Meet Our Team

JD, MBA

David Groshoff

CEO & Managing Director · Co-Founder

David has blended expertise in law and finance to drive special situations and unlock illiquid value since 1997. He managed special situations portfolios for over a decade at high yield money manager Pacholder Associates, where he also served as Associate General Counsel through the firm’s exit by acquisition to J.P. Morgan Investment Management. There he advised family offices, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS), the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), and various registered investment advisers on their illiquid and special situations investments.

He continued as a Special Situations Portfolio Manager at JPMorgan, with a portfolio that included significant venture capital, private equity, and concentrated public company positions. He simultaneously served as Chief Legal & Compliance Officer of a JPMorgan-affiliated publicly traded closed-end fund and on the boards of numerous companies, including Allis-Chalmers Energy, Fansteel, Atlas Minerals, Lykes Bros. Steamship Co., and CP Ships.

David has served in various capacities for several official unsecured creditors’ committees in Chapter 11 reorganizations, including as financial advisor. In the Kaiser Aluminum bankruptcy, the creditors’ committee appointed him to the special committee that reorganized the company’s board. Since 2020, he also has been recognized as a leading authority on Subchapter V reorganizations.

He recently led the restructuring of a venture-backed synthetic biology company with only weeks of runway remaining into an AI platform named to TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024. Under his leadership, CRAGSI was selected by the PBGC to succeed J.P. Morgan Investment Management as the agency’s Special Situations Investment Manager, returning him to a portfolio he first helped manage at Pacholder more than two decades ago.

David also led the restructuring of a business school, where he remains Professor Emeritus of Business and Law. His work on startup finance, governance, and strategy has been cited in the Harvard Business Law Review and in books published by Oxford, Cambridge, Chicago, and Stanford university presses.

David holds a Master’s degree in Law and Economics from Harvard University; an MBA with a Finance major from the Haile College of Business at Northern Kentucky University; a JD from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, where he was a member of the Ohio State Law Journal; and a BA with honors from Indiana University, completed in three years with a double major. He served for many years as a California Registered In-House Counsel and is admitted to practice in New York, Massachusetts, and Ohio.

CFA®

Scott Telford

CFO & Managing Director · Co-Founder

Scott is in his third decade of managing special situations assets — providing valuations and developing secondary market opportunities across public securities, privately placed debt and equity (including VC and PE), partnership interests, bankruptcy claims, structured fixed income, real estate, and other real assets. Before co-founding CRAGSI, he spent 20 years as a research analyst and sector manager with J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s high yield platform. He earned his B.S. in Finance from Miami University’s Farmer School of Business and his CFA® charter in 2007.

MBA

Mike Kozub

Chief Growth Officer

Mike is a growth executive whose career spans over 35 years of leading “build, buy, and partner” strategies across the technology, SaaS, and consumer sectors. In this AI-era, Mike specializes in modernizing core business functions via agentic AI workflows into a high-speed, data-first growth engine. Mike provides the critical human-in-the-loop judgment, ensuring firms evaluate defensible AI moats and avoid the “Middleware Trap.”

Before joining CRAGSI, Mike led Corporate Development at Salary.com, where he partnered with the company’s founder, CEO, senior management, and private equity sponsors to build a systematic M&A program for a leading HRTech platform. He led all phases of the deal lifecycle, from predictive sourcing and automated diligence to complex integration planning, while building the institutional infrastructure required for repeatable success.

Since 2005, he also has led LaunchPad Corporate & Venture Advisors, incubating startups and consulting for firms on rapid product-market fit and high-speed go-to-market execution across SaaS, digital health, consumer and mobile training niches. To round out Mike’s fit with all sides of CRAGSI’s business, his early career was spent working in private equity, specializing in distressed asset turnarounds/roll-ups.

Mike earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and holds a B.S. in Engineering & Economics from Union College, where he also played varsity ice hockey.

Cyndi Lanning

Chief Compliance Officer & VP Operations

Cyndi brings nearly 40 years of experience in compliance, accounting, finance, insurance, human resources, operations, and project management to CRAGSI. She previously worked at Pacholder Associates — overseeing accounting for limited partnerships, family office investment vehicles, and the Special Situations Portfolios managed by CRAGSI’s CEO David Groshoff — and has been working with special situations assets, including the PBGC portfolio, since 1994. Most recently, she led Legal & Regulatory Compliance programs across the West Coast for a $25M portfolio. A United States Marine Corps veteran, Cyndi is recognized for her analytical rigor and project management discipline.

