Independent Sponsors Summit: West Coast

Warren C. Woo is a Founding and Managing Partner of CFT Capital Partners Fund and CFT Capital Partners Fund II and the Managing Member of CFT Capital Management. CFT Capital Management manages alternative assets for the Cherng Family Trust, the family office of Andrew and Peggy Cherng, Founders of Panda Express/Panda Restaurant Group. CFT Capital Partners has over $3 billion of AUM and is currently investing out of CFT Capital Partners Fund II, a $781.2 million vehicle which closed in August 2024. CFT Capital Partners seeks to co-invest in proprietary, direct and aligned investments, across private equity, growth equity, real estate and other opportunistic asset classes, in partnership with other family offices, financial sponsors, institutional investors, and management teams. Previously, Warren was the Chief Investment Officer for the Cherng Family Trust. He is also the Founder and Managing General Partner of Breakaway Capital Partners Fund and Breakaway Capital Partners Fund II, private investment funds with $150 million of committed capital that provide unitranche financing solutions to lower middle market companies. Warren was a Founding Partner and Managing Director of Moelis & Company, and was at UBS Investment Bank as Vice Chairman, a member of the Board of Directors, and Global Head of Financial Sponsors, Hedge Funds and Leverage Finance. He received his MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude with a BA in Economics from UCLA.

Vishal is a Senior General Partner at Edgewood Ventures, LLC and their group companies, a venture fund focusing on investing in the USA and India. He has made investments and sits on the board of directors of Edgewood Networks (a joint venture with Juniper Networks), Edgewood CureAire, and HSMC, a leading independent semiconductor products provider recently awarded a $2.2B package from the government of India. Vishal is passionate about building strong education systems and is an active member of the non-profit boards of Trustees and Directors for the University of California at Merced and One Economy (Washington, D.C.). Prior to joining Edgewood, Vishal was a cofounder or held senior leadership roles at Akroria Networks, Geotouch and PointCross, and started his career at Loral Corporation. While pursuing his MBA at Chicago Booth, he cofounded the Hyde Park Angels to promote entrepreneurship in the Chicagoland area. Vishal holds a B.S. in Marketing from Santa Clara University and an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.