Mr. Azevedo has had his heart in business development since an early age, starting a very successful apparel company that grew from humble garage beginnings to annual gross billings of over a million dollars.

In 2009, Jason co-founded Advoque, taking on the role of CEO — his talents are far beyond running the company, with duties touching conceptual development, engineering, and deployment. Since 2009, Jason’s been at the helm of growing the company year-over-year, acquiring several entities, and creating several others to round out manufacturing efforts. His emphasis on Made In America is a driving force for how the various companies he’s co-founded operate. He also assists with business development and client strategy and is an integral part of how we operate. Jason has worked on many key projects for companies such as Arista Networks, Best Buy, Costco, Disney, EA Games, Intel, Roku, Starbucks, Target, WalMart, and Warner Bros.

Personal interests range from riding dirt bikes and quads, to beach volleyball, to whiskey tasting, to learning to ranch horses, goats, cattle, and chickens. International travel weaves its way in there, too!

Mr. Azevedo co-founded Advoque in 2009, taking the role of COO and building the company from 3 employees, to a staff of 150. Before Advoque, Keven was co-founder and COO of Matteo Studios, an award-winning apparel company receiving assignments from clients such as Disney, Facebook, and EA Games. His attention to detail and ability to run an efficient production team has paved the way for his teams to hold true to timelines and quality control. Another key ingredient to his success: the cultivation and ability to foster opportunities for rising talent within evolving organizations.

Graduating from San Jose State University with a BA in History, Keven also played soccer for SJSU. His commitment to excellence has followed him into coaching youth soccer teams for the last eight years, being recognized as training the number one team in the nation for four years in a row — three of his players have gone on to professional careers in the United States, Mexico, and Europe.

In his spare time, Keven pursues personal passions: restoring classic cars and motorcycles, photography, camping, watching American and foreign films, and European travel.

Steve founded New Vision Design in 1995 and served as its Chief Creative Officer for 14 years. In 2009, he co-founded Advoque, setting the tone for the creative direction that the company delivers for its respective customers. Over the course of his 30 years in the creative industry, Steve has worked on significant assignments and product launches for companies such as Amazon, Apple, ASUS, Bell Helmets, Best Buy, CBS Radio, Dell, Disney, Google, HBO, Hewlett-Packard, Hulu, Intel, Klipsch, Microsoft, Oracle, Paramount Pictures, Porsche, Roku, Seagate, Sony, Sun Microsystems, Tesla, Varian Medical Systems, Walmart, and Yahoo!.

Since 1987, Steve has been in the creative industry working as a production artist, designer, senior designer, and ultimately as a creative director for various agencies. During his career, he has been recognized for numerous award-winning campaigns and has been a guest speaker on the subject of design and creative direction at San Jose State University, Brooks College, Mission College, and De Anza College.

Other interests include an annual pilgrimage to Burning Man, cross-country camping, adventure riding on motorcycles, history, writing and recording music (PoetLab), and tropical third world travel.

A Bay Area native, Mr. Karic brings a nuanced breadth of experience to MRCA, leading our legal efforts.

In his formative professional years, he served as a Court Clerk to the Chief Justice of the 9th Circuit, eventually graduating from UC Davis, and passing the California and Federal Bar in 1996. Additionally, he received an advanced degree in Tax Law. Having received the California Super Lawyer award three times, Chris has worked on several high-profile cases for Firestone, Ford Motor Company, Intel, and 3Com, and continues to bring his formidable experience to serve as our legal counsel.

Personal interests include being highly involved in sports for his kids, skiing in Palisades Tahoe, and enjoying his family and their varied interests.

Steve brings a diverse entrepreneurial background to MRCA having founded multiple companies in various sectors. Steve has worked in leadership positions in the public sector, as well as spent time in an operational role for a large private equity firm. Steve spent the better part of 15 years in the financial services arena where he worked extensively with business owners to help them build wealth through tax & estate planning as well as investment management. Steve has a deep understanding of the capital markets and brings a creative tax-efficient approach to our M&A endeavors. Steve’s core focus is on the investments that MRCA makes, and how to structure them so that they deliver maximum value to the rest of the portfolio.

Steve is an avid outdoorsman and spends his free time exploring the remote parts of the Western US. When he is not trekking through the backcountry he is often sailing the San Francisco Bay and Pacific Coast.

Stephen is the Vice President of Tax for Agilent Technologies, Inc., where he has worked since 2007. Agilent Technologies is a high-tech, life science tools company that was spun off from HP in 1999, has a full vertically integrated business model and sells into over 100 countries. Before joining Agilent in 2007, Stephen worked at Intel and Sun Microsystems, as well as a couple of law firms in San Francisco.

As the global tax leader for Agilent, Stephen is responsible for all aspects of global tax. Much of his focus at Agilent and his 27-year career has been in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and corporate restructurings. He spent six years supporting Intel Capital and the 80 plus start-up companies in its portfolio on any number of corporate issues. This background has given Stephen an understanding of the relationship between how a business operates, the legal, financial, and physical flows of goods and services, the goal the business seeks to achieve, and the optimal framework for doing so. As such, he now supports Agilent’s corporate development and business teams identify this framework to support the sources of value in any new acquisition or to efficiently capture the benefit of any new business operating model. Stephen’s expertise is such that he is a highly sought-after speaker on the tax issues related to supply chain, manufacturing, acquisitions and cash management.

