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Vision Statement
With exceptional results, Elliptical Partners provides exceptional Consulting and Advisory services in support of a diverse international business and investment portfolio.
Our partnership scope reaches a global client base while interconnecting key industries by leveraging innovation as a cornerstone approach.
Core Values
Elliptical Partners is committed to attracting and cultivating diverse partnerships who share and incorporate our core values of Honesty, Fairness, Teamwork, Opportunity, Inclusion, and Transparency. These core values are woven into every project we develop and every transaction we close.
Executive Leadership
Our team is comprised of experienced and talented innovators who are committed to exceeding client expectations by providing high-value, high-quality, and seamless solutions on time.
is a cornerstone of Elliptical Partners. We uphold a commitment to openness and honesty in all our dealings with clients, colleagues, and partners. We provide comprehensive, clear information about our strategies, processes, and outcomes, enabling our clients to make well-informed decisions and have complete visibility into our efforts on their behalf. We foster open communication and actively seek feedback to continuously refine and adapt our methods to suit our clients’ ever-evolving needs.
is at the heart of our ethos. We embrace the idea that simplicity is the pinnacle of sophistication. Our services and solutions are designed to be straightforward and practical, avoiding unnecessary complexities and jargon. We deliver actionable guidance and recommendations that can be swiftly and effectively implemented. Our approach is flexible and adaptable, allowing us to customize our services to precisely match the unique needs and requirements of each client.
is a fundamental principle at Elliptical Partners. We commit to delivering high-quality, dependable services and solutions that our clients can always rely on. We maintain rigorous standards of excellence across all our endeavors, ensuring that our work consistently attains the highest quality. Our unwavering sense of responsibility instills trust in our clients, assuring them that we will always uphold our commitments and promises. At Elliptical Partners, these core values underpin every facet of our work, and we take immense pride in providing our clients with the utmost level of service and support.
Today, Whitelaw is the founder and CEO of the Raybar Group of companies, which includes The Vietnam Group and Elliptical Partners. He is a Co-Founder of Symplefy, Inc., Chairman of Transpacific Media and VitalGen Health, and host of the Lotus Talks podcast. He is also CEO of GoLogiq, a FinTech firm focused on the ASEAN & African and U.S markets.
Abdulhadi serves as Chief Executive Officer and Board Member for several corporations. As the third generation leader of AHQ Group, a prominent family business headquartered in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, he currently oversees all global and local operations.
Kirkendall is a co-founder and CFO of Elliptical Partners. He is also a transformation consultant primarily focused on organizational enhancement and redesign with a strong background in the international military defense arena.
Dino Valvero is a founding partner and Chief Operating Officer of Elliptical Partners. He is responsible for oversight of day-to-day operations and business development throughout the Middle East while closely working with the Chief Executive Officer to implement the company’s vision.
Loren Katzovitz brings over 35 years of financial services experience, including Investment management, proprietary trading and managing operating businesses.
Dr. Egli served at the White House on the National Security Council as Director for Counterterrorism & Global Counternarcotics; was senior advisor to the President for hostage rescue policy, and chaired the Interagency Hostage Working Group.
Mark Lieberman has over 30+ years of investment and business experience with a unique set of capabilities covering client solutions and business development, origination, portfolio management, trading, and risk management
We have many advisors and consultants that work with us on our projects worldwide. We staff each project according to the requirements of our clients, and the skill sets needed
Whitelaw continues to pursue his passion for entrepreneurship, technology, and innovation, investing in and advising a wide range of businesses and startups. He has also been granted several patents for his work in technology and is widely regarded as a key thought leader in the FinTech and broader technology industries.
Granger Whitelaw was born on October 30, 1966, in Port Huron, Michigan, to parents who were both entrepreneurs. He was raised in Vail, Colorado, and St. Louis. Whitelaw was always interested in business and finance. After graduating high school, he served as an Honor Guard in the US Army in Korea. He then attended the University of Minnesota, where he fell in love with art and business, subsequently financing many young artists’ careers and notable ones, including the last ‘Calla Lilly’ series for Robert Mapplethorpe.
