Portfolio.

Our Team.

  • Vania Schlogel

    Managing Partner & Founder

    Los Angeles, CA

    Vania has served as an executive at top-tier financial institutions, as well as in an operating role as Chief Investment Officer of Roc Nation (founded by Sean “Jay Z” Carter), and as Interim Chief Financial Officer of MultiScale. Vania currently serves as Chairwoman of the Board of Epidemic Sound (an EQT + Atwater portfolio company), Chairwoman of the Board of LEONINE (a KKR + Atwater portfolio company), and previously as a board member of BMG (the world’s largest independent music publisher) and Pets at Home (a UK Fortune 500 company). While at Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts, Vania was a member of the Private Equity team investing in the Media sector. Prior to KKR, Vania was a member of the Leveraged Finance division in Los Angeles and London at Goldman Sachs. Vania is a graduate of UCLA, Summa Cum Laude, with a degree in Business Economics and Minor in Accounting.

  • Joseph Lee

    Partner & APAC Head

    Seoul, South Korea

    Joseph has over 25 years of experience in the financial and legal fields, having served most recently as the Managing Partner of Korea for Rico Harvest Private Equity Management, a Shanghai-based investment firm. Joseph has helped pioneer new investment strategies in Korea, including fixed income and equity-linked securities investing with the country’s largest institutional investors. Prior to Rico, Joseph served as the CEO of Heungkuk Life (a life insurance company with over $30 billion of assets under management), and as a lawyer at Shin & Kim. Joseph is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, with a Master’s degree from M.I.T. and a J.D. from Cornell University, and is fluent in Korean and English.

  • Ally Park

    Director

    Seoul, South Korea

    Ally brings to Atwater over 19 years of experience in the financial services sector, most recently serving in the role of Global Head of Healthcare sector investing for Korea Investment Corporation (KIC), a Korean sovereign wealth fund with over $140 billion AUM. Prior to KIC, Ally spent 9 years at Citi Investment Research as a Director covering sectors including Retail, Food & Beverage, Cosmetics, Apparel, and Pharmaceuticals. Ally is a graduate of Seoul National University and is fluent in Korean, English, and French.

  • Meri Khananashvili

    Principal

    Los Angeles, CA

    Prior to joining Atwater, Meri was a Business Affairs Executive in the Media Finance Group at Creative Artists Agency (CAA). In her role with the CAA Media Finance Group, Meri consulted on deal structuring and negotiated all aspects of independent film financing and distribution. Meri is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego, with a J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, and is fluent in Russian and English, with conversational proficiency in French and Spanish.

  • Seb Webber

    Head of Atwater Management Consulting

    Los Angeles, CA

    Seb brings extensive operational experience to Atwater, beginning from his founding of CrowdSurge in his mid-20s, which he sold to Access Industries, to his work at XL Recordings in London, where he helped sign and develop the careers of prominent artists such as ADELE and M.I.A. Seb also founded the electronic label FMLY with Universal Music Group and has been the catalyst behind three award-winning content agencies Prior to joining Atwater, Seb also acted as Chief Creative Officer of TIDAL.

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Environmental, Social, and Governance.

Atwater Capital Statement & Policies

Atwater Capital believes unequivocally that humans have profound impacts on the planet: on both the natural environment, as well as upon our socially constructed cultures, beliefs, and how we organize and govern ourselves. We believe these Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) impacts become magnified when humans organize themselves into companies and institutions. Hence, our goal as investors is to enhance the positive and mitigate and minimize the negative consequences of our actions. This involves a mindset that considers all stakeholders, not just those who are directly economically represented; this involves a mindset that confers a voice upon the voiceless, whether that be in the representation of the general populace or of the natural environment.

Atwater is uniquely positioned as a fund that has invested in some of the leading music, film, and TV content creators around the globe. To date, 100% of Atwater’s invested capital has been into content projects or portfolio companies that do not produce physical goods as their primary revenue-generating activity. Due to this content creation process relying principally on intellectual and creative (versus physical) inputs, the risk and scope of environmental impact is low relative to other sectors. However, the potential social impact of our portfolio companies on popular culture is tremendous, and this is what Atwater chooses as a primary area of ESG focus.

Culture, and the digital media channels that amplify and drive it, are ever- and fast-evolving; hence, our ESG policies must adapt to this landscape. We continue to augment and refine our ESG policies, but they can broadly be categorized as follows:

  • Exclusionary screens (for example pornography, gambling, and tobacco),

  • Positive amplification (for example: democratizing the creation of, or access to, content and strengthening diversity in content creation), and

  • Ongoing measurement and improvement (for example portfolio company performance assessment).

The first two initiatives above facilitate an optimal approach to portfolio company selection, the latter facilitates ongoing operational optimization.

While we exercise our influence as shareholders and board members of portfolio companies, we recognize that management alignment and support of our ESG practices and policies are key for effective implementation. As such, a key factor we consider in “positive amplification” is to back management teams who have a track record and history of good business practice and low controversy. In addition, we seek to invest in companies where the management team shows a willingness to embrace good ESG practices. Within this framework, we rely on building healthy and durable relationships with portfolio company managers, which in turn allows for open dialogue regarding the often fraught and uncomfortable topic of cultural impact.

Finally, we rely on the input of diverse thought leaders in shaping discussion regarding the cultural impact of Atwater’s portfolio companies. These leaders can speak credibly to differences in lived experiences and, hence, form a strong and necessary core for such dialogue.