Senior Advisor - TrailRunner International

Scott Sonju

Scott Sonju is an experienced executive, entrepreneur, teacher, and leadership coach with deep knowledge of leadership development, organizational behavior, culture building, change management, entrepreneurship, and the business of sports. He is the founder of SNS Advisory through which he advises and coaches multiple business owners and C-suite executives.

Scott was part of the initial team that launched TrailRunner Sports and serves as an ongoing resource. For five years he was President of Neltex Sports, an investment and advisory consortium that consults, develops, and owns and/or operates various sports-related businesses. During that time, Scott forged a historic partnership with the China Baseball Association, launched a professional rugby club, spearheaded acquisitions, and was a strategic advisor to a startup professional sports league.

For more than a decade, Scott was President and Co-Owner of the Frisco RoughRiders, a Texas Rangers affiliate and one of the most successful clubs in Minor League Baseball. During Scott’s tenure, the RoughRiders received myriad industry and community awards and placed numerous employees into professional sports leadership roles. Scott began his business career at the Dallas Mavericks, then invested five years helping to lead a 270-employee nonprofit in Upstate New York.

Scott has extensive experience with strategy, leadership and business development, turnarounds, negotiations, communications, operations, and public/private partnerships. He has been involved with several startups and is the founder of three nonprofits.

Scott is active in the community and over the years has served on multiple civic and charitable boards. He is a two-time selection for the Dallas Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” and was a Texas League Executive of the Year.

Scott earned his MBA at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and a Bachelor of Arts in history from Texas A&M University. He is also an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University, where he teaches a popular master’s-level sports sponsorship course. Scott loves to read, hike, travel, write, teach, and civilly discuss philosophy, worldviews, economics, business, and leadership. Scott and his wife Amy have four children and make their home in North Texas.

Jennifer Kuperman

Jennifer Kuperman, Head of Corporate Affairs for Chime, is a Senior Advisor to TrailRunner. She was previously a Managing Director for TrailRunner in San Francisco where she counseled clients on corporate and executive positioning, crisis communications, media and brand strategy, leadership changes and special situations.

A proven international communications and marketing leader with deep experience leading teams and shaping corporate narratives for some of the world’s most recognized companies, Jennifer has led programs for organizations at key inflection points such as IPOs, executive transitions, crises, mergers and brand re-positionings.

Previously, Jennifer was the Head of International Corporate Affairs for Alibaba Group, where she developed and managed global communications strategy and stakeholder engagement for one of the world’s largest ecommerce companies. She served as chief architect of the company’s communications strategy for its record-breaking IPO and as a strategic advisor to the company’s principal executives including Chairman Jack Ma and Vice Chairman Joe Tsai. Prior to Alibaba, she was Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Marketing and Reputation at Visa Inc., and previously served as the Chief of Staff to Visa’s CEO. Jennifer began her career as a management consultant with Accenture.

Jennifer is an active board member of Post Holdings (NYSE: POST), Bellring Brands (NYSE: BRBR), Post Holdings Partnering Corporation (NYSE: PSPC.U) and Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions.

She received a B.A. from Middlebury College and an M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. Jennifer lives in San Francisco with her husband, Eric, and their two daughters.

Thomas F. ‘Mack’ McLarty III

Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty, III advises a small and elite group of TrailRunner clients on matters of international strategy.

He is Chairman of McLarty Associates, which he co-founded in 1998 following a distinguished record of business leadership and public service, including various roles advising three US Presidents: Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter. Mr. McLarty is also Chairman of the McLarty Companies, a fourth-generation family transportation business.

As President Clinton’s White House Chief of Staff, Mr. McLarty helped enact the historic 1993 deficit reduction package, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Family and Medical Leave law, and the landmark welfare reform legislation that enabled more than 6.8 million people to move from welfare to work. He also organized the successful 1994 Summit of the Americas in Miami, which ultimately led to his appointment as Special Envoy for the Americas in 1997.

As Counselor to President Clinton, Mr. McLarty advised on a broad range of international and domestic issues. He traveled to the Persian Gulf on the president’s behalf to build financial support for the Bosnian peace process, led the US delegation to the inauguration of South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, and signed the peace accords that brought peace to Guatemala for the first time in three decades. Mr. McLarty planned US participation in the 1998 Summit of the Americas in Santiago, and participated in several G-7 and APEC Summits.

