We are pleased to be partnering with Robert Befidi as the newest member of our mentorship team.
Robert has more than 15 years of domestic and international experience in a diverse set of industries. He has been involved with companies that range from early stage startups to some of the largest organizations in the world. He has had roles spanning the executive leadership, investment, finance, corporate development and technology functional areas.
Robert is a principal at Kibora, where he focuses on engagement execution. Prior to Kibora, Robert co-founded Gordian Capital, a private investment company where he led capital raising, deal origination, industry research, transaction structuring, and portfolio management. While at Gordian, he served as Chief Executive Officer of a portfolio company specializing in providing business outsourcing services.
Prior to Gordian, Robert was an advisor to Circle Capital Ventures in South Africa, responsible for deal structuring and execution in the financial services, healthcare, technology and real estate sectors. Robert worked as an equity research analyst on the healthcare team at Piper Jaffray, where he covered medical technology companies. In addition to his institutional banking experience, he spent several years as a Director of Technology at OPTUMInsight, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. In this position, he founded and grew a technology group that led the innovation of healthcare fraud and abuse analytics products. Earlier in his career, he was an enterprise technology architecture consultant and worked as a systems performance analyst and software testing researcher.
Robert is a Trustee of the Winona State University Foundation and President of the Wharton Club of Minnesota. He serves on a number of boards and committees and as a mentor and advisor to entrepreneurs and executives.
Robert holds an MBA with Honors in Finance, Marketing and Operations from the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania, an MS in Software Engineering from the University of Minnesota and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BS in Computer Science from Winona State University.
