Bruce Haymes

Bruce Haymes is founder and managing director of Stage18, Inc., a strategic consultancy and industry advisor to private equity firms and their portfolio companies, primarily focused on ad tech, media tech, retail technologies, and data tech. He is also chairman of the board of directors of Toluna Corporation, a global digital insights company serving the technology, CPG, and retail food industries, based in Europe, and a portfolio company of Verlinvest. He is also an executive-in-residence at Progress Partners, an investment advisory firm focused on ad tech and based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Bruce was previously senior vice president of corporate development and M&A at Nielsen, as well as founder and managing director of Nielsen Innovate, a global seed-stage venture capital fund. He was also co-founder of Nielsen Innovate, Nielsen’s startup investment and innovation platform. Prior to Nielsen, he was corporate vice president of business affairs at Time Warner Cable and head of corporate development and strategy at PanAmSat, which yielded a $4B exit with KKR, Carlyle, and Providence. Bruce began his career practicing corporate finance law at leading New York law firms, including Chadbourne & Parke and Morrison & Foerster.

He has served on the advisory board of Sweetwood Capital (Fund I – Europe) and as an advisor to the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF). He is a mentor at Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA) in New York and has been a guest lecturer in corporate finance and M&A at Cornell Tech’s MBA program in New York. He is a member of the New York and New Jersey Bar Associations and a graduate of Tufts University and the George Washington University School of Law, with honors.