Sonya Brown

Sonya joined Norwest in 2011 and brings more than 20 years of investment experience to her role as General Partner and co-Head of the firm’s Growth Equity team. Based in Norwest’s Palo Alto office, Sonya is focused on growth equity and buyouts investing across a wide range of sectors with particular interest in consumer products and services, internet/eCommerce, retail and business services. Her current investments include Jolyn, Junk King, Kendra Scott (recapitalized by Berkshire Partners), SENREVE, and SmartSign. Sonya is responsible for Norwest’s investments in PCA Skin (acquired by Colgate-Palmolive) Bailey 44 (acquired by Digital Brands Group) and The Learning Experience (acquired by Golden Gate Capital). She is a board observer at Madison Reed.

Sonya was previously at Summit Partners, a private equity firm with over $20 billion under management, where she worked for almost a decade in the Boston office and was responsible for leading the firm’s Consumer and Internet Industry Group in North America. Sonya was engaged in all aspects of the deal process including deal sourcing, due diligence, deal negotiations and board representation. Her most recent and past board directorships and investments include Aramsco (acquired by AEA Investors), Airborne Health (acquired by Schiff Nutrition), Central Security Group, Physicians Formula (NASDAQ: FACE), Snap Fitness (acquired by TZP Group) and Sparta Systems (acquired by Thoma Bravo).

Prior to joining Summit, Sonya was a founder and General Partner of iXL Ventures in 1999, where she oversaw the funding and growth of numerous technology and Internet companies. In addition, she was Vice President of Corporate Development for the parent company iXL Enterprises, Inc., one of the largest global web development companies at that time.

Sonya began her career in the investment banking division of Bear Stearns where she worked on numerous consumer and media transactions.

Sonya sits on the advisory board of Harvard Business School’s California Research Center. She is an active speaker at numerous industry events and universities including ShopTalk, SXSW, theBoardlist, Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School and Northwestern University. She also contributes to Women’s Wear Daily and Forbes.

Sonya holds a bachelor of science degree from Northwestern University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In addition, she is a Chartered Financial Analyst.