We Created the Playbook for Navigating Regulation

Ed Manzi is a consultant at Tusk, where he supports state policy and government affairs engagements. His work centers on healthcare, helping clients navigate complex regulatory environments and build the evidentiary and policy case for new coverage and reimbursement pathways at the state level.

With a career spanning healthcare, venture capital, and policy, Ed is known for translating complex regulatory environments into executable strategy. He has a proven track record of driving cross-functional execution in ambiguous, high-stakes settings. Prior to joining Tusk, Ed served as Chief of Staff to the EVP of Health and President of the Healthcare Solutions Group at WebMD, where he supported the integration of a $50MM patient education business and a $100MM marketing software business. Earlier, he led channel strategy at Everly Health and worked as an Investment Associate at Social Impact Capital, where he evaluated early-stage healthcare and deep tech companies.

Ed is also the cofounder of UNMUTED, a live debate and discussion series that has produced more than 60 events in New York City, bringing together policymakers, academics, and practitioners for structured public argument. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.S.B.A., summa cum laude, from Northeastern University, and is a licensed CPA. He is based out of the firm's NY office.

Anna von Finckenstein specializes in communications for Tusk Ventures. Anna previously served as Assistant Communications Director at Aptos Labs, where she led public relations strategy, executive communications, and cross-platform content for corporate initiatives and product launches. Previously, she held roles at M Group Strategic Communications and Archetype, where she advised clients ranging from regulated financial institutions to enterprise technology companies Anna holds a B.A. in Modern European History with a minor in Political Science from McGill University.

Tim Sullivan works with Tusk Ventures companies on matters relating to state and local economic development and partnerships.  Prior to working with Tusk, Tim was Chief Executive Officer of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), the State’s principal economic development agency, from 2018 to 2025.  Under his leadership, the NJEDA led the development and implementation of more than 15 programs, provided more than $700 million in COVID-19 relief to small businesses impacted by the pandemic. 

Prior to NJEDA, Tim served as Deputy Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), where he oversaw State tourism and branding, brownfield redevelopment, transit-oriented development, and waterfront initiatives, and served as Chief of Staff to the New York City Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, focusing on transportation and transit-oriented development, brownfield redevelopment, waterfront and maritime/port redevelopment, public and affordable housing policy, small business support, infrastructure finance, and public/private partnerships.

Cory Epstein is the Senior Vice President of Communications at Tusk Holdings. In this role, he works directly with Bradley Tusk on a wide variety of projects, including serving as communications advisor for a range of companies in the Tusk Ventures portfolio. Before joining Tusk, Cory was the Director of Communications at Transportation Alternatives in New York City. He previously was a member of the communications team at Lyft, where he served as the spokesperson for Citi Bike, the largest bike share network in North America. Cory began his public affairs career in New York City as a Communications Director on the New York City Council and was a Coro Fellow in 2015-2016. He attended Vassar College and now lives in Brooklyn.

Marla provides strategic consulting services for Tusk and its portfolio companies, focusing on the development of regulatory and growth strategies for the fintech and ecommerce sectors.

Prior to joining Tusk, Marla practiced law in the private sector, where she counseled clients on risk management and litigation strategies and provided advice on state and federal regulatory issues. Marla also has extensive experience representing companies in complex disputes. 

Marla previously practiced law as a partner at a national firm, where she was recognized for her work by The Legal 500, Benchmark Plaintiff, and Best Lawyers in America. She was also awarded a “Women Worth Watching” distinction by Profiles in Diversity Journal. She earned her J. D. from Cornell Law School and her B.A. from the University of Texas. She is based in our Chicago office.

Christina Esposito is an experienced government relations and regulatory expert with over 15 years of experience working in government and advising companies in highly regulated industries. Christina has led campaigns at Tusk for Fortune 500 companies ranging in issue areas including travel, federal rulemaking, gaming, worker classification, employment, sustainability, transportation and more. 

Before spending a decade at Tusk, Christina worked in the New York State Governor’s Office as the Director of Strategic Digital Projects during the Cuomo Administration. Prior to joining New York State, she worked in the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment during the Bloomberg Administration, starting as a New York City Urban Fellow. Christina graduated summa cum laude from Binghamton University and currently resides in New Jersey.

David Kolata provides strategic consulting services for Tusk and its portfolio companies, as well as Google and other clients, advising on regulatory, policy, and growth strategies in highly regulated markets, including those shaped by AI and emerging technologies.

David also serves as VP of Policy for Sealed, where he leads the company’s regulatory and legislative efforts. He has extensive experience working at the intersection of public policy, regulated industries, consumer protection, and evolving markets. Prior to joining Sealed, he served as Executive Director of the  Citizens Utility Board, an organization called the “gold standard of consumer groups nationwide” by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. During his 17 years at CUB, David helped lead multiple major legislative initiatives in Illinois, including FEJA, the HEAT Act, and CEJA.

David graduated with a degree in Government from the University of Notre Dame. He received a master’s degree in political science from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in the same subject from Vanderbilt University.

