We acquire and operate exceptional Businesses serving clinical research and life sciences.
Emerald Square is led by entrepreneurs who commit their careers to your business. For years, we have focused our research and relationships on the life sciences, clinical research and healthcare technology ecosystems. Founders that partner with us gain operators who understand their world.
What Makes Emerald Square Ventures Unique?
Complementary Experience
Eddie Hannush (commercial strategy, enterprise sales, go-to-market) and Ben Joers (strategic finance, M&A) combine complementary expertise with proven operational leadership in culture and growth. Backed by seasoned investors and operators from Fortune 500 companies, family businesses, and private equity, they bring holistic strategic, financial, and operational support.
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Unconditional Trust
Ben and Eddie’s partnership is rooted in years of friendship and collaboration. It's been strengthened through family milestones, shared adventures, and years as hockey teammates. This authentic trust creates seamless collaboration and unified vision. Their deep personal and professional relationships, including with Emerald Square Ventures’ board and investors, offer a foundation of alignment that cannot be forced or replicated.
Hybrid Model
Emerald Square blends the best of private equity and small business entrepreneurship. With a small group of aligned investors, family offices and institutions managing over $1B, we bring certainty and flexibility. Every LOI is aligned with our board, eliminating transition risks. We’re entrepreneurial partners, not process-driven outsiders, focused on enhancing your team’s strengths while preserving your market edge.
Current Operating Focus
Emerald Square Ventures has partnered with H Clinical, a provider of clinical research services supporting pharmaceutical sponsors and contract research organizations from around the world. Working with trial sites, investigators and patients across Latin America, H Clinical helps support study recruitment, operations and access. Simply put, the company brings studies to the patients and populations that need them. Based in the United States but embedded across communities in Latin America, H Clinical is the leader in localized clinical trial services and home visits across the LatAm region.
The Emerald Square founders, Ben Joers and Eddie Hannush, are joining H Clinical as full-time operators, working alongside the company's founders, existing leadership team and its people. Our commitment is straightforward: preserve what makes the company excellent, invest in its team, and support its next stage of growth — with a board of directors that brings decades of experience in global clinical research and in building companies across the Americas.
Hybrid Trial Support
Our in-home clinical research staff delivers the best patient care while following the rigors of clinical trial protocols.
Community-Embedded Patient Recruitment
Engage local communities with cultural acumen. Tailor recruitment strategies to regional contexts.
Research Staffing
Bring necessary skills to your studies. Fill gaps in core clinical research roles with professional in-country staff support.
Equipment and Infrastructure
Our in-country clinical trials storage infrastructure, distribution, couriers, and local equipment and supplies enable sponsors, CROs, and logistics providers to streamline studies, achieve more cost-effective budgets, and avoid delays.
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Meet the Emerald Square Founders
Ben Joers
Co-Founder, Managing Partner
Ben brings the financial strategy and operational discipline of institutional private equity to Emerald Square.
He began his career in investment banking at Piper Jaffray before moving to private equity at CVC Capital Partners, where he led due diligence on control investments across North America and Europe — including in healthcare — ran point on new sourcing strategies, and drove strategic finance initiatives inside portfolio companies. He then worked directly with the executive teams of two software companies, FSI and TopQuadrant. TopQuadrant is an enterprise data-governance platform serving pharmaceutical, life sciences, and financial services customers with demanding regulatory and compliance requirements. At TopQuadrant, Ben evaluated adjacent-market expansion, institutionalized roles and responsibilities across teams, and built analytics mechanisms for senior leadership. He received hands-on exposure to how data, governance, and compliance operate inside regulated industries.
Ben received his MBA from The Wharton School, specializing in Management and Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and holds a BA in Economics from Middlebury College.
Eddie Hannush
Co-Founder, Managing Partner
Eddie leads Emerald Square's commercial strategy and go-to-market, drawing on a career building and running enterprise sales teams across markets.
At Amazon, he led a cross-border enterprise sales business unit, broke sales records, and orchestrated partnerships spanning Amazon Web Services, Amazon Media Group, Alexa, and Prime Video. He led the team advising the C-suites of some of the world's largest consumer businesses — coordinating brand executives, commercial leadership, and agencies to consistently exceed revenue targets. He then worked with the executive teams of two software companies. At Eleven Software he built sales-compensation structures, led vendor negotiations, and managed systems integration through Eleven's acquisition of and merger with a top competitor. At CampMinder he ran the commercial analysis of an expansion into an adjacent software market, producing a product roadmap to grow per-client GMV.
Eddie received his MBA from The Wharton School, specializing in Management and Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and holds a BA in Political Science and Entrepreneurship from Duke University.
Board of Directors
Our board pairs deep clinical research operating experience with firsthand knowledge of the markets we serve and long-term institutional support.
Steve Cutler spent his career building global clinical research organizations, most recently as Chief Executive Officer of ICON plc, and previously in senior leadership at Kendle and Quintiles. Raphael Klein has built, led, and governed companies across Brazil and Latin America, from Casas Bahia to his investment firm, Kviv Ventures. Aaron Perrine of Trilogy Search Partners and Hannah Barrett of Pacific Lake Partners are among the most experienced investors backing operator-led acquisitions, and have supported and governed companies through exactly this kind of ownership transition. Between them, they have seen the road ahead of us — delivering trials at scale, growing across borders, and stewarding a business through a change in ownership.
Aaron Perrine
Trilogy Search Partners
Hannah Barrett
Pacific Lake Partners
Steve Cutler
ICON plc (Former CEO), Quintiles (IQVIA)
Raphael Klein
Kviv Ventures, Grupo Casas Bahia
Within our areas of focus, we are excited about businesses with the following characteristics
Consistent Cash Generation
Businesses with demonstrated financial stability and consistent cash flow generation, showing resilience across market cycles
Loyal Customer Relationships
Companies with strong customer retention, majority recurring or predictable re-occurring revenue streams, and established market presence that drives inbound demand
Sustainable Competitive Advantages
Organizations with differentiated value propositions, proprietary capabilities, or market positions that create meaningful barriers to competition
Attractive Market Dynamics
Sectors with durable tailwinds and fragmentation, such as the shift toward hybrid and technology-enabled healthcare and clinical research, where evolving needs create pathways for accelerated and growth.
Exceptional Leadership & Culture
Founder-led or family-owned businesses that have built strong organizational cultures and are seeking strategic partners to unlock their next chapter of growth.
Partners Across Regions
At Emerald Square, our partners are strategically located across the United States and in Mexico, providing us with a broad range of industry expertise and deep knowledge of local market dynamics. This diverse geographical presence allows us to effectively evaluate and pursue growth opportunities in different regions while leveraging our collective experience to drive successful outcomes.
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