Clifford H. Friedman is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of ShareNett. Friedman has a history of 40 years of private equity, venture capital, investment management, financial, and various senior operational roles with a focus on media, communications, technology, and fintech. He has served on over 30 private and public corporate boards, raised capital, and supported strategic negotiations in the United States, the U.K., Italy, Spain, Japan, Sweden, Germany, France, Brazil, Mexico, and seven Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Friedman is particularly skilled in value creation through a systematic process of working with management teams, board members, and customers, creating and negotiating strategic partnerships globally to drive revenue and profitability that positions companies for successful liquidity events for all stakeholders.
From 2014 to 2020, Friedman was a managing director and member of the management committee of Raptor Group Holdings, a private investment company backed by the Family Office of Jim Pallotta, the former vice chairman of Tudor Investments. Prior to this role, Friedman was managing director and founding partner at Highbridge Principal Strategies, Constellation Growth Capital. Friedman also served as a senior vice president of Universal Studios, where he was responsible for the creation and development of the studio’s New Media Group. Before joining Universal Studios, Friedman served as vice president for strategic development at NBC, leveraging existing franchises to create new business opportunities. While at NBC, he helped form the joint venture between NBC and Microsoft (MSNBC) and formulated NBC’s Latin American strategy.
Currently, Friedman is the chairman of Huntington Hospital; director of the board of trustees and community advisory board of Northwell Health System; member of the System Investment Committee; and chairman of the Private Equity Committee. As chairman Friedman is responsible for allocating $300 million annually into various private equity funds and, more recently, direct co-investments, with AUM expected to cross over $1 billion within the next several years.
Friedman earned a B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science and an M.S. in electrophysics from NYU Tandon School of Engineering (Polytechnic University), and an MBA in finance and investments from Adelphi University. He has been awarded two patents in the field of communications and has been published in various international technical and financial journals. He is also a co-inventor of patent-pending systems and methods for trading, clearing, and settling securities transactions using blockchain technology. Additionally, he taught several undergraduate and graduate engineering classes as an adjunct professor at SUNY Stony Brook.