Biography

Kirsten Bartok Touw is the co-founder and Managing Partner of New Vista Capital, an investment and strategic advisory firm focused on aerospace, space, naval and defense. New Vista has three parts to their business: strategic advisory, private equity and early-stage venture capital. New Vista’s early stage investing efforts focus on emerging technologies in aerospace and defense, satellite and communications.

She is also the co-founder and a Managing Director at AirFinance and its subsidiary AF Capital Partners, who specialize in export credit and development financing globally.  AF Capital and AirFinance's core business is as an originator, structurer and servicer of loans backed by global export credit agencies (ECAs) and infrastructure projects with development finance institutions (DFIs).  Since inception, the firms have originated and approved more than $1.5 billion in ECA/DFI financing. AirFinance/AF Capital have won numerous accolades, most recently U.S. EXIM Bank’s 2021 Lender of the Year and U.S EXIM Bank’s 2020 Deal of the Year.

Bartok Touw is also an Advisor to the Department of Defense’s newly formed Office of Strategic Capital, which sits under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Research and Engineering. OSC’s mission is to develop, integrate, and implement proven partnered capital strategies to shape and scale investment in critical technologies that have long term geopolitical implications. Her role at OSC is to advise on policy and provide insights and expertise about how to best partner with emerging technologies and private capital markets.

Bartok Touw currently serves on EXIM’s Council on China Competition which was formed in 2019 at the behest of Congress, who mandated a goal of reserving 20% of EXIM’s financing authority to ensure that the U.S. continues to lead in the 10 transformational export areas.

She is also on the advisory board of the Silicon Valley Defense Group and a member of BENS (Business Executives for National Security), as well as Board Directors of Electra.Aero (the blown wing electric aircraft STOL company) and Atlantic Aviation. Bartok Touw is a frequent speaker on the topics of emerging technologies in aerospace, space and defense (recent podcasts: Aviation Week, BENS Building the Base, The Air Current). 

Previously, Bartok Touw was Vice President, Structured Finance & Corporate Development at Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC), the manufacturer of business, special-mission and military trainer aircraft that was spun out of Raytheon in a leveraged buyout by Goldman Sachs & Co. and Onex. Bartok Touw was integral in HBC's expansion in Asia, specifically China. During her tenure, she was one of the senior executives responsible for the company’s expansion and strategy in China. She also was point for HBC’s negotiation with potential Chinese JV partners, investors and on strategic partnerships, primarily with AVIC and CIAGA. 

Earlier in her career, Bartok Touw was a co-founder, board member and Chief Financial Officer of XOJET, a U.S. based next generation fleet operator that was later sold to the European fleet operator VistaJet.  Prior to the sale, XOJET was the third largest U.S. business jet airline. As CFO, she had responsibility for aircraft acquisitions, capital markets, finance, accounting, legal, HR and IT. She oversaw financial and strategic initiatives including capital raising and aircraft purchasing and financing for XOJET’s fleet of aircraft. 

Prior to XOJET, Bartok Touw spent the prior 12+ years in venture capital and early-stage private equity. Most recently, she was a partner at Alpine Investors, a San Francisco software and services private equity firm. Before Alpine, Bartok Touw was with JPMorgan Partners, the global private equity arm of JPMorgan Chase, where she was a part of the firm’s San Francisco based technology team.  Bartok Touw was part of the Hambrecht & Quist (H&Q), the technology boutique investment bank’s private equity group, Access Technology Partners, before Chase’s purchase of H&Q in December 1999.

Bartok Touw began her career at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where she worked in investment banking and fixed income capital markets.

Bartok Touw received a BA, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania where she was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar, and an MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.