Connected Health & Fitness Summit

Kate Veronneau

Bryan Myers

Anthony Vennare

Anthony Vennare is the co-founder of Fitt Insider and Fitt Capital. As a lifelong athlete, strength coach, and former United States Marine, Anthony now works at the intersection of technology, venture capital, and health/fitness. An experienced operator, founder, and advisor he leads the firm’s investment strategy, working closely with startups at the earliest stages.

Lindsay Cook

Raed Khawaja

Saeju Jeong

JJ Gantt

Jonathan J.J. Gantt serves as the President of Barry’s, the original global high-intensity interval training boutique fitness concept.  Prior to joining Barry’s in 2018, Jonathan was a die-hard Barry’s client in New York City while serving as the Chief Financial Officer of a publicly-traded hotel real estate investment trust.  Prior to this role, Jonathan was a member of the M&A and Treasury team at Starwood Hotels & Resorts.  He also has experience with two private equity funds.  Jonathan resides in Miami, Florida.  He holds a BS degree from Cornell University and an MBA degree from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Dara Cook

Dara Cook is the founder and CEO of Expect, the only OB-GYN-approved maternal fitness platform, empowering expectant and new moms to exercise in their own homes, on their own time, for healthier pregnancies, deliveries, and babies. Expect has a clinical trial with the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is a New York University Catalyst firm, and Techstars Healthcare company. Cook was formerly a Senior Vice President at MTV, Head Creative of the “MTV Video Music Awards,” producer on TRL with Carson Daly, and named one of the Most Influential Minorities in Cable. Cook is an alum of the Wharton School of Business and Harvard Business School.

Alonzo Wilson

Tone House was founded by Alonzo Wilson. His decision to open this boutique fitness concept stemmed from a desire to fill a void in the industry – allowing the mainstream to experience the extreme in athletic-based training. He felt the public was ready and yearning to take their fitness journey to the next level.

Alonzo has developed Tone House to promote health and wellbeing through its class experience, team of coaches, products & services and brand story. He has been instrumental in extending the Tone House mission to transform people’s bodies as well as their lives to nonprofits in its communities.

In high school, Alonzo was introduced to athletic-based extracurricular activities in football, basketball, and track, which ignited his passion for fitness and a healthy lifestyle. He attended Grand Valley State University where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Movement Science Education & Professional Instruction and played football. The high level of physical and mental training he achieved during these formative years shaped his vision that fitness and exercise should be integrated into everyone’s life.

In the midst of his blossoming pro football career, Alonzo’s mother sadly lost her battle against cancer. Her passing had a profound and lasting impact on him, ultimately changing his career path and leading him to create Tone House. Obesity was a contributing factor to her situation, and he began to think of ways he could have helped change the outcome, all of which kept coming back to fitness.

Before Tone House, Alonzo was a trainer for the professional entertainment basketball team the Harlem MagicMasters, was with the Wilhelmina Modeling Agency and developed a private training clientele.

Eloiza Tecson

Eloiza Tecson is the Managing Partner of EY Ventures Group, an investment, advisory, and impact vehicle operating in the health, sports, and technology sectors. As an innovative, driven, and visionary leader, Eloiza's experiences have resulted in a proven record of generating and building Fortune 500 relationships, managing multimillion-dollar projects from concept to completion, designing brand and educational strategies, developing new initiatives to promote positive ROI, and coaching senior leadership to success. Passionate about the health, wellness, and sports industries, Eloiza focuses on working with brands whose vision lies in developing innovative offerings that enhance consumers' lifestyles through healthy behavior coaching. Leveraging her collective expertise in this space, Eloiza looks to find products, technologies and services that help both elite and every day athletes perform better and lead healthier lives.

Julie Cartwright

Julie Cartwright is the President of Pvolve, a science-led fitness method that pairs low-impact, functional movement and patented resistance equipment to sculpt the body without the wear and tear of high-impact exercise. Through its hybrid fitness model, Pvolve can be experienced globally on-demand through live and virtual classes, and in both brand-owned and growing franchise studio locations. 

Julie joined as President at Pvolve’s founding and has led the brand’s expanding footprint within the fitness space, growing the business from a small startup to a global female-led fitness authority, complete with live virtual classes, expansive on-demand programming, patented equipment, and a growing number of studio locations. 

As President, Julie is responsible for spearheading Pvolve’s overall vision and growth strategy while achieving financial objectives and setting investment priorities for the business.   

An avid Pvolve user herself, Cartwright can often be found at the Chicago studio location or taking classes online through the Live Virtual Studio. 

