Bio

Mr. Kester, a principal of Deer Creek Group, is also a principal of three independent companies, Redstreak, LLC, techniques.org, Inc., and Alva Learning Systems, LLC. Redstreak leases a fleet of specialty railcars and provides logistics services to North American railroad customers. techniques.org develops custom training solutions for the Department of Defense and other Federal Government clients and Alva Learning Systems develops custom training solutions for private sector clients. Mr. Kester is a former consultant with McKinsey & Company in its New York and San Francisco offices. His work at McKinsey included managing client teams for a turnaround of an $8 billion revenue manufacturing company, developing a go-to-market strategy for a $280 million revenue consumer software product, implementing a company-wide product development process for a $1.3 billion revenue software developer, and performing financial due diligence for large private equity investments. Mr. Kester also worked as a Financial Analyst for Lehman Brother's Merchant Banking group in New York, analyzing and executing leveraged buyout investments, as a Summer Associate for the Denver-based law firm, Davis, Graham and Stubbs, and as Summer Associate with the United States Department of Justice. Mr. Kester has a B.A. summa cum laude in Philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder where he was student body co-president and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Mr. Kester also received the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, a graduate scholarship administered by the Federal Government recognizing outstanding leadership, academics, and service.