Startups and Early Stage Investing: Lizzie and Michael Horvitz, Founder/Chairman, Finch Insights/Parkland Management Co

Lizzie Horvitz

Founder and CEO

Finch

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizziehorvitz/

Lizzie is the CEO & Founder of Finch, which incentivizes consumers to make better purchasing decisions based on the social and environmental impacts of products. She has been passionate about sustainability since the age of 16 when she lived off the grid. It was there that, depending only on wind energy and rainwater, she saw the solution of climate change before fully understanding the problem. Before Finch, Lizzie worked in supply chain and sustainability at Unilever and then became Chief Operating Officer at Muuse, a startup that aims to mitigate single-use plastics in the to-go industry. She has a BA from Middlebury College and an MBA and Master of Environmental Management from Yale University. 

Michael Horvitz

Chairman of the Board

Parkland Management Company

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-horvitz-4820a639/

Michael Horvitz is a retired Partner in the international law firm of Jones Day, where he practiced for more than 30 years in the areas of tax, business transactions and personal planning for privately owned businesses, substantial families and charities. He advised family businesses, trusts, family offices, private investment funds and nonprofit organizations with respect to the relationships among shareholders and partners, governance and charitable planning.

Mr. Horvitz has served on the advisory boards of the sponsors of various private investment funds and served as chairman of the board of IMG Worldwide, Inc., a sports marketing, media and athlete representation firm following the death of Mark H. McCormack, the company’s founder, until the company was sold in 2004.

Mr. Horvitz is active in various fiduciary, investment and philanthropic activities. He is chairman of the board of Parkland Management Company, a family investment office. He is a trustee of a family foundation and chairs the Administrative Committee of a group of family charitable foundations.  He also serves as a trustee of numerous private trusts, for members of his family and others.

Mr. Horvitz is a trustee of the Cleveland Orchestra, where he chairs the Personnel and Investment Committees and serves on the Executive and Audit Committees.  He also serves as a trustee of The Cleveland Clinic Foundation (where he has served on the Finance Committee) and The Frick Collection in New York (where he chairs the Audit Committee and the Nominating and Governance Committee and serves on the Investment and Executive Committees and as Vice Chair of the board).   In addition, he is a member of the Visiting Committee of the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  He also is a member of the Investment Committee of The Cleveland Foundation.  He is a trustee emeritus of Case Western Reserve University and is a former adjunct professor of law at that University, where he lectured on Law and the Visual Arts.  He is an honorary trustee of the University of Virginia Law School Foundation (where he chaired the board for six years) and currently serves as an advisor to the Investment Committee.  He is chair emeritus of The Cleveland Museum of Art (where he served as President from 1996 to 2001 and as Chairman of the Board from 2001 to 2011).  He also is a former trustee of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, where he has served on the Executive Committee, the Audit Committee and as chair of the Finance and Investment Committee.  He also is a trustee of the London-based MQ: Transforming Mental Health through Research, and its U.S. affiliate, MQ Foundation, which fund research into mental health issues.  He has testified as an expert witness in United States District Court on the duties and responsibilities of trustees of nonprofit organizations and has lectured at a variety of venues on Nazi-era Looting of Art and on Antiquities and Cultural Patrimony issues.

Mr. Horvitz holds a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, a J.D. from the University of Virginia and an LL.M. in Taxation from New York University.  He is admitted to the practice of law in Ohio, Florida and New York.