Who We Are
At Avenir Consulting Group, our consulting team brings deep experience across technologies, industries, regions, and company sizes—from Fortune 500s to high-growth startups.
We specialize in helping organizations navigate disruption, seize emerging opportunities, and execute with precision.
Our diverse team includes C-suite executives, professors, keynote speakers, advisors and entrepreneurs. We blend strategy with real-world execution to help you move fast, stay focused, and outperform.
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Meet Our Team
Brent Collins
Managing Director
Brent is an experienced consultant and entrepreneur with a distinctive track record of helping teams align around profitable growth opportunities and deliver breakthrough results.
Recent Projects by Sector:
HEALTHCARE: Business strategy, operations & marketing for products/services platform.
CLEANTECH: Program development for water treatment product & service.
LEGAL ADR: Research and marketing for leading alternative dispute resolution firm.
GAMING: Business strategy, operations and partnerships for gaming hardware firm.
IT PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTION: Strategic planning and project management.
NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING: Marketing, partnerships, and biz-dev for int’l AI firm.
ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION: GTM, biz-dev, and marketing for leading AI integration platform.
COMPUTER VISION: Marketing, solution partnerships, and biz-dev for int’l AI firm.
SCIENCES: Research, strategy, partnerships and pivot deployment.
MACHINE LEARNING: Research, marketing, partnerships, and biz-dev in various sectors.
LEGAL SERVICES: Marketing strategy, programs, and biz-dev for AI assisted automation.
COMPUTING: Marketing education and program development for IT industry leader.
Brent was CEO and co-founder of SmartStops.net, an analytics based risk management resource used by mainstream investors, independent advisors and leading banks worldwide. He previously led various global marketing teams at Hewlett-Packard.
He also co-founded and directed several non-profits, including: SlowMoney SoCal, a volunteer based non-profit catalyzing direct financing and support for healthy food systems; VitalHive, an innovative community services and collaboration network; and AI4Biz, a resource for SoCal businesses to better understand and utilize AI services.
He has been Interviewed by Barron’s, Wall St. Journal, BusinessWeek, Forbes, CNBC, US News & World Report, USA Today, Kiplingers, TheStreet.com, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, numerous trade journals and several international newspapers.
He has diverse experience researching emerging opportunities, crafting strategies and deploying solutions. He’s fluent in French and has worked for numerous companies based in Europe, Canada and South America..
Samah Afifi
Consulting Partner
AI Strategist | Startup Advisor | Technical Due Diligence Expert | Technology Project Leadership | Fractional CTO
Samah is a seasoned technology executive and AI strategist with over 20 years of experience building and scaling enterprise SaaS products and distributed engineering teams.
As a technology strategist, advisor and project leader, she partners with startups and investors to architect and implement cutting-edge AI capabilities—from foundational model integrations to full-stack GenAI solutions that accelerate product innovation, improve operational efficiency, and drive strategic differentiation.
As a Fractional CTO and GenAI advisor, she partners with startups and investors to architect and implement cutting-edge AI capabilities—from foundational model integrations to full-stack GenAI solutions that accelerate product innovation, improve operational efficiency, and drive strategic differentiation.
Her expertise spans AI/ML, natural language interfaces, LLM applications, agentic workflows, and ethical AI deployment across industries including Behavioral Biometrics, IoT, Travel & Hospitality, Climate Tech, Sustainability, Environmental and Precision Medicine, Airlines and Engine Manufacturers MRO & Content Management, FinTech, and ERP.
Samah also supports venture firms with technical due diligence and guides early-stage teams on go-to-market strategy, compliance, and scalability.
GenAI & Core Services:
• GenAI strategy and integration (LLMs, RAG, multi-modal agents)
• Fractional CTO leadership (pre-seed to Series B)
• Technical due diligence and architecture reviews
• AI product design and roadmap development
• AI/ML team hiring and coaching
• Data and privacy governance aligned with SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, WCAG, and GDPR
Specialties
Executive Technical Leadership • Corporate Strategy • Engineering Leadership & Scaling • Product Engineering • Product Management • Product Management • AI/ML • Deep Learning • GenAI • LLM Applications • Agentic Workflows • SaaS • API-as-Product • Cloud Architecture • Data Privacy & Compliance • Startups & Venture Advisory • Pitch & Investors Relationships • Java, Python, Node.js, React.js, Cloud • Agile & Lean Delivery • Web/Mobile Platforms
Paul Curcio
Consulting Partner
Paul Curcio is an accomplished educator, consultant and designer in urban systems and organizational strategy. He brings three decades of professional experience collaborating with universities, Fortune 100 companies, government agencies, local community groups, non-profits and small businesses.
Paul has developed customer value propositions and value delivery systems to create civic value through enterprises in water quality, energy management, waste management, public transportation and economic development. His approach to strategic thinking and performance management blends social, environmental and economic frameworks to generate innovative and actionable plans for creating desirable and sustainable environments.
In addition to his consulting practice, Paul contributes regularly as a volunteer and advisor for social entrepreneurship and urban design endeavors. In his current role as an adjunct member of the UCSD Urban Studies and Planning Program, he advises on curriculum and lectures on urban world systems, public transportation and regional development, addressing issues in urbanization, climate change and income inequality.
Paul has received numerous local, state and national awards for leadership, innovation and excellence in planning, public participation and urban development. He is a licensed architect in California and holds a Master of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana. He earned his Master of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Jeff Pendleton
Consulting Partner
Jeff brings top skills in creating and rapidly implementing go-to-market plans for high-tech companies and tech-incubators. Leveraging broad connections across Silicon Valley and passion for technology, Jeff has successfully vetted and launched dozens of high-tech products, applications, services, and business-models over the past 20 years.
Most recently, Jeff has provided hands-on product management and marketing assistance to a dozen start-ups across a variety of technologies platforms, including Deep Learning, Clean-Tech, Networking, Financial Services, Social Networking, Mobile-Tech, and Agri-Business.
A native and long-time resident of Silicon Valley, Jeff began his career with Hewlett-Packard where he quickly rose through the ranks to become General Manager of HP’s online customer service operations. While at HP, Jeff also founded the company’s incubator and venture fund, helping scout and catalyze start-up companies across Silicon Valley. In 2000, Jeff left HP and joined with two senior executives from Cisco to found SAJ Systems, a middleware appliance company. In 2002, SAJ was acquired by Cisco after which Jeff then joined BEA Systems as VP of Software Development. In 2004, still with BEA, Jeff then moved into the role of VP of Marketing charged with the successful launch of the company’s next generation software platform.