Darren Wallis, Esq.

Darren Wallis is an investor, advisor, and former law firm managing partner with more than 26 years of experience working with high-growth companies, investment funds, and institutional investors across the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. His career sits at the intersection of company building, capital formation, and strategic advisory, where he brings a combination of operating, investment, and legal experience to founders and executive teams.

Until recently, Darren served as Managing Partner of the Riyadh office of an international law firm with 19 global offices, where he advised sovereign wealth funds, investment firms, and high-growth companies on cross-border investments, mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, and strategic partnerships. His work frequently involved connecting companies with institutional investors and strategic capital sources across the U.S., GCC, and Europe.

Earlier in his career, Darren co-founded Maplewood Capital, an event-driven special situations investment firm that was a spin-out of Guggenheim Partners’ Active Value Group. Maplewood produced top-quartile returns for more than a decade through disciplined investment in complex and catalyst-driven opportunities.

Prior to Maplewood, Darren was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Permit Capital, a spin-out of Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners. Earlier, he served as Managing Partner of Osage Partners, where he led a majority of the firm’s early-stage venture investments, including a portfolio company that generated a realized return in excess of 15x. In collaboration with the firm’s founder, he also helped formulate and launch Osage University Partners, a venture platform focused on commercializing breakthrough scientific research emerging from leading universities.

Earlier in his career, Darren was a Venture Partner at Cross Atlantic Capital Partners and practiced mergers and acquisitions law at Sullivan & Cromwell, where he worked on numerous technology transactions, including the $41 billion merger of SDL and JDS Uniphase. He began his career as a Senior Consultant at Accenture Technology Labs in Palo Alto, where he analyzed emerging technologies and innovation strategies for global clients.

Over the course of his career, Darren has participated in more than $110 billion of mergers, acquisitions, and joint venture transactions and has served on more than 20 public and private company boards. His professional achievements were recognized with the Philadelphia Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” award.

A retired Lieutenant of the United States Navy, Darren holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, and a Juris Doctorate cum laude from Duke Law School, where he also studied finance and capital markets at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. He permanently resides in Villanova, Pennsylvania, United States, with his wife and three children.