About Our Company

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Management Team

 

Niki Lee, Managing Partner

With more than 15 years of experience working in global firms, Niki's experience spans from start ups to large corporations driving worldwide strategies around talent, culture and organizational effectiveness.

Prior to joining Tasman, Niki held the position of Director of Human Resources in the Mergers & Acquisitions organization at Cisco, where she partnered with Cisco’s Executives to build the acquisition strategy and model for integrating acquired employees. In this role, she successfully led the integration of 15 domestic and international acquisitions with a value ranging from US$2M to US$3.5B. Niki was instrumental in effectively partnering with business leaders to achieve initiatives and meet legal and local country compliance requirements and was the lead subject matter expert in due diligence and key negotiations.

From 2005 to 2008, Niki was the HR Director for Linksys, which was acquired by Cisco in June of 2003. At Linksys, Niki successfully created, developed and managed a global Human Resources team, which designed and implemented programs to attract, develop, and engage talent, facilitating the building of a high performing organization as one of Cisco’s first divisions.

Niki holds a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Hawai’i. In addition, in 2007, she achieved the designation of Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) from the Society of Human Resource Management. Niki is based in Irvine, California.

Stefanie Holland Sugar, Managing Partner

With more than 15 years of experience working in global firms, Stefanie has accumulated deep knowledge and expertise in human resources, M&A, change management, communications and process re-engineering.

Prior to co-founding Tasman, Stefanie worked within Cisco Systems' M&A organization and lead all HR aspects including due diligence, key employment negotiations, workforce planning, integration, and change management of over 20 acquisitions, assets purchases, joint ventures and divestures all over the world. At Cisco, Stefanie was instrumental in integrating one of Cisco’s largest acquisitions, WebEx, which was a multi-year, global integration.

Prior to joining Cisco, Stefanie held several HR operations roles at Gap Inc. which included business process re-engineering and implementing global systems such as PeopleSoft HRMS and Taleo Recruiting. She also worked within the inventory strategy team to roll out a cross-brand project optimizing inventory levels based on forecasts, variability, and size profiles.

Stefanie began her career within Hewitt Associates’ Corporate Restructuring & Change practice, where she partnered with Fortune200 companies to develop effective people strategies to attract, motivate, retain, and reward talent in order to improve business results around mergers, acquisitions, IPO’s and divestitures. In this role, Stefanie also provided expertise pertaining to areas such as employment contracts, change-in-control and equity analysis for companies undergoing major corporate restructurings (IPO’s, spin-offs and start-ups), designed compensation programs, performed IRS 280G/Golden Parachute Calculations and advised clients on change-in-control design and implementation.

Stefanie holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Illinois, is fluent in French and German, and has extensive international experience in Japan, India, China and Europe.

In addition, Stefanie achieved the designation of Professional in Human Resources (PHR) from the Society of Human Resource Management in 2006 and has contributed to numerous industry publications on HR M&A topics.

Shari Yocum, Managing Partner

With more than 18 years of experience working in global firms, Shari has become an industry leader in M&A, change management, communications and process re-engineering.

Prior to co-founding Tasman, Shari was an executive at Cisco Systems, where she led their HR Mergers and Acquisitions organization, providing leadership and guidance in over US$10Bn of Cisco acquisition investment. Having managed over 50 acquisitions including a number of high profile Cisco acquisitions, namely WebEx ($3.2Bn) and Scientific-Atlanta ($6.9Bn), Shari held a key role in building the next generation of integration strategy.

During her time at Cisco, Shari was also responsible for the company’s first divestiture, spent three years on a successful US$2Bn incubation project that was later acquired by the parent, and managed numerous teams running large global integrations with unique sales, engineering, and manufacturing complexities.  Shari was an HR Business Partner for one of Ciso's largest product development businesses and Global Sales Operations, as well as managed the Sales Employee Relations organization.

Prior to joining Cisco, Shari worked for several Fortune 500 companies including PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Nortel, and Management Systems Associates. At Price, Shari was instrumental in leading large-scale implementations in the Healthcare vertical and process re-engineering in post merger businesses, working with clients such as USC Norris Cancer Center, UC Davis Health Systems, and Bon Secours Health System. At Nortel, Shari led change management efforts on a 14,000-employee shift to SCM.

Shari holds an M.B.A. from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business and bachelors degree in Psychology and HR Development from North Carolina State University.  In addition, Shari helped co-found the Silicon Valley HR M&A forum, formed in 2006, and achieved the designation of Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) from the Society of Human Resource Management in 2002 and regularly contributes and presents on a number of HR M&A topics.