Daniel L. Shimer is a Managing Director of Teakwood Capital. He has over 40 years of experience operating, building and investing in growing businesses.  Previously, Dan was a Venture Partner with Austin Ventures for over five years and founder and President of Shimer Capital Partners, Inc., an early stage private equity firm.   Prior to 1996 Dan served as a founding shareholder and a Senior Executive of four highly successful companies in the technology (CoreStaff "CSTF"), service (Computerland "CPLD"), and distribution industries (FoxMeyer Drug "FXM", and Coast To Coast Hardware "CTC"). These companies each started out small, grew to over $1.0 billion in revenues, and went public.  From 1994 to 1998 Mr. Shimer closed 58 acquisitions.  In addition, he has closed numerous public and private offerings of both equity and debt in his career, including four IPO's. 

A CPA, he began his career at KPMG Peat Marwick. Dan holds an undergraduate degree from Indiana University and attended the graduate schools of Loyola University and Stanford University. Dan resides in Dallas, Texas.

Ed Olkkola is a Managing Director of Teakwood Capital. His career has spanned a wide range of executive-level positions in marketing, finance, information technology, strategy, product and corporate development, and professional investing.  Previously, Ed was Senior Vice President, New Products and Business Development for A. H. Belo Corporation.  He focused on strategic investments in media and technology companies and developing an enterprise-wide product innovation process.  Prior to A. H. Belo, Ed was a General Partner at Austin Ventures where he established the hardware/systems investment practice, focusing on communications systems and semiconductor investments.  He has had many notable exits, including Agere Systems, Sychip, Santera Systems, and Navini Networks.  Before joining the firm, he was with Compaq Computer Corp, and served as Vice President and General Manager of the communications products division. Prior to his operating role, he was Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Technology Planning at Compaq and co-founded the Compaq Venture Fund. Before Compaq, Ed spent 9 years with Motorola Information Systems Group in a variety of engineering, marketing, strategy, and finance roles. He brought over a dozen new products to market during his Compaq and Motorola careers and acquired several companies totaling over $750 million. 

Ed has received numerous industry awards, including the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Venture Capital 1999, listed on the Forbes Midas Top 100 List of Influential Investors, and was named one of the Top 10 Most Influential Venture Capitalists by Venture Capital Journal in 2001.  Ed received his undergraduate degrees from the University of Massachusetts, holds an MBA from Northeastern University and completed the Compaq executive leadership program at Harvard University.

Laura Kusching is the Operations Manager of Teakwood Capital. She has twenty-five years of experience running the operations of middle market companies, including all accounting, human resources, customer service, general operations, and finance functions.  Laura has experience in several different disciplines, including various service industries, import/export and property management.  She handles all of the accounting and operations for Teakwood along with contributing to due diligence and portfolio company support efforts. Laura resides in Murphy, Texas.