John Simpson is hard to miss in a room, being a 6’6″ tall former college football player. Outside of his love for sports, he is a guy with a head for numbers, a heart for Marvel and DC superheroes (Batman is his favorite character, and Dark Knight is his favorite film), and a passion for shoes (he owns over 100 pairs!). But let’s get to the relevant stuff.

Mr. Simpson spent his early years moving around the country as the son of an Army Colonel. Carlisle, PA. San Antonio. Somewhere in Kansas. And his favorite spot – Newport, RI – before his dad retired and moved the family back home to Murfreesboro. So making the journey from the ‘Boro to Providence, Rhode Island to play football for Brown University was nothing – and a bit of a homecoming. Until he injured both knees and finally settled for just the Ivy League education instead.

Allergic to beer, John had more time and a clearer head for other pursuits. National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society Member. Banking internships. A Venture Fellow in the Brown Breakthrough Lab working on Fetchum, an on-demand delivery service marketed to college campuses. The usual.

Of course, the Brown alumni network found him immediately, and High Street Global Advisors moved John to Boston and the Hancock Tower where he spent the next four years as Associate and Analyst in the telecom, media and technology space. Then came COVID and everyone went back where they came from and worked from home. On a whim, John reached out to Avondale Partners from his family’s den, and the rest is history. At least on the career front.

An avid East Coast snow skier, John also enjoys watercolor painting and loves Asian food. Once the world can travel again, he’d like to travel to Germany with his father who drove tanks there before the fall of the Berlin Wall.