Nir Kaissar, CFA
Portfolio Manager and Managing Member
Nir Kaissar, Chartered Financial Analyst, founded Unison in 2005. Unison manages diversified portfolios for institutions and individuals using a data-driven, systematic approach to asset allocation. Nir is also a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, writing about markets, investing, economics and public policy.
Prior to founding Unison, Nir was an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, where he represented Wall Street’s largest financial institutions in a variety of transactions, including financings and mergers and acquisitions. Nir began his career as a consultant with Ernst & Young LLP, where he prepared company valuations for proposed mergers and acquisitions.
Nir is a graduate of Indiana University (1995) and The University of Michigan Law School (2000), where he was Editor of the Michigan Law Review. He is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Washington, DC.
Veer Bhavnagri
Advisory Board Member
Veer Bhavnagri currently serves as General Counsel to Allogene Therapeutics, a biotechnology company with a mission to catalyze the next revolution of cell therapy through the advancement of allogeneic CAR T therapies for blood cancers and solid tumors. Prior to joining Allogene, Veer was Vice President, Corporate Counsel, at Kite Pharma, a leader in engineered T-cell therapy. Veer was an integral member of the select deal team involved in the sale of Kite to Gilead Sciences for $11.9 billion in cash.
Prior to joining Kite, Veer was a senior associate at Cooley LLP, where he was lead associate on many capital market transactions. Previously, Veer was an associate in the New York and Sydney offices of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, where he was the principal associate on a number of domestic and cross-border transactions, including the historic registered offering by the U.S. Treasury Department of $20.7 billion of American International Group, Inc. common stock. Veer was also a member of the Australia-based transaction team recognized as 2011 International Firm of the Year by Asian Legal Business and Australian Issuer of the Year by Insto Magazine.
Veer received a J.D., magna cum laude, from The University of Michigan Law School. He received an AB in mathematical economics and political science, with honors, from Brown University. Veer is admitted to practice law in New York and California.
Stuart Blumberg
Advisory Board Member
Stuart Blumberg works in film. He wrote and produced the film Keeping The Faith starring Edward Norton and Ben Stiller. He also wrote The Girl Next Door starring Emile Hirsch and Elisha Cuthbert. In 2009, he produced the HBO documentary “By The People: The Election of Barack Obama” and in 2010, he co-wrote the acclaimed Focus Films dramedy, The Kids are All Right for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for best Original Screenplay. He recently made his directorial debut with Thanks For Sharing which will be released the summer of 2013. Before his career in film, Mr. Blumberg worked at Morgan Stanley as an analyst in the Debt Capital Markets division. Mr. Blumberg is a graduate of Yale University with a B.A. in history.
Scott Estill
Advisory Board Member
Scott M. Estill runs the New York office and the Global Advisory Practice of Lancor, a global private equity-focused executive search, deal advisory and origination platform. Scott has over 20 years of deal generation, M&A, financial services and executive recruiting experience as an investment banker and search professional.
Scott received an MBA from both London Business School and Columbia Business School and a bachelor’s degree in both economics and finance and business management from Gettysburg College. He also graduated from the INSTEP economics program at Cambridge University.
Scott sits on the boards of the Association of Corporate Growth and BluWave. He is also a guest lecturer at Columbia Business School and Fordham Business School.