Stephen has an LLM in Taxation from New York University, a J.D. from Hastings College of the Law, University of California, and a B.A. from Hamilton College. Stephen hails from Tennessee but has spent his last 32 years in California. In his free time, Mr. Bonovich volunteers at Tahirih Justice helping people seeking political asylum. He also hikes, kayaks, and plays terrible golf.

Born in Iran, Cheyene is an award-winning entrepreneur, writer, and filmmaker currently based in Los Angeles, California. He is the CEO and Chairman of Accelerated Intelligence (AI). Through AI, an Amazon Marketing and Advertising Agency, he manages the selling of his products and helps other Brand Owners to scale their online sales not just in Amazon, but other marketplaces like eBay, Shopify, and Walmart. Cheyene shares his passion for Amazon through his Amazon’s Course, Amazon Mastery.

Mr. Cheyene has been called many things in his life (including the “Willy Wonka of Generation X”), but his favorite one is simple: the world’s leading Amazon industry expert. He’s also an award-winning business mogul, author, filmmaker, and inventor of Herbal Ecstacy, the nootropic that sparked the (100% legal) Smart Drug Movement.

His serial entrepreneurial career has spanned more than 30 years, culminating in earnings over $350 million annually, and his Amazon products have outpaced Fortune 500 companies’ sales on the platform, selling millions of units worldwide. Many of these multimillion-dollar companies noticed, which led him to become one of the world’s most sought-after Amazon experts.

In Shaahin’s personal life, he regularly contributes to The Huffington Post, American Express OPEN, and many other publications. He’s an avid sportsman with a deep love for Jiu-Jitsu. When he’s not working out, you can usually find him reading something by Seth Godin, Dr. Robert Cialdini, or Dr. Paul Ekman.

Christian is a founding member of Nexxt Level Capital. Over the past two decades, Christian has successfully managed multiple successful legal practices. For nearly the past 10 years, Christian has been the principal shareholder of Sellar Hazard & Lucia, LLC. SHL is a law firm with offices throughout the state of California and has been in business for over 60 years. SHL serves as both the transactional and litigation legal arm of Nexxt Level Capital. Christian serves as the Managing Partner of SHL and maintains the seamless integration between the multi family office of Nexxt Level Capital and the massive legal talent and strength brought to it by SHL. As a skilled transactional and litigation attorney with over 20 years of experience in the industry, Christian is uniquely positioned to serve all of the sophisticated and delicate legal needs of Nexxt Level Capital’s members. Christian also brings a unique perspective to Nexxt Level Capital’s investment and wealth creation talent pool. His aggressive and focused investment strategies have proven extremely successful throughout his career.

Ken Rutkowski is a well-known Business Talk Radio Personality, an Innovative Strategist, Business Nextist, International Speaker, and is considered one of the premier experts in Emerging Business Technologies, New Media, the Digital Economy, and Connection.

Creator of the podcast that was launched on Mark Cuban’s first-ever internet radio platform in the ’90s, Ken created and hosted the #1 Business Radio Talk Show in America, “Business Rockstars,” which was listened to in over 200 markets in the U.S.

He has been featured in or seen on Good Morning America, Oprah, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Financial Times, Forbes, HuffPost, Entrepreneur, LA Business Journal, LA Weekly, Fast Company, FOX & Friends, Good Day LA, Inc., USA Today, Bangkok Post, Singapore Straits, Asia Times, the South China Morning Post, and other publications and networks around the world.

For nearly 40 years Mr. Schaeffer (Rusty) has led multiple global operations, supply chain, and supplier quality organizations. His career spans > $100 Billion in strategic sourcing, procurement, global supply chain operations & Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) management. 

Rusty has held various executive positions ranging from Chief Procurement Officer to the Global Operations/Supply Chain leader at disruptive industry leaders such as Roku, 2Wire (Pace), Advanced Energy, Symbol Technologies (MOT), Solectron (FLEX), Seagate Technology/Connor Peripherals, TRW (Northrop Grumman) & Hughes Aircraft (Raytheon).

His ability to harness best practices from multiple market segments across every global region is exemplary. Additionally, Rusty currently is on the global operations & supply chain lead at APMT LLC, a renewables OEM. Since 2001 he has provided extensive supply chain and operational impacts as a consultant to 28 various electronic hardware/software entities across 11 market verticals including providing remedy scenarios to an event-based hedge fund. Additionally, he recently joined a PE fund advisory board (MRCA) focused on the revitalization of America’s manufacturing sector. A cause he personally strongly supports.

Rusty earned a BSEE (‘83) at the University of Arizona, and then an engineering management certificate from the California Institute of Technology (‘99).

An early recipient of a Presidential Award of Excellence for environmental services, sustainable energy, and environmental enhancement is a passion. Other interests include throwing various implements, be it a caber at a Scottish Highland Masters games or Javelin at the National Senior Games. He recently enjoyed coaching throwers on the 2021 Colorado 3A state championship high school track & field team. As a USA Masters Track & Field athlete this past year he earned multiple All-American honors and added podium finishes in the 2021 USATF National Masters Throwers Championship for Men’s 60-64 group in the super weigh throw and ultra-weight pentathlon.