Jeffrey Howard

Jeffrey Howard is a Managing Partner at Salveo Capital, an Illinois-based private investment fund focused on the legalized cannabis industry. He joined the firm alongside fellow Managing Partner Michael Gruber when the team re-launched Salveo Fund I, joining existing partners Alex Thiersch and John Dohm and director of fund operations Achint Prabhat. At Salveo his responsibilities span capital raising, deal sourcing and due diligence, investment-committee membership, portfolio management, board representation on portfolio companies, and relationships with financing partners including banks and debt providers.

Before moving into cannabis investing, Howard spent 21 years on Wall Street in roles of increasing responsibility. His last role was at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), where he served as Managing Director and Global Head of Prime Services — running global futures, OTC clearing, interest-rate prime brokerage and FX prime brokerage. In that capacity he managed 90-plus people across North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific, drove the growth strategy of a ~$150 million business, and managed a ~$50 million front-to-back budget.

Earlier, Howard spent roughly 15 years at Merrill Lynch, where his final role was Managing Director and Head of Americas Futures & Options. As a producing manager he was responsible for 61% of the global P&L and managed a sales team of about 50 people across the U.S. and Canada. He now applies this capital-markets and risk-management experience to source deals, perform due diligence, and advise emerging cannabis companies as both investor and advisor.

Howard earned a BA in Philosophy (Cum Laude) from Westminster College and an MBA in Finance from DePaul University's Kellstadt Graduate School of Business.

• Invests through Salveo Capital, a fund launched in 2016 that has backed more than a dozen companies across the cannabis value chain, predominantly in ancillary (non-plant-touching) sectors.
• Focus areas include software and data; financial payments, services and banking; ag-tech and yield-improvement technologies; biotech and pharma; chemistry/genetics; and licensing and branding.
• Stated approach: bring "institutional quality discipline to company vetting, investment structures and portfolio management," building sustainable enterprises that reshape perception of the legal cannabis sector.
• Prefers a "collaborative partnership beyond capital," favoring founders who value active investor involvement and mentorship; the firm highlights backing entrepreneurs with "unrelenting drive."
• Attracted to technology/services companies (e.g., Treez, Würk, Headset, Baker, PathogenDx) precisely because they address regulatory, workflow and production-efficiency pain points unique to cannabis operators.
• Fund targets accredited investors and qualified purchasers only.