Pete Donat joined Needham & Company as a Senior Advisor in 2019 to help bolster the firm’s Investment Banking capabilities in FinTech and Payments. Since joining, Pete has been involved in several M&A transactions and IPOs. He is also co-head of the firm’s Crypto and Blockchain efforts. Prior to Needham, had a 25-year career in the payment industry with a variety of executive roles at First Data, Visa and MasterCard. During that time, he worked on over 30 transactions, including several industry-transformative acquisitions, divestitures, investments and IPOs. At First Data, he was Head of New Ventures & Business Development with responsibility for managing the company’s most disruptive partnerships – and dozens of investments/acquisitions with early stage FinTech companies. Outside of Needham & Company, Pete is a Senior Advisor at the Boston Consulting Group’s Financial Services practice, and an advisor/board member to several FinTech and security startups. Pete holds an MBA from Wharton, an M.A. in International Economics & US Foreign Policy from Johns Hopkins (SAIS), and an AB from Dartmouth College.