Christina Ra

Executive VP, Crisis Communications

Christina Ra is CRAGSI’s Executive VP of Crisis Communications. She architects communications and brand strategy systems that build market presence, competitive differentiation, and proactive reputation management capabilities for high-growth startups. Christina has nearly 20 years of experience in communications leadership roles for global brands, from seed-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies. She has helped over 15 founders scale their startups, deeply experienced in all stages of growth from initial funding to public companies, spanning consumer, CPG, mobility, climate, health and wellness, agriculture, food, AI, autonomy, robotics, fintech, and SaaS sectors. Her expertise centers on launching revolutionary technologies, building enduring brands, and driving large-scale adoption. She has shaped new categories across transportation (Tesla, SpaceX, Argo), fintech (Credit Karma, Affirm), and food systems (Plenty, Meati, Shiru), achieving consistent category-leading share-of-voice while averting crises. At high-growth companies like Meati Foods and Plenty, Christina built communications programs from scratch as an early employee, achieving breakthrough media coverage including Bloomberg Businessweek covers, Today Show features, and coverage across CNN, Time, WSJ, Bloomberg, Fast Company, and Forbes. At Tesla and SpaceX, she led global communications during critical product launches and market expansion phases, reporting directly to Elon Musk. Before her technology and venture career, Christina led public relations for Honda’s 13+ vehicle lines with a $15+ million annual budget and managed crisis communications including the Takata airbag recall from moment “zero,” the largest automotive recall in history. Christina earned her degree in Communication from the University of Maryland.

CPA, CGMA

Louis Stone

Executive VP, Accounting & Tax Solutions

Louis began providing special situations advisory services in 2005 and brings significant experience valuing companies and helping them improve profitability and effectuate successful financial turnarounds. He has extensive experience negotiating financings and private credit agreements. Louis earned his B.S. in Accounting from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

Jane Long

VP Operations & People

Jane Long is CRAGSI’s Vice President, People & HR Solutions. She is dedicated to fostering cohesive organizational strategies that drive sustained success, integrating people programs seamlessly with operational goals to pave the way for stability, long-term growth, excellence, and exits. Jane has 20+ years of hands-on experience in people operations and organizational development across various industries. From guiding HR initiatives in burgeoning biotech startups to steering the human capital strategies of multistate manufacturing organizations, she excels in crafting scalable people programs that fuel engagement, bolster retention, and propel organizational objectives forward across periods of distress, stability, and growth. She is passionate about leveraging technology and innovation to streamline processes and enhance organizational effectiveness. Her proven track record of operational excellence is underscored by her successful execution of organizational restructuring initiatives, resulting in substantial cost reductions and operational efficiencies for countless clients. Jane’s expertise spans the full spectrum of human capital management, from startup environments requiring rapid scaling to established organizations undergoing transformation. She brings particular value to companies navigating complex organizational changes while maintaining employee engagement and operational continuity. Jane holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management with a concentration in Human Resources.

JD, LLM (Tax)

James Nguyen

AVP, Tax Strategies

James Nguyen is CRAGSI’s AVP, Tax Strategies. He advises clients on tax and finance related matters, including mergers, acquisitions, and dispositions; business entity structuring and restructuring; executive compensation; NOL harvesting and tax planning. James also focuses on runway extension and creditor negotiations. James has 4+ years of experience specializing in tax strategy and corporate advisory services. His expertise spans complex tax planning, corporate restructuring, and strategic financial advisory for companies across various stages of development and distress situations. He brings a comprehensive understanding of both tax and financial frameworks that are critical for companies navigating complex transactions and restructuring scenarios. Before joining CRAGSI, James spent over two years as an Associate at Rutan & Tucker, LLP in Irvine, California, where he developed expertise in corporate advisory and tax strategy services. Prior to that, he served as an Associate in People Advisory Services–Rewards at EY in Los Angeles. His early career included diverse experience through roles at Andersen Tax, the United States Attorneys’ Offices, and the Orange County District Attorney’s office. James earned a Juris Doctor and an LLM in Taxation, both from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. He also holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of California, Riverside.