President & Co-Founder

Mr. Malfettone serves as the Chairperson for UConn Strong, a not for profit organization that informs citizens of Connecticut about the University of Connecticut. He is the President for the Cardinal Shehan Center Board, an inner city youth city serving Bridgeport, CT. In addition, he is Chairman Emeritus for the University of Connecticut Foundation and a member of the University of Connecticut Business School Hall of Fame. Mr. Malfettone has a long history of charitable giving to the University of Connecticut which includes donations made to the Werth Family Basketball Champions Center, School of Business, student scholarships and the operations of the UConn Foundation.

Mr. Malfettone retired professionally in 2018 after a 42-year career serving in senior leadership positions in the public accounting, financial services and asset management industries. Since retiring, he has invested and advised businesses in the real estate technology, consulting, and professional services industries. Most recent to his retirement, Mr. Malfettone was a Senior Managing Director at Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R). While at CD&R, Mr. Malfettone served a number of roles including Head of Operations, Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Procurement Officer and Risk Manager.

Previously, he was Partner, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer for Oak Hill Capital Partners, a middle market private equity firm. Prior to that, Mr. Malfettone spent 12 years at GE Capital in various senior management roles including Corporate Controller, EVP CFO, and Managing Director of GE Equity where he ran the Commercial Service Business which profitably invested over $1 billion. Mr. Malfettone also served as the EVP and CFO for MacDermid Inc., and previously was an audit Partner at KPMG Peat Marwick in the Stamford and White Plains offices, where he ran the Computer Audit Practice.

Currently, Mr. Malfettone serves on the Advisory Boards for Alvarez & Marsal’s Transaction Advisory Group, RGP Global and Legal Innovators. In addition, he is a Board Member and Chairs the Audit Committee for SLF, a debt fund managed by New Mountain Capital Finance. He holds a B.S. degree in Accounting from the University of Connecticut where he graduated magna cum laude. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and formerly, the Connecticut Society of CPA’s.

Vice President of Business Development for Men’s Basketball

Mr. Renshaw is a private investor that is active in both public and private markets. He has been involved with a number of start-ups, later stage companies, and corporate restructurings. He is a former Partner of Brigade Capital Management where he focused on Distressed Debt and Leveraged Capital Structures. Prior to that he held various roles at MacKay Shields and Solomon Smith Barney. He currently resides in Greenwich with his wife and 3 children.

Vice President of Business Development for Women’s Basketball

Kalana is a proud alumna of the University of Connecticut (CLAS 2010). Before her career in telecommunications, Kalana had a decorated basketball career and was integral to the back-to-back undefeated UConn Huskies National Championship teams in 2009 and 2010. At UConn, Kalana played an NCAA Record 157 games from 2005 to 2010 and was named 2010 Big East Tournament Most Outstanding Player and 2010 All-Big East First Team. Kalana was drafted 13th overall in the 2010 WNBA Draft and was named to the WNBA All-Rookie Team. She won the WNBA Finals with the Minnesota Lynx in 2015.

A native of South Carolina, Kalana is committed to philanthropy and mentorship. She founded The Greene Family Foundation, which awards The Kalana L. Greene Scholarship to outstanding recipients from Timberland High School. Further, Kalana developed the Addison and Ruby Greene Youth Agricultural Initiative—a program dedicated to connecting South Carolina youth to the land and culture through intergenerational community engagement and farming practices.

Kalana is the Founder and President of KLG Industries—an MWBE electrical construction company specializing in renewable energy and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. With a focus on simple and smart solutions for maximal impact, Kalana has developed deep industry insights and proven process improvements that optimize operations, drive revenue, and increase performance for clients like Tesla, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

Vice President of Business Development for Football

Mr. Burton is a 1999 graduate of the University of Connecticut where earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. During his time at UCONN, Mike was the Captain of the Football team and met his wife Tiffany ’00. Mike and Tiffany have been major benefactors to the university over the past 20 years including a recent gift of $1,000,000.

Mr. Burton is also a major donor for Children's Hospital of Boston as well as several Autism related charities and the Brunswick School in Greenwich Connecticut. Mr. Burton resides in Wilton, CT with his wife and four children.

Mike Burton has been President of Cenveo Worldwide Limited, the nation’s largest direct mail envelope converter since September 2018. He is the company’s largest shareholder and serves on its Board of Directors. Since joining the company in 2005, Mike has held several leadership positions including Chief Operating Officer and President of the Cenveo Print, Label, and Packaging divisions.

Prior to his time at Cenveo, he served as the Executive Vice President of Operations of Burton Capital Management, LLC, and was the primary operations professional. Mr. Burton began his career at Moore Corporation Limited. He held several positions including Vice President of Commercial & Subsidiary Operations, a $600 million division of a multi-national printing concern.

