Leadership

Adam Caper

Managing Director

Prior to founding Synchrony Venture Management, Adam was Managing Director of Venture Management Advisors (VMA), a consulting practice focused on helping entrepreneurs and senior managers create and execute corporate and capitalization strategy.

At VMA, Adam worked with senior management and investors in such companies as Zipcar (consumer-focused hourly car rentals), MedCool (developing a therapeutic hypothermia device for heart-attack and stroke patients), Albiorex (medical devices and biomaterials), Jarg (semantic search) and London Taxi of North America. He served on the board of London Taxi of North America.

Adam was also the founder and CEO of HubNet Communications, a media and Web services company. HubNet Communications created ‘citidine,’ the most successful local dining information and hospitality services Web site in the country.

Before HubNet, Adam was the founder and president of the first microcomputer systems integrator serving the New England pre-press community.

He has had articles published in The Boston Business Journal, been quoted in The Boston Globe and interviewed on PBS’ ‘The News Hour,’ as well as numerous other local and industry-focused publications. He is an active member of the MIT Enterprise Forum, where he has served on several committees, is a mentor in the MIT $50K competition and is a judge at Brown University’s ‘Entrepreneurial Extravaganza’ business plan competition.

Adam holds a BA in philosophy from Bates College. He has spoken at the Technology Capital Network and Harvard Business School’s Entrepreneurship Conference. He is also the founder of the Boston Bates Business Network.

Heather Sternshein, Ph.D

Technology Analyst

Heather joins Synchrony after having recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, where she studied how the brain responds to optical illusions.

Heather completed her PhD in 2009 at Brandeis University, where she focused her doctoral research on cognitive neuroscience. Her dissertation concentrated on the neurobiological underpinnings of short-term memory and attention. She has authored or co-authored several research papers which have been published in peer-reviewed journals. She is adept at cognitive modeling, and making sense of large data sets; you could say that she very much enjoys using her brain to think about the brain. At Brandeis, she was also elected graduate student association senator, and was the student representative on multiple committees one of which focused on new science initiatives. Heather’s academic awards include a 2011 NIH-NRSA training grant and a 2003 Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Exceptional Research Opportunities fellowship. Heather graduated from Swarthmore College in 2004, with a major in biology and a minor in psychology.

Heather’s interest in the intersection of commerce and science was initially sparked as a result of a course in Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation, while she was getting her PhD. For this course, she developed a plan for a Brandeis scientist to partner with VC-backed companies to commercialize a technology which he had developed in his lab; she was gratified to learn recently that he has followed her plan and is in the process of commercializing his invention.

In the little time her boss allows her away from her desk at Synchrony, Heather teaches a course which she developed, Sensation and Perception, at Harvard University. She enjoys playing ice hockey in a co-ed league (a fun challenge, given that she learned to ice skate a mere three years ago). When not skating, she enjoys reading anything she can get her eyes on. She also enjoys teaching science and biology to middle and high school students. Before joining Synchrony, she helped create and edit online psychology and biology textbooks.

Jessica Leibovitz

Operations Manager

Jessica brings eight years of managing high-performing, high-growth operations to her role of Operations Manager at Synchrony, where she oversees administration, accounting, human resources & special projects, and generally keeps the trains running on time and everybody on the straight & narrow.

Upon graduating from Westfield University in 2004, Jessica worked for Citizens Bank in their western Massachusetts regional office as a key member of the administration team. In 2007 she was recruited by Graduate Leverage, an early-stage student loan advisory service company to manage their fast-growing operations. She was recruited from Graduate Leverage to run operations and co-manage the controller’s office by Formulatrix, a robotics company in Waltham, MA. Her duties there included overseeing the international accounting, administrative and logistics teams.

In addition to her white-collar warrior roles, Jessica has been a dog walker, pretzel maker and personal organizer. Outside of work she is a hobby home remodeler.

Jessica holds a bachelor of arts in Political Science from Westfield State University.