After graduation, Whitelaw began his career in the insurance industry, working for Mass Mutual’s top agency, The Meltzer Group. However, he knew that he wanted to do more than sell insurance and began looking for new opportunities.
In 1994, Whitelaw moved to New York City to join Cowan Financial Group. He then joined Grady & Hatch, another Wall Street firm, where he served as Vice President of Mergers & Acquisitions (“M&A”) with a technology focus. There, he worked with some of the top names in the industry and gained invaluable experience in M&A and corporate finance.
During his tenure on Wall Street and beyond, Whitelaw raised over $3.4 billion in capital for various companies and helped many of them achieve significant growth and success.
In 1998, Whitelaw decided to leave Wall Street and strike out on his own as an entrepreneur. He founded EBS Ltd dba EOCNET.com, a company that developed software for e-commerce transactions. At EOCNET, Whitelaw wrote the world’s first law for e-commerce digital signature and settlement, which helped establish the legal framework for online commerce.
In addition to his work at EOCNET, Whitelaw served as Chief Sales & Marketing officer of CoreCommerce, the first EJB middleware platform in the world using Java – he was instrumental in scaling and selling the business in under 18 months. In addition, Granger is a founding partner of TrendSphere, a think-tank for CIOs of Fortune 100 companies, where he consulted Karstadt, Astra Zeneca, GE, and others, and another successful exit for him to a high-profile European business group.
In addition to his work in business and finance, Whitelaw also had a passion for racing. He was a partner of two Indy 500 winning teams, in 1996 and 1998, with Buddy Lazier & Eddie Cheever, respectively.
In 2005, he co-founded the Rocket Racing League, a professional motorsports league that developed & raced rocket-powered aircraft with Peter Diamandis, and an investor list including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Koch, Bob Hariri, the Thyssen Family, and many more notable investors.
Throughout his career, Whitelaw has also been committed to philanthropy and has founded several organizations to make a difference in the world. He founded The Homeless Foundation of America in 1991 to provide home ownership to the Homeless. The Amber Development Group to support the Amber Alert Portal program in 2006 – 07, which helps to locate missing children and return them safely in minutes, not hours. He is a founding benefactor of the X-Prize Foundation, which aims to incentivize innovation and technological development, and he supports several charities in the US and abroad, including orphaned children in Vietnam among others.
Today, Whitelaw is the founder and CEO of the Raybar Group of companies, which includes The Vietnam Group and Elliptical Partners. He is a Co-Founder of Symplefy, Inc., Chairman of Transpacific Media and VitalGen Health, and host of the Lotus Talks podcast. He is also CEO of GoLogiq, a FinTech firm focused on the ASEAN & African and US markets.
Through the Raybar Group, Whitelaw continues to pursue his passion for entrepreneurship, technology, and innovation, investing in and advising a wide range of businesses and startups. He has also been granted several patents for his work in technology and is widely regarded as a thought leader in the FinTech and broader technology industries.
Granger Whitelaw’s career has been marked by a deep commitment to entrepreneurship, technology, innovation, and philanthropy. From his early days in the insurance industry to his time on Wall Street and his subsequent work in e-commerce & Fintech.
• Executive Producer of an Award-Winning Documentary with Jonathan Demme – Crude Independence
• CEO Kalorama Studios: Produced Gardens of Stone, Pelican Brief, and Peggy Sue Got Married to note a few.
• President of Shuffleboard Records, Shuffleboard productions & their ‘Youth Rock Live” tours. Helped launch multiple careers.
• President & Creative Director for several Social Media companies and currently CEO of BBLSEA in Asia.
• Venture Capitalist / Investment Banker: Wall Street 20 years+. Has invested in and successfully exited multiple transactions.
With a background in Mechanical Engineering, Mr. Abdulhadi brings a unique technical perspective to his leadership roles. As the Managing Director of AHQ Group, he provides strategic direction and ensures smooth functioning of all business lines on a day-to-day basis. He also holds the position of Chief Operating Officer for Al-Qahtani Pipe Coating Industries (AQPCI), one of AHQ Group’s core subsidiaries.