Treasurer

Mr. Ahmed was a scholarship football player at the University of Connecticut (UConn). While at UConn, Rasool helped found a Minority Business Club with the goal to bring awareness to minority (primarily African American and Hispanic) students, to seek careers in Business. Rasool also performed in a series of live plays, produced and directed by Tony Todd (Hollywood actor: his most notable role is Candyman). Rasool pledged Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, first African American Fraternity at UCONN.

Rasool was hired by IBM upon graduation in 1977, He was employed at IBM for 22 years, in sales and sales management. While employed at IBM he participated in numerous IBM executive management classes during his career and was promoted from Connecticut to Dallas in 1983, Jefferson City Missouri in 1985, and finally to Kansas City, Missouri in 1988. While employed at IBM, Rasool established a proven track record of providing dynamic business leadership to large geographic sales organizations. His industry expertise ranges from: Distribution, Construction, Insurance and Banking. He has helped his clients streamline their business operations, increase customer satisfaction, revenue and profitably. IBM also sponsored Rasool’s Executive MBA, which he earned from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri in 1997, with high honors.

Rasool founded ICG Inc., a parking services company primarily operating in the Kansas City, Missouri area. His company has been partnered with SP Plus a nationwide parking services company since 2004. His team of 45 employees provide various parking services on behalf of SP Plus at the Kansas City International Airport.  

Secretary

The University of Connecticut has remained important in Michael’s life since graduating from the schools of Engineering (BS Chemical and Materials Science) and law. Michael has been a longtime advisor to both schools’ advisory boards. He taught patent law at UConn Law as an Adjunct Professor for 25 years. He is a former board member of the UConn Foundation. He is a Founding Fellow of UConn’s Academy of Distinguished Engineers and Hall of Fame and one of the co-founders of the Bleeding Blue for Good Fund.

In 2012, Governor Dannel Malloy appointed Michael to chair the board of directors of Connecticut Innovations, the quasi-public agency charged with growing Connecticut’s economy by making strategic capital and other investments that encourage the development of high-tech industries within the state, such as energy, biotechnology, information technology, and photonics. Thereafter Governor Lamont reappointed Michael to chair in 2019.

Michael has been actively involved in educational outreach geared toward introducing school-age children and college students to engineering and invention. The firm sponsors the Cantor Colburn LLP Scholarship for the University of Connecticut’s School of Engineering as well as a lecture series at the University of Connecticut School of Law directed to intellectual property and entrepreneurship issues. The Cantor family personally sponsors the Cantor Family Scholarship for the University of Connecticut School of Business and UConn’s Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation.

Michael Cantor grew the two-attorney patent law firm he joined after graduating from UConn Law in 1983 into what is today one of the largest, full-service intellectual property (IP) law firms in the country, with more than 100 attorneys in five offices across the U.S., employing 300 people. For more than a decade, Cantor Colburn has been the fastest growing patent law firm in the country, and the firm counts among its clients some of the most innovative companies in the world, who are pioneering technologies that fuel the world economy.

Executive Director

Jared Thomas is the Executive Director of the Bleeding Blue for Good Fund. Jared graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2012. Following graduation, Jared spent six years in the 101st Airborne Division as a Cavalry Officer in the United States Army, earning a Bronze Star during a 2016 deployment to Iraq.

Following his honorable discharge from the Army as a Captain, Jared enrolled in the Indiana University McKinney School of Law, focusing primarily on Commercial Law, Sports & Entertainment Law, Intellectual Property Law, Right of Publicity Law, and Civil Rights Law. Jared graduated in 2021, earning a Graduate Certificate in Civil and Human Rights Law before passing and being admitted to the Indiana Bar.

From May of 2019 to May of 2020, Jared was a Graduate Intern with the Purdue Athletic Department’s Office of Strategic Initiatives, where he managed a variety of projects under the tutelage of the current UConn Athletics Chief Operating Officer, Jason Butikofer. Jared also completed a graduate internship with the Purdue Athletics Compliance Office.

In 2021, Jared became the Director of Corporate Partnerships for the Indy Fuel professional hockey team before transitioning to the world of NIL in 2022 as the Director of Operations & Engagement for Boilermaker Alliance, Purdue’s nonprofit NIL Collective.

CFO

Len LaSalandra is Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Bleeding Blue for Good Fund. Len earned a BS degree in Accounting from the University of Connecticut and a MBA in Finance and Accounting from Sacred Heart University. While attending the University of Connecticut, Len was President of the resident student body (IARC) for one year, founding Secretary for the UCONN Co-Op as well as a member of the Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity, serving as their President in his final year on the Storrs campus. Len has been an ardent contributor to UCONN and supporter of the UCONN Women’s basketball program with season tickets to both Gample Arena and the XL Center over the past couple of decades and attending several Final Four appearances.

Mr. LaSalandra retired professionally in 2014 after a 36-year career primarily focused within the consumer products and branded industries. Len’s most senior roles included serving as SVP & CFO of Calvin Klein, Inc. and SVP & Global CFO of Marchon Eyewear, Inc., until helping facilitate the sale of these privately held companies. His final professional role was in private equity as the managing Director of Portfolio Companies for Patriarch Partners, LLC. Len earned the distinction of being named the Financial Executive of the Year in 2007 for the Long Island Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountant.