Prior to his government service, Mr. McLarty was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arkla, a Fortune 500 natural gas company. During his tenure Arkla grew into the nation’s largest natural gas distributor, with customers in eleven states and significant exploration and pipeline operations. Mr. McLarty was appointed by President Bush to the National Petroleum Council and the Council on Environmental Quality, and he was a member of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Board from 1989 through 1992.

Mr. McLarty is a frequent public speaker, and has published numerous articles on US trade and foreign policy. He has served on the boards of many corporate and non-profit institutions including as a Director of Union Pacific and the Acxiom Corporation, and on the boards of the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund, the Council of the Americas, the InterAmerican Dialogue, Ford’s Theatre, and the Center for the Study of the Presidency. In addition, he serves as a Senior International Fellow at the US Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Mr. McLarty is the recipient of the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Medal; the highest civilian honors of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela; and the Center for the Study of the Presidency Distinguished Service Award. Mr. McLarty is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Arkansas.

Jack L. Oliver III

Jack Oliver works with select TrailRunner clients on matters of international strategy.

Throughout his career Jack has worked across the highest levels of national politics, government, technology, finance and business to provide senior relationship management and unparalleled insights at the intersection of public policy, innovation and commerce. Jack develops partnerships with Fortune 100 companies, financial sponsors and middle market companies across the globe and has cultivated deep relationships at top venture capital firms.

Currently, Jack serves as a Senior Advisor of Bryan Cave LLP, an international law firm based in St. Louis, Missouri and is a Managing Partner of Dock Square Capital LLC, a merchant bank based in Miami, Florida with Governor Bush.

Additionally, he is a Senior Advisor to companies including Formation 8, Palantir Technologies, OpenGov, Addepar, Leeo, and Rubicon Global.

Governor Jeb Bush

Governor Bush advises a small and elite group of TrailRunner clients on matters of international strategy.

Jeb Bush was the 43rd governor of the State of Florida, serving from 1999 through 2007. He was the third Republican elected to the state’s highest office and the first Republican in the state’s history to be reelected. He was most recently a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

Governor Bush remained true to his conservative principles throughout his two terms in office – cutting nearly $20 billion in taxes, vetoing more than $2.3 billion in earmarks and reducing the state government workforce by more than 13,000. His limited government approach helped unleash one of the most robust and dynamic economies in the nation, creating 1.3 million net new jobs and improving the state’s credit ratings, including achieving the first ever triple-A bond rating for Florida.

During his two terms, Governor Bush championed major reform of government, in areas ranging from health care and environmental protection to civil service and tax reform. His top priority was the overhaul of the state’s failing education system. Under Governor Bush’s leadership, Florida established a bold accountability system in public schools and created the most ambitious school choice programs in the nation. Today, Florida remains a national leader in education and is one of the only states in the nation to significantly narrow the achievement gap.

Governor Bush currently serves as Chairman of Dock Square Capital LLC, a merchant bank headquartered in Miami. It was founded on the core principals of transparency, creativity, trust and alignment of interest with our partners and investors. Dock Square Capital operates at the nexus of a global network of entrepreneurs and families, and possesses the structural flexibility to add value as principal investors, strategic advisors and joint venture partners.

Governor Bush earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and moved to Florida in 1981. With partner Armando Codina, he started a small real estate development company, which grew to become the largest, full-service commercial real estate company in South Florida.

Governor Bush previously served as Florida’s Secretary of Commerce under Bob Martinez, Florida’s 40th governor. As Secretary of Commerce, he promoted Florida’s business climate worldwide. Following an unsuccessful bid for governor in 1994, he founded the nonprofit Foundation for Florida’s Future, which joined forces with the Urban League of Greater Miami to establish the state’s first charter school.

Governor Bush maintains his passion for improving the quality of education for students across the country by serving as the Chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a national nonprofit education reform organization he founded to transform education in America.

He has written three books, Profiles in Character; Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution; and Reply All: A Governor’s Story 1999-2007.

Governor Bush lives in Miami with his wife Columba. They have three children and four grandchildren.