Mark D. Ein has served as our Chairman of the Board and Director since March 2013. Mr. Ein served as Chief Executive Officer, Treasurer and Secretary of Capitol Acquisition Corp. II (“Capitol”) until its merger with Lindblad on July 8, 2015, and is currently the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors of Capitol Acquisition Corp. III. Mr. Ein is an investor, entrepreneur and philanthropist, who has created, acquired, invested in and built a series of growth companies across a diverse set of industries over the course of his 25-year career.
From June 2007 to October 2009, Mr. Ein was the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Capitol I, a blank check company formed for substantially similar purposes as Capitol. Capitol I completed its business combination with Two Harbors Investment Corp., a Maryland real estate investment trust, in October 2009. From October 2009 to May 2015, Mr. Ein served as the Non-Executive Vice Chairman of Two Harbor’s Board of Directors.
Mr. Ein is Co-Chairman and Principal Shareholder of Kastle Holding Company LLC, which through its subsidiaries conducts the business of Kastle Systems, LLC, a leading provider of managed security systems for commercial real estate that he acquired in January 2007. In 2008, Mr. Ein founded and is the owner of the Washington Kastles, the WorldTeamTennis (“WTT”) franchise in Washington, D.C., that has won the league championship six times in its nine years in the league. In 2009, he was given the key to the city of Washington, D.C. by Mayor Adrian Fenty for the team’s contributions to the city and broader community. On March 13, 2017, Mr. Ein led the acquisition of WTT, the iconic American pro team tennis league owned and founded by Billie Jean King in 1974, of which the Kastles are a franchisee. He serves as the Chairman of WTT. Mr. Ein is also the Founder of Venturehouse Group, LLC (“Venturehouse”), a holding company that creates, invests in and builds companies, and has served as its Chief Executive Officer since 1999. He is the Chairman of the Board of Visual Systems Group, Inc. (“VSGi”), a provider of videoconferencing solutions that is owned by Venturehouse. Venturehouse’s portfolio includes or has included the seed investment in Matrics Technologies in August 2000 (sold to Symbol Technologies in September 2004), the lead investment in the buyout of Cibernet Corporation from the CTIA in March 2003 (sold to MACH S.à.r.l. in April 2007), the acquisition of VSGi from Net2000 Communications, and an early investment in XM Satellite Radio. Previously in his career, Mr. Ein worked for The Carlyle Group, Brentwood Associates and Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Mr. Ein is the Chairman of the Board of the District of Columbia Public Education Fund (DC-PEFF), which serves to catalyze private sector support for the D.C. Public School System and that has raised over $100 million of philanthropic funds in his seven years as Chairman. Mr. Ein also serves on the Board of Directors of the United States Tennis Association (as Vice President), The District of Columbia College Access Program (DC-CAP) and the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He was appointed by Mayor Vincent Gray to be a member of the D.C. Tax Revision Commission in 2012 and he serves on the Executive Committee of the Federal City Council and the D.C. Policy Center that he co-founded in 2016. Mr. Ein received a B.S. in Economics with a concentration in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.