In addition, Mr. Abdulhadi manages various other companies under the AHQ Group’s, which have a presence in industries such as engineering, construction, field inspection services, logistics, transportation, and several others.
Aside from his responsibilities leading AHQ Group, Mr. Abdulhadi is actively involved in evaluating new business opportunities by tracking emerging market trends both inside and outside of Saudi Arabia. His goal is to represent promising companies in the Kingdom that can further expand AHQ Group’s diverse portfolio.
Through experienced leadership across many sectors, Abdulhadi has successfully continued the multi-generational growth and success of his family’s enterprises. He brings a visionary approach to both managing current operations and identifying strategic expansion opportunities on the global stage.
He has extensive overseas experience working with governments and defense departments in Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Kirkendall is passionate about leader development and coaching. Following a 25-year career in the United States Air Force, he joined JP Morgan’s Private Bank where he developed a reputation as a privacy and regulatory expert in banking operations. As direct support to client facing activities, Kirkendall was responsible for privacy compliance activities over half of the globe.
Dino Valvero is a founding partner and Chief Operating Officer of Elliptical Partners. He is responsible for oversight of day-to-day operations and business development throughout the Middle East while closely working with the Chief Executive Officer to implement the company’s vison. Elliptical Partners welcomes Dino’s leadership and extensive background in Program Management, International Business Development, Capture Management, Strategy, Operational Planning, Data Analytics, Human Resource Management, Logistics, and Training.
Dino is a retired U.S. Army Officer fortunate to have a combined professional career spanning over forty years in defense contracting, military service, and private sector business. He has spent over sixteen years in the Middle East working in support of U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of State programs.
Dino hails from St. Louis, Missouri where he grew up on the Italian Hill, and later moved to Ladue, a suburb of St. Louis where he graduated from Horton Watkins high school and soon after, began a career in the United States Army.
Throughout his career in the Army, Dino was stationed at multiple bases in both the United States and overseas while being assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division, 18th Airborne Corps, 4th Infantry Division, 2nd Infantry Division, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command/ Combined Arms Center, and the Command and General Staff College. Dino’s terminal assignment was Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where he retired with over twenty years of active duty service. Dino attended Webster University while working on a Master’s degree in Human Resource Management and Saint Martin’s College while working on his Undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice.
Following military retirement, Dino spent the next eighteen years working in both the defense and private sectors. While supporting a myriad of U.S. contracts, to include Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales contracts, Dino had the opportunity to work for General Dynamics, Raytheon Corporation, Northrup Grumman, L3 Com, PAE (Aumentum), SAIC, and MAG Aerospace; some of the top defense companies in the industry. Outside of the United States, contracts took him to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, UAE, Romania, Czech Republic, Moldova, Germany, Italy, and Türkiye.
In Afghanistan, Dino spent fourteen years contributing to the Global War on Terror in both Operation Enduring Freedom and Resolute Support. During his career, he has supported numerous foreign Ministries of Defense and Ministries of Interior, U.S. and Coalition Governmental Agencies, Special Operations Forces, and Conventional Organizations to include: the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Special Operations Joint Task Force-Afghanistan, NATO Special Operations Component Command-Afghanistan, Afghan National Army Special Operations Command, the Afghan Air Force, and Afghan Special Police. He also spent multiple years directly supporting the Italian Army and German Air Force.
Most recently, Dino served as a Senior Advisor in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in direct support of the Ministry of Defense.
Prior to Elliptical, Mr. Katzovitz was a Managing Director at Lazard Asset Management, responsible for building the alternatives business, including recruiting, seeding, incubating, and developing new investment strategies for the firm.
Loren has led a number of businesses related to Guggenheim Partners, of which he joined in 2002. He was the firm’s President and a Managing Partner until 2006. During that time, he co-founded Guggenheim Advisors and Guggenheim Alternative Asset Management (GAAM), serving as its Chairman & CEO until 2011. Loren and his team grew one of the industry’s first Managed Account Platforms to $3B AUM at its peak, while focusing on institutional investors, providing them with real time transparency and risk monitoring.