Mr. LaSalandra has spent the past 28 years in leadership roles supporting UNICO National, the largest Italian American service organization in the United States, as Treasurer and currently serving as the President of the Bridgeport, CT chapter. UNICO supports a multitude of charities including cancer research, science, armed services and anti-bias causes around the United States. Additionally, Len has supported local underserved elderly and others in managing personal finance and tax concerns.

Advisory Board

Mr. Nayden earned a B.A., magna cum laude, and an MBA in Finance from the University of Connecticut where he served on the Board of Trustees from 2001 through June 2019.

Mr. Nayden has an extensive and long history with UConn. Along with his wife, Britta, he has established new centers and clinics on campus, funded scholarships, and helped guide students forward. He has created the Britta R. and Denis J. Nayden Scholarship and Fellowship Fund to assist student-athletes and has supported the Werth Family UConn Basketball Champions Center, encouraging former UConn Husky basketball players to give back through the Nayden Challenge. He has a long history with the School of Business.

Mr. Nayden has donated his time and expertise to guide the University, serving on many boards across campus, including the University’s Board of Trustees, the UConn Foundation’s Board of Directors, the Executive Leadership Council Advisory Board, and has been a frequent lecturer at the School of Business. He was the longest serving Trustee, serving 18 years. Mr. Nayden is also a founding member of the UConn School of Business Dean’s Advisory Cabinet and continues to serve as a senior advisor. He also co-chaired the first UConn Foundation capital campaign, which raised over $400 million for UConn.

Mr. Nayden was formerly an Advisory Managing Partner of Oak Hill Capital from 2016 through 2017 and a Managing Partner from 2003 through 2016. He is the former Chairman of the Boards of Directors of Avolon Holdings Limited, Duane Reade Inc., Firth Rixson Limited, Omada International, Primus International, RSC Equipment Rental and Varagon Capital Partners as well as on the boards of Jacobson Companies and Genpact Limited, all prior Oak Hill Capital investments.

Prior to joining Oak Hill, he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at GE Capital, where he was responsible for 20 separate businesses representing $555 billion of aggregate assets and 90,000 employees in 35 countries. He had a 25-year career at GE Capital.

Denis Nayden is Chairman of James Alpha Holdings, LLC, a privately held diversified asset management and financial services company. He is also Chairman, Investment Committee member and Operating Investor at Harkness Capital Partners, a private equity fund.

Mr. Nayden is the Vice Chairman, Lead Independent Director, Chairman of the Audit Committee and member of the Remuneration Committee at Avolon Holdings Limited, an international aircraft leasing company. Mr. Nayden also serves on the Board of Directors of LiteSheet Solutions and the Global Board of buildOn (a non-profit organization).

Advisory Board

Ashley Battle, a native of Pittsburgh PA, has brought passion and love for the game of basketball for many years. She was the only girl to make the all-boys basketball team. In high school, Ashley averaged a quadruple double (in points, rebounds, steals and assists) and became one of the top female basketball players in the country.

Ashley decided to attend the University of Connecticut. During her career at the UConn, she won the 2002 Big East Defensive Player of the Year Award and in the process won 3 National Championships including one undefeated year. She graduated with a double major in Business Marketing and Economics.

Ashley was selected 25th overall by the WNBA Seattle Storm. She also played with the New York Liberty and the San Antonio Silver Stars (now the Las Vegas Aces).

Battle is an active and founding member of BattleCon, which advocates for the growth and development of youth. They are committed to building a program for young people that is built on integrity, accountability, leadership, community service and hard work. BattleCon is committed to bringing a unique, memorable, and impactful experience to families.

Ashley created the Culture Bound foundation. Culture Bound’s mission is to provide opportunities and tools for the youth of America. Culture Bound provides opportunities for the youth to enhance their social skills, learn who they are and how and to execute and achieve their personal dreams.

Ashley is a Hall of Famer, a former high school basketball coach, a former financial director for Barnum Financial Group, a former PLM for Jordan Brand under Nike and currently she serves as a Scout for the Boston Celtics.

Advisory Board

Kevin Solomon graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelors of Science in Marketing from the School of Business in 2014 and a Master's of Art from the Digital Media and Design Program in 2015. A former baseball player for Jim Penders, Kevin began his professional career working in the UConn Athletic Marketing Department before continuing his career in Advertising and Social Media, which he specializes in today. In 2017, Kevin co-founded the Husky Ticket Project, a 501(C)3 aimed at providing underprivileged kids and local youth organizations with free tickets to UConn games. Currently serving as the Chief Marketing Officer, Kevin helps foster HTP's mission to "Build the Next Generation of UConn Fans." Kevin currently lives with his wife Meghan in New Jersey.

Advisory Board

Advisory Board