Meridith Cass
Meridith is the Founder and CEO of Nix, a consumer health data startup, spun out of Harvard. The initial product is a sweat sensor that informs athletes, soldiers, and laborers of their fluid losses, electrolyte losses, and sweat composition in real-time. The platform also generates personalized predictive data for fluid and electrolyte needs.
A serial company starter, Meridith has worked closely with several Boston and New York-based venture capital firms in the creation of seven life science and consumer startups prior to Nix. Meridith sits on the board of several companies and non-profits including Girls on the Run of Greater Boston, Consumer Technology Association’s Health and Fitness Technology Division, and the Cambridge Friends School, of which she is an alumna.
Meridith is a college basketball player-turned-marathoner who has completed 9 marathons, including the all of the World Major Marathons. She received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College where she received the Anna Pell Wheeler Prize for Mathematics, and her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Meridith is a Kauffman Fellow as well as a Harvard Business School Blavatnik Fellow.
Kirk Michie
For more than 30 years, Kirk has worked with entrepreneurs, closely held business owners, and high net worth families to achieve their strategic planning, liquidity, investment, and legacy objectives. In client facing, strategic, and senior management roles, Michie has raised and deployed more than $1 billion of capital, been involved with evaluating more than 2,000 direct investments, and participated as principal or advisor on the purchase of 21 businesses, and the sale or recapitalization of more than 30 companies.
Kirk has been a frequent speaker and panelist at Association for Corporate Growth events, Vistage and Entrepreneurs Organization panels, ECHELON Capital’s Deals & Dealmakers Summits, and Tiburon Strategic Advisors CEO Summits, where he was a member of the Financial Advisors Roundtable. Additionally, Michie built AB Bernstein’s Quarterly M&A Roundtable, a gathering of the area’s top dealmakers from venture capital, private equity, legal, accounting, and finance, which was replicated across the US for the firm.
Kirk’s areas of expertise include transaction advisory services, mergers and acquisitions with emphasis on founder-owned businesses, corporate and family office governance, capital raising, private equity, corporate strategy, and succession planning. His combination of investment and business experience inform his ability to help entrepreneurs navigate complex entity, family, and legacy decisions.
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.
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.
Jeffrey Morin
Jeff Morin is an MIT-educated engineer and certified personal trainer with an eye for both physical and technological performance. As CEO & Co-Founder of Liteboxer, Morin has married his passion for fitness and mechanics to create a first-of-its-kind, fully immersive boxing platform that gamifies at-home workouts. Launched in 2020, the music-driven sports experience aims to get people moving, through a cutting edge platform that uses a Liteshield with six targets, force sensors, and LED lights. Since the launch of its initial Floor Stand model, Liteboxer has launched two additional boundary-breaking fitness products—the Wall Mount and Liteboxer VR—aiming to make fitness more accessible.
Most recently, Morin spearheaded Liteboxer’s entrance to the metaverse with the first fitness VR experience designed by fitness experts for Quest 2. Liteboxer VR made major waves at CES, earning accolades including WIRED’s Best in Gaming and Review Geek’s Best Fitness Tech.
Led by Morin, Liteboxer has raised a total of $28.5 million to date in funding from Nimble Partners, Will Ventures, and Raptor Capital, as well as celebrity investors Timbaland and Pitbull. With Morin at the helm, Liteboxer has also secured an exclusive partnership with Universal Music Group, doubled their team since its launch, identified and partnered with key pop culture influencers like Triller and 2Chainz, and seen exponential growth across organic and earned media.
Prior to founding Liteboxer, Morin worked as Manufacturing Lead at Formlabs, and also oversaw manufacturing management, supply chain and procurement at DEKA. He is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, where he earned a bachelors in mechanical engineering, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a masters in mechanical engineering.
Francesca Schuler
Ed Lippie
Since entering the world of human performance in 1997, Ed's mission has been to help those he works with maximize their potential. As a 1995 graduate of Union College, Ed has sought to apply a complex systems approach to the well-being of his clients, understanding that achieving wellness requires the consistent practice of several overlapping elements. Much of Ed's career has been spent working with professional athletes from the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, PGA, MLS, EPL, & Serie A. His most recent experience in pro sports with Serie A giant, AS Roma, included the adoption of a variety of sports technology products and services. Lessons learned from working with pro athletes, clients and the application of sports technology inspired him to join the Bearn team and help further their goal of democratizing wellness.
Amira Polack
Amira Polack is the CEO & Founder at Struct Club, software that enables fitness businesses to structure and scale music-inspired class concepts. She serves as a Board Director for the Women in Fitness Association, which accelerates the careers of professional women in the fitness industry. Amira's career has revolved around enabling organizations to achieve growth through innovation as an enterprise technologist at Fortune 500 and venture-backed startups alike. Forbes has featured Amira on their Self-Made Women list, and her opinion has been featured in TIME, CNBC, and the World Economic Forum Agenda. Amira earned her MBA at Harvard and BA at Princeton.
Find Struct Club on the App Store, on IG @structclub, and Facebook.com/structclub
Connect with Amira on IG @amirapolack or Linkedin /amirapolack
Alyssa Rapp
