACHER
Managing Partner
Larry Schnurmacher is a career investment professional having managed capital for high net worth individuals for over 25 years. After retiring from Morgan Stanley in 2015, Mr. Schnurmacher founded Phyto Partners to help investors capitalize on the opportunity in the Cannabis industry. Over the past 5 years, Mr. Schnurmacher has invested in 25 privately held cannabis companies, building Phyto Partners into one of the preeminent venture capital private equity funds in the space being recognized as a Top Cannabis Investment fund by Forbes and BusinessInsider. M
EVAN SCHNURMACHER
Portfolio Analyst
Evan has held several positions creating content and executing digital marketing strategies at Information Television and The Birds Nest Foundation. Prior to joining Phyto Partners, Evan held sales and client delivery roles at Yext. Evan graduated University of Maryland with a BA. At Phyto Partners, Evan is responsible for deal sourcing, investor relations, and portfolio company monitoring.
JONATHAN RUBIN
Portfolio Analyst
Jonathan has worked as an analyst at Comvest Partners, a majority buyout focused Private Equity firm with $2.5 billion under management, where he was responsible for identifying, originating, and qualifying new investment opportunities. Jonathan graduated with a degree in Finance from the University of Florida. Jonathan has analyzed greater than 1,000 cannabis investment opportunities since 2018 and is responsible for deal sourcing, due diligence, portfolio company monitoring, and investor reporting.
DAVID BENMEN
Investor Relations
David is the founder and CEO of Bold Luxury, a full-service concierge travel service for executives and corporations. David has also been a licensed real estate agent at Douglas Elliman. David graduated University of Indiana with a BA. David is responsible for investor relations and business development initiatives.
Advisory Board
CHARLES A. (CHUCK) LIEPPE
Charles A. (Chuck) Lieppe is an experienced C-suite executive in a variety of industries, including health care. As a corporate V.P. at Procter & Gamble, Mr. Lieppe established P&G in the pharmaceutical and OTC drug businesses through internal product development and orchestrating multi-national acquisitions for the Health & Personal Care Division. Chuck held positions of COO at Westpoint Pepperell, CEO of Nabisco International, CEO Berol Corporation and CEO DBT Online. Mr. Lieppe graduated from Columbia University with an AB in English and an MBA in Marketing and Finance. Mr. Lieppe is a private investor who advises and sits on boards of private equity companies.
GARY RUBIN, CPA
Gary Rubin is the Managing Member and co-founder of Masters Research Partners, LLC a fund of funds. Mr. Rubin has been responsible for manager selection and due diligence since the fund’s inception in 2000. Mr. Rubin as also a CPA and began his career with Deloitte and Touche. Mr. Rubin has been involved in the investment business, including hedge funds, private equity and investment banking for over 25 years. Prior to moving to Florida, Mr. Rubin was a Managing Partner at Schissel, Rubin and Lehman, a New York based Certified Public Accounting firm. Mr. Rubin graduated with a Bachelor of Science cum laude from SUNY at Buffalo in 1977.
JEFF FOSTER
Mr. Foster has worked with some of the world’s largest retailers and financial institutions to define, design and implement e-commerce and retail payment processing and risk management solutions. Between 1998 and 2012 Mr. Foster founded or co-founded 4 successful companies in the financial services space. Paymentplus, Inc., Payventures, Cardplatforms and Payteller. In 2014 Mr. Foster and his co-founder created JaneFour20, a subsidiary of Payteller, in order to respond to overwhelming requests for cash management and financial services solutions in the legal cannabis industry.
SETH HYMAN
Seth Hyman is the Business Development/Special Projects Director for the law firm Kelley Kronenberg and an integral member of the Regulated Substances practice group. Seth’s understanding and support of the campaign to legalize medical cannabis is rooted in his personal experiences. His daughter Rebecca, has a severe genetic disorder which causes her to have frequent daily seizures. Oil extracted from a non-euphoric strain of cannabis has been shown to treat children with his daughter’s condition of intractable epilepsy. Over the past 4 years, Seth has become one of the most visible faces in Florida’s burgeoning medical cannabis industry. He has been instrumental in lobbying for the Florida legislation to help his daughter and others thwart seizures and comfort those with epilepsy. Seth was a key figure throughout the lawmaking process for both House Bill 843 and Senate Bill 1030 in the 2014 Florida legislative session. He worked closely with legislators by providing input on the drafting of language for both bills and delivered powerful testimonies to the governmental committees. Seth has advocated for the state’s Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act in legislative and other public forums, and retains deep relationships with key decisions makers in federal and state government.
OPERATIONS
LEGAL COUNSEL – ADAM GREENE
Adam Greene is a Partner in the firm’s Corporate Transactional, Capital Markets and Business Finance & Restructuring Departments. Adam regularly represents buyers, sellers, companies, and investors in strategic and financial mergers and acquisitions, private equity financing, recapitalization and restructuring. Adam also advises early and growth stage companies and investors in venture and growth capital financing and serves as outside general counsel to emerging growth and established operating companies. Adam’s practice also includes representing parties in interest in bankruptcy proceedings, including debtors, secured lenders, unsecured creditors, creditors’ committees, trustees, asset purchasers from distressed companies, investors in distressed debt, out-of-court restructuring, and lending institutions providing debtor-in-possession financing.
FUND ADMINISTRATOR – SAM CRISPINO
NAV has provided comprehensive, independent Fund Administration, reporting and analytics, investor services, and back office support to the hedge fund industry for over 25 years now. NAV’s fund administration technology is proprietary and wholly-owned, giving it both flexibility in reporting and confidentiality that our client’s demand. NAV is not affiliated with any bank, broker, or other services provider. Being 100% privately owned for our entire history has meant one thing above all: we are not bound by the need for short-term investor results. We have always been free to make our priority a long-term view with continuous investments into our infrastructure, our people, and our technology. NAV’s wholly-owned, proprietary technology, also eliminates any dependence on licensing technology from competitors or other third parties.