James Shecter is a Vice President on Makena’s Private Equity team, responsible for venture and growth-stage directs, secondaries, and co-investments as well as GP (fund-level) allocations and portfolio management within Makena’s Private Equity asset class. Before joining Makena, James was an investor at Fika Ventures (a seed-stage VC in Los Angeles focused on B2B software), where he co-led the firm’s investing across vertical SaaS, AI application layer, and data and developer tools. Prior to Fika, James was an investor at 9Yards Capital (a growth-stage VC in Los Angeles), where he supported the firm’s enterprise, fintech, and logistics investments. Before 9Yards, James worked at Lee Equity Partners (a middle-market buyout firm headquartered in NYC), where he worked on transactions across insurance services, business services, and healthcare. James began his career in investment banking at Citigroup in New York City, providing multi-stage M&A and financing advisory across aerospace and business services sectors. James earned an M.B.A. from Wharton and a B.A. in Behavioral Economics from Harvard College.