Amy Lee, MD

Dr. Amy Lee is the chief medical officer of Lindora Clinic, southern California’s leading weight management and metabolic health company with 30 clinics throughout Southern California. Leading Lindora's medical practice since 2016, Dr. Lee is triple board-certified in internal medicine, medical nutrition and obesity medicine and has treated more than 15,000 patients throughout her career. Passionate about making an impact in creating solutions to today's obesity epidemic, Dr. Lee and the Lindora medical team help clients eat better, move more and stress less to improve their overall quality of life. Beginning her studies at the University of Washington, Dr. Lee completed her undergraduate studies before moving on to the University of Illinois, where she obtained her medical degree. Dr. Lee later completed her residency in internal medicine at USC. Dr. Lee’s clinical research training and 15 years of extensive experience utilizing innovative technology, medication and approaches to weight management have made her a leading expert in health and wellness.

Jon Canarick

Jonathan (“Jon”) Canarick is a Managing Partner with 19 years of consumer private equity investment experience. Since joining North Castle in 2001, Jon has actively managed North Castle’s investments across a variety of Healthy, Active, and Sustainable Living sectors and across all job functions at North Castle. Having started his career at NCP as an Associate out of investment banking, Jon has played a crucial role in the development of North Castle and many of its portfolio companies. Jon currently sits on the Board of Directors of Five Iron Golf, Echelon Fit, CR Fitness, Encore Vet Group, The Escape Game, Barry’s, Brooklyn Boulders, and SLT. Previously, Jon served on the Board of Directors of Kettlebell Kitchen, Curves, Jenny Craig, Palladio, Mineral Fusion, gloProfessional, Flatout, International Fitness, Enzymatic Therapy, Performance Bicycle, Avalon and DDF and was actively involved in the Firm’s investment in Grand Expeditions. Prior to joining North Castle, Jon worked in the Financial Sponsors Coverage and Leveraged Finance groups of Bear, Stearns & Co., where he executed leveraged buyout transactions and provided advisory services for financial sponsors. Jon earned a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

Madeline Darcy

Madeline Darcy is the Managing Partner of Kaya Ventures, an investment and advisory firm focused on companies in health and wellness. Prior to founding Kaya Ventures, Madeline held investment roles as a Managing Director at CircleUp Growth Partners and as a VP at Visible Ventures. Prior to venture capital, Madeline worked in management consulting at Oliver Wyman, where she advised Fortune 500s on growth, M&A, and post-merger integration. Madeline began her career in operating roles at Apple and The Walt Disney Company. Madeline is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin and earned her MBA from the Harvard Business School. 

Vincent Miceli

Amanda Rees

Amanda Rees is co-founder and CEO of Bold, the leading healthy aging platform. Bold partners with Medicare plans and provider groups to offer older adults personalized and science-based exercise programs to prevent falls, reduce musculoskeletal pain and disability, and increase physical activity levels. Before Bold, Amanda worked in energy and environmental justice, managing the renewable energy portfolio at The 11th Hour Project, a program of The Schmidt Family Foundation. Prior to that, she was a Dalai Lama Fellow, and she has conducted research at Stanford, Princeton and UCLA. Amanda has a BSE in Chemical & Biological Engineering from Princeton University. She has been a fitness instructor for over a decade, teaching dance, yoga, indoor cycling, and community tai chi for fall prevention.

Desiree Guillard-Young

In her current role as Dir of People, Desiree serves as the acting Human Resources Lead for the ecosystem of boutique fitness studio concepts within the FitLab Studio Division. Providing strategic guidance, advisement, and consulting to Studio leaders, frontline managers, and a workforce of 200+ employees nationwide. She ensures that the collective organization scales with intent, strategy, and the employee experience in mind.

Before joining the FitLab organization, Desiree drove operational excellence and human capital management strategies for established 50+ employee multi-location small businesses in the greater Los Angeles area. She was responsible for defining company strategies and OKRs for compliance, general operations, talent management, external relations, DE&I, and NPS/Customer SAT. She anchored her strategic vision in creating a solid operational foundation that allows the company to scale/maintain a high growth rate while building a workplace that reflects the diverse communities it serves—successfully scaling a two-location startup to a four-location seven-figure business during a global pandemic while designing and executing an exit strategy in partnership with my executive board and founding CEO.

Desiree held multiple roles within Fortune 500 companies for 12 years before entering the boutique fitness space. Her breadth of knowledge and business acumen is comprehensive, with both thought and organization leadership experience in global operations, human capital management, business development, DEIB, technology, and outsourcing services at every leadership level. 

Desiree is most passionate about personnel development and serving as a connection point for professionals at various career stages. She is an active PIHRA, SHRM, NHRA, and WIT member. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc and a Mentor for Baylor Build. 

Desiree holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Baylor University, an MBA from Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, and a Global Business Leadership certification from Beijing University of Posts & Telecom. She also played volleyball for the Baylor Bears from 2002 - 2006. Her motto, "be the positive change you wish to see in your organization".