Cortado Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in ambitious, growth-driven companies. Cortado Ventures specializes in leveraging technology to scale in the Fintech, Biotech, Aerospace, Ag Tech, Energy Tech, Manufacturing, and Logistics market sectors. Mr. Leydorf works with potential and current portfolio companies to identify and enable new opportunities, primarily related to securing contracts with federal government agencies. Mr. Leydorf brings 30 years of experience in the public and private sectors to provide counsel and connections for companies with innovative solutions, especially those with potential for advancing the mission of the U.S. federal government.

Mr. Leydorf joined Chickasaw Nation Industries, Inc (CNI) in 2010 and currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer. In this capacity Mr. Leydorf helps guide corporate strategy and manages various strategic initiatives, ensuring clear linkage between strategy and execution. He is responsible for assessing CNI’s multiple lines of business and identifying new strategic business opportunities. He is the primary point of contact at CNI for evaluating mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. He also leads the company’s market intelligence activities. CNI is a holding company that manages nearly 20 separate companies on behalf of the Chickasaw Nation. Employing about 1,900 people, much of CNI’s portfolio supports the U.S. federal government as a government contractor providing IT, engineering, consulting, and other services to over 30 different federal agencies.

Mr. Leydorf served as Executive Vice President on the CNI executive team between 2016 and 2020. In that capacity Mr. Leydorf directed the company’s last two strategic planning initiatives. Each strategic planning cycle required about 12 months of market research, internal surveys, round table meetings, strategy sessions with Board members, customer feedback surveys, leadership offsites, war game scenarios, and other activities to understand market shifts and company positioning against competitors. In addition, Mr. Leydorf served as the primary executive lead for multiple acquisitions that helped shaped the company’s overall portfolio. Mr. Leydorf also served as senior expert for the company’s multiple initiatives around advanced data analytics and market intelligence, leveraging market research and complex data sets to guide the company’s overall strategy.

As Senior Vice President reporting directly to the CEO, Mr. Leydorf was responsible for strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and market intelligence for CNI. He successfully managed the acquisition of two key companies during this timeframe, including activities related to negotiations, integration, and transition planning. He also created a new market intelligence function for the company, establishing the team and generating accurate, reliable, and relevant market intelligence reports that helped the company identify new market opportunities. He drafted the company’s 2020 Vision strategic plan and monitored its implementation, including a reorganization that created distinct new lines of business.

As the senior manager for CNI Professional Services, Mr. Leydorf achieved rapid growth during his tenure, increasing revenue from $8 million to $25 million annually. Mr. Leydorf led a group of over 300 professionals and support staff to significantly expand revenue and profits. The company’s core expertise included IT support services, application development, cyber security, data analytics, medical staffing, and project management. Mr. Leydorf implemented a new growth strategy that attracted key new staff, won new customers, leveraged existing areas of expertise, and streamlined the business development process. As a former federal government employee with oversight of government contracts, Mr. Leydorf worked directly with customers to bring innovation and cost savings to their programs.

Leadership Oklahoma each year selects 50 leaders from around the state to participate in ten monthly sessions to address current issues facing Oklahoma. Topics include tourism, criminal justice, state government, education, economic development, agriculture, energy, military industry, and more.

Mr. Leydorf directed a multidisciplinary research team of 15 analysts and support staff to produce diverse studies in support of military operations overseas. Mr. Leydorf created all research plans for the Center, presented papers at seminars, served as final editor for all reports, and lectured on analytical techniques and intelligence analysis. The Center published over 50 studies within 18 months.

GS-15 government employee who managed teams of 10-20 intelligence analysts and multidisciplinary experts to produce studies and reports on military, political, economic, and terrorism-related topics. Received awards for teamwork, customer relations, analytical tradecraft, mentoring, and sustained excellence. Produced scores of products about world affairs for high-level government officials.

Senior intelligence analyst who specialized in diverse political, economic, and military topics for five different geographical regions of the world. Received awards for superior analytical tradecraft, technical writing ability, mentoring, editing, and briefing skills. Promoted in top rank five times in a row.