Meet The Team
Meet the Team
Donnie Gross
As Managing Member of Varsity Investment Group, Donnie Gross oversees the company’s day-to-day development, asset management activities, and investments. The Varsity brand is synonymous with excellence in Student Housing, winning the prestigious Student Housing of the Year award. Varsity has constructed and sold more than 7,500 beds nationally. Recently, Varsity has been a market leader in converting empty office buildings and Hotels into multi-family units in the Washington, DC area.
In addition to Real Estate, Mr. Gross has sold several companies to Private Equity and publicly traded companies. After 2016, Mr. Gross sold TLK Group, one of the nation’s largest call centers with clients such as Comcast and Time Warner, to market leader The Results Companies. In 1998, he founded Millioneyes, a venture-backed internet service provider that was successfully exited via an acquisition from NetZero. Mr. Gross also formed Edge Communications, a telecommunications services firm that he sold in 1997 to the publicly traded DCI.
Some of Varsity’s current investments include Urban Mining, PayQuick, Merchant Centric, and VCare Adult Day Care.
Mr. Gross is a member of the Boards of Directors of VCare, AMT/Restorix, Prime Time Health, PayQuick, and Merchant Centric, and an investment advisor to Sachs Capital.
Matt Connolly
CFO and Founder
As Principal