Hunter Haines is the Strategic Projects Associate at Tusk Ventures, where he supports firmwide initiatives across partner work and strategic operations. He is particularly excited about working with founders of all stages to help them unlock growth.

Prior to joining Tusk, he was an Operations Leader at Alloy Partners (formerly High Alpha Innovation), where he worked alongside early-stage venture operators and innovation consultants to launch and scale early-stage startups with enterprise companies, universities, and governments. He also served as Chief of Staff at a stealth venture-backed startup.

Hunter began his career in healthcare at Indiana University Health and Riley Children’s Health, focusing on clinical operations administration, corporate strategy, brand strategy, and corporate partnerships. He also served as a Fellow with Orr Fellowship, a selective early-career leadership program.

Hunter graduated from an honors program at Indiana University Bloomington as a Lilly Scholar, earning a B.A. in Media Advertising and studying Business Management through the Kelley School of Business. Hunter is based out of the Chicago office.

Shruti Kumar is a Vice President at Tusk Ventures, where she leads the team's sourcing and diligence efforts.

Shruti brings a dynamic blend of investing, operating, and advisory experience. She combines a passion for technology and entrepreneurship with a rigorous, analytical, and founder-first approach to venture. She is particularly excited by platforms working to modernize highly regulated or underserved sectors, reimagining industries and bringing innovation to areas where technology can have tangible, large-scale impact.

She was most recently an investor at 01 Advisors, a $400M venture fund founded by former Twitter executives, where she supported Series A–C investments in companies including BuildOps, Attio, and Linear. Prior to that, she was a growth equity investor at Long Arc Capital, focused on high-growth SaaS businesses; an early operator at GlossGenius, where she helped scale the company through its Series A; and began her career in technology investment banking at Citigroup. Shruti holds a B.S. in Finance from New York University and is based out of the firm’s New York office.

Cynthia Matar leads Strategic Communications and Public Affairs at Tusk Ventures, where she transforms media into a growth engine for high-stakes, high-growth companies. Working at the intersection of media and policy, she develops integrated campaigns that help startups shape markets, influence critical stakeholders, and build enduring brands.

Throughout her career, Cynthia has built and scaled platform functions at both early and growth-stage firms. Prior to Tusk, Cynthia was a founding team member at a New York–based venture capital firm, where she launched and operationalized three distinct investment funds ranging from $10M to $75M. Each was designed to address structural gaps in the startup ecosystem while generating measurable impact.

Cynthia previously served as Chief of Staff at a San Diego–based neurotechnology focused VC firm, advising executive leadership across strategy and operations. She also led the market introduction of a global health and wellness investor network, overseeing its positioning, stakeholder engagement, and communications strategy.

Cynthia holds a B.A. from Pace University’s Lubin School of Business and is based in New York.

Bob Greenlee is the President of Tusk Ventures. He has built his career using regulatory strategies to unlock growth for fast-growing startups. Since the firm’s inception, Bob has led regulatory advisory work for Tusk Ventures and Tusk Venture Partners portfolio companies, working with more than 100 startups in total. 

Bob has significant experience establishing new markets - leading engagements for companies like Fanduel, Atoms, and Circle. Bob has worked with companies touching on the energy, healthcare, financial services, education, government services, and manufacturing sectors.  He has also led work for established companies including Walmart, CVS, and Comcast.  He has led work at the local (Atoms, Comcast, It’s Electric), state (Arcadia, Fanduel, Circle), federal (Airlines 4 America, Roivant), and internationally (Viagogo/Stubhub, Laureate Education).

Bob previously served as Deputy Governor of the State of Illinois and as Deputy Director of the Illinois Office of Management and Budget.  He is an attorney by training and previously worked in private practice at the Quinlan Law Firm and Kirkland & Ellis, LLP after clerking for Hon. Michael S. Kanne at the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Bob is a graduate of Yale University (B.A.) and the University of Chicago (J.D. and Ph.D.) and also teaches non-market strategies at Columbia Business School.

Bradley Tusk is the founder of Tusk Strategies, Tusk Ventures, the Mobile Voting Project, Solving Hunger, the Gotham Book Prize, and P&T Knitwear. He serves as CEO of Tusk Holdings, the parent company of Tusk Ventures.

Tusk Ventures is the world’s first venture capital fund to focus on early stage startups in highly regulated industries, investing in and handling political and regulatory issues for startups like Lemonade, Ro, FanDuel, Circle, Coinbase, Latch, Bird and dozens of others.

In 2009, Bradley served as Mike Bloomberg’s campaign manager for mayor and then worked for Bloomberg at City Hall. He was Deputy Governor of Illinois from 2003-2006, where he ran the state’s budget, policy, operations, communications and legislation, and earlier served as US Senator Chuck Schumer’s communications director from 2000-2002. He was also Uber’s first political adviser, helped design and run the campaign to mobilize Uber customers to beat the taxi industry, and then turned that idea into mobile voting. 

Bradley hosts Firewall, a twice-weekly podcast about the intersection of tech and politics. He writes a weekly column for Substack and a column for the New York Daily News. He taught at Columbia Business school. He lives in downtown Manhattan, has two teenage kids, and is an irrational Mets fan.