April Henry is an experienced C-Suite/Board Advisor and public company Non-Executive Director. She is a General Partner at the early stage venture capital fund, Defiance Capital along with her co-founders, the seasoned seed stage venture investor, Christian Dorffer and the legendary athlete and BBC commentator, Michael Johsnon. And, she is also the Managing Partner of the strategic consulting firm Hawkeye Digital, which is focused on driving revenue growth, core decision-making and business transformation for companies at critical points in their growth cycle. In this capacity, she advises and consults with a range of business types in any part of the world, from early strategic business planning and equity fundraising stages to more developed businesses within incubators, investment funds, corporate digital studios and beyond, running the gamut of the digital media, e-commerce, AI/ML technology, emerging healthcare, wellness and consumer sectors. since its founding in 2018.
She also serves on the Board of Directors for two publicly-listed companies: ATN International, a communications infrastructure and services company and SciPlay, a social games company. And, Ms. Henry is a special advisor to S4 Capital, a digital advertising and marketing services company. She is also part of the Him For Her network (https://www.himforher.org/) which works to accelerate diversity on boards.
From 2020 to 2022 she was consultant EVP of Corporate Development at Science, Inc., a top incubation and venture capital fund. In October 2018, Ms. Henry became the co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer for EQUELL, Inc. an early stage digital wellness and rewards platform launched in June 2019. In this role, she oversaw business development partnerships, marketing, digital advertising, e-commerce, recruitment and strategy.
Prior to launching Hawkeye Digital, April was the SVP of Business Development for the world’s leading business news network, CNBC, LLC for from 2016 to 2018, where she sat on the NBCUniversal Management Committee and was a founding member of the CNBC Diversity Council. While at NBCUniversal, LLC she worked extensively with its parent, Comcast, Inc, on investment strategy and due diligence. Prior to that, April spent over four years from 2011 to 2015 at Yahoo, Inc. in leadership roles encompassing a range of responsibilities including strategy, corporate development, mergers & acquisitions in the U.S. and Europe, leading Alibaba’s board support & recapitalization team, market expansion in Europe and human resources / organizational transformation. In this role, she developed and led the M&A Deal Review Committee’s operations for the CEO and Chief Development Officer. This followed nearly 5 years at News Corporation, Inc from 2006 to 2011, in Europe and the U.S., developing strategic board presentations, investments, acquisitions, joint ventures and business development partnerships at News Europe, Fox Interactive and Myspace. Prior to that, from 2005 to 2006, April Henry was an investment associate at Index Ventures out of their London, U.K. office focused on enterprise software and e-commerce investing.
Ms. Henry's corporate experience began with 11 years at Morgan Stanley, Inc. from 1994 to 2005 in global operations, then as a technology and telecommunications equity research analyst responsible for both lead and joint stock coverage as well as research support for Initial Public Offerings and Secondary transactions, most notably including Network Solutions, Inc., Seagate, Inc., Loudcloud, Inc. and Brocade, Inc., among others. Also while at Morgan Stanley, Ms. Henry was the lead and sole named associate supporting the #1 Institutional Investor analyst team behind the renowned 2000 publication, The Broadband Report – Reaping What You Sow: ROI in the Broadband Market and the lead associate behind 1999’s groundbreaking Global Telecommunications Primer – A Guide to the Information Superhighway. Her professional career started on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide from 1991 to 1994 in the U.S. House of Representatives covering issues ranging from breast cancer research to animal welfare along with oversight of Information Technology then followed by managing the over $10 million dollar Washington, DC and California office budget for Senator Barbara Boxer. During undergraduate years, she also worked as a legal assistant at Skadden Arps’s bankruptcy division.
Over the years, Ms. Henry has developed in-depth expertise across digital & streaming media transactions and strategy, digital advertising, online video, social media planning and strategy, consumer financial applications, machine learning business models, artificial intelligence business applications, telecommunications and enterprise storage technologies and business models and wellness application markets. She also has built significant experience in mergers, cash and stock acquisitions, restructuring, reorganization, talent and IP/asset acquisitions, social media marketing, Human Resource operations and diversity strategy.
A United States resident, April Henry works extensively on both the East and West Coasts as well as spending considerable time in the United Kingdom. Ms. Henry has an undergraduate degree in Political Science – with American politics and International Relations concentrations – from Columbia University, awarded in 1998. A long-time computer software fan, April Henry coded her first program at aged 9. Outside of her professional life, she enjoys supporting her alma mater and volunteering for organizations supporting at risk youth, the homeless and veterans in need. As a high performing high school and college varsity track and field sprinter, Ms. Henry continues to be an avid distance runner and loves all things sports.