In 2011, Loren transitioned his role at GAAM to launch GGT. GGT served as Guggenheim Partners Proprietary investment vehicle. GGT was structured as a multi-strategy, multi manager platform investing globally across a variety of asset classes. He then formed Deimos Asset Management which was formed through a management buyout of Guggenheim Global Trading (GGT), the former multi-manager, multi-strategy hedge fund platform of Guggenheim Partners.
Prior to joining Guggenheim, Loren worked at Royal Bank Canada (RBC) in New York as the Head of the Alternative Assets business and also Co-Headed RBC’s Global Equity Derivatives and Proprietary Trading business in which he managed nearly $5B AUM for RBC and high net worth investors. Mr. Katzovitz spent the early part of his career at Kidder Peabody, Lehman Bros. and Bankers Trust and focused on a variety of markets including commodities and alternatives.
Mr. Katzovitz holds a BS degree from the University of Southern California.
He currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Minister of Defense in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and previously supported the Minister of Interior, developing their Homeland Security and Cyber Security strategy, and Border Guard reorganization.
Dr. Egli was Senior Advisor for Counterterrorism and Defense Operations Policy at the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Coast Guard in Washington, DC; and previously served in the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico; and was National Security Advisor for Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, specializing in Homeland Security, Resilience, and Cyber Security.
He is President of Cardinal Headings, LLC, specializing in leadership development and national security. He is the former President and Co-Founder of Hyperloop Advanced Research Partnership (HARP), exploring next generation high speed transportation systems.
As a career Coast Guard officer, he served in operational leadership conducting search & rescue, homeland security, and maritime law enforcement missions. He also served at NORAD/US NORTHCOM in Colorado Springs as Director of Future Operations (J35), and as Senior Maritime Advisor to the Combatant Commander. He also served as adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University: Carey School of Business and Whiting School of Engineering; and was Distinguished Professor at the Colorado Technical University and University of Colorado, teaching Homeland and Cyber Security.
Dr. Egli graduated from the Coast Guard Academy, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering. He received graduate degrees from George Washington University and National Defense University, a doctoral degree from University of Colorado (Denver) and is a distinguished graduate of the Naval War College. He is also a graduate of Harvard University, Kennedy School Executive Education Program.
He is the author of “Beyond the Storms: Strengthening Homeland Security and Disaster Management to Achieve Resilience,” and co-authored “Hyperloop: The Future of High Speed Transportation.” He has appeared on ABC, CNN, FOX News, C-SPAN, Al Jazeera, and NPR to address national security, risk management, cyber security, and hostage rescue policy. His most recent publications are a book entitled, “The Crossing: Discovering God’s Providence in the Miracle and Mystery of the Exodus;” and article, “The Ambitious Dragon: Beijing’s Calculus for Invading Taiwan by 2030.”
Mr. Lieberman is a results-driven leader with expertise across asset management, derivatives, and capital markets including both buy and sell-side businesses. He has been at the forefront of innovations in the fixed-income capital markets on behalf of investment firms and their clients.
From 2005-2022, Mark was a Managing Director and Member of the founding partnership at First Principles Capital Management (FPCM) that built the asset management business from inception to $9.5 billion in AUM with an institutional and family office client base. FPCM leads innovations in client solutions offerings. His responsibilities included portfolio management and trading of Global Inflation-linked Opportunities Fund (multi-share class), and relative value alpha. Expanded responsibilities included business development, client coverage, and product development. He was a member of strategy and investment committees.
Prior to AIG First Principles, Mr. Lieberman headed Nomura’s fixed-income derivatives business in NYC and was a member of the firm’s fixed-income management committee. Mr. Lieberman held a number of positions in management, trading, business development, and distribution roles. Early in his tenure, Mark was involved in market innovations related to fixed-income derivatives development and market making, including the first publicly issued hybrid transactions. These structures won a finance innovation award issued in Japan.