David Van der Linden

Director, APEX

David van der Linden is a Director in the Project Execution and Operations team. Most recently, David was the Vice President for Capital Projects with Genera Inc, an Ara Partners portfolio company.

He has over 30 years of broad international project experience in infrastructure, refining, petrochemical, mining and medical device industries. David has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (Hons) from Monash University, Australia.

Masumi Waida

Chief Financial Officer

Masumi Waida is the Chief Financial Officer of Ara Partners and leads the corporate and fund finance operations for the firm.

Prior to joining Ara, Masumi served as the Chief Financial Officer at ACON Investments, a private equity firm investing in North America, Latin America, and Europe. Prior to that, Masumi was a Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of the Mount Kellett Funds at Fortress Investment Group, which he joined from Mount Kellett Capital Management, a global multi-strategy investment management firm focused on special situations and opportunistic investing, and before that was a Vice President at Lehman Brothers where he was responsible for overseeing various private equity and hedge fund products. Masumi began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he worked in assurance in New York and Canada serving a range of industry-leading clientele, including private equity and hedge funds, fund of funds, mutual funds, and consumer and industrial products and services companies.

Masumi received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Alberta and holds a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant designation from the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada.

Brandon Waiter

Director of Operations

Brandon Waiter is involved with operations and investor relations matters across the Ara platform.

Prior to joining Ara, Brandon worked as an analyst with Energent Group, which provides market research and advisory services for clients across the energy sector.

Brandon holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Merrimack College.

Kevin Wang

Vice President, Energy

Kevin is a Vice President at Ara, where he is focused on transaction execution and portfolio company management for the Energy strategy.

Prior to joining Ara in 2024, Kevin founded an investment vehicle and served as a Vice President at Riverstone, a private equity firm focused on energy, power, and decarbonization. He began his career in the global energy and power investment banking group at Rothschild & Co.

Kevin graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and earned his Masters in Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He enjoys snow sports, golf, tennis, and going on walks and runs with his wife and their dog.

Matt Welper

Senior Associate, Private Equity

Matt Welper is a Senior Associate at Ara, where he is focused on identifying and evaluating investment opportunities in industrial decarbonization, as well as transaction execution and portfolio company management.

Prior to joining Ara, Matt was an Investment Banking Analyst in JP Morgan’s industrials group, working on mandates across electric vehicles, sustainable packaging and building materials.

Matt holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Caroline White

Executive Assistant

Prior to joining Ara Partners, Caroline worked as an Executive Assistant at Sares Regis Group, a commercial real estate company, in Newport Beach, CA.

Caroline holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication from Stonehill College. She spends most of her free time exploring the area with her family.

Alan Yip

Controller

Alan is involved with various aspects of Ara’s finance operations, including accounting, audit, and tax reporting.

Prior to Ara, Alan was a Senior Tax Manager at PwC for 10 years in the Asset and Wealth Management group where he served clients on various tax matters including transaction analysis, U.S. withholding, and overall U.S. tax reporting in the private equity industry, specifically buyout funds, fund of funds, and venture capital funds. Prior to PwC, Alan started his career at KPMG for 2 years, also in the Asset and Wealth Management group.

Alan holds a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Binghamton University. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Texas and New York. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and Texas Society of Public Accountants (TSCPA).

Daisy Zhu

Senior Consultant, APEX

Daisy Zhu joins Ara as part of the Project Execution and Operations team (APEX) in the role of Senior Consultant. Her role involves close collaboration with the Ara team and portfolio companies in evaluating operating model assumptions, assessing operations performance, and driving operations improvement initiatives.

Daisy joins the APEX team after spending over four years with EY, most recently as a Senior Consultant, Supply Chain and Operations. Prior to EY she spent time with Suncor energy completing project completion data analytics on project delivery performance. Daisy holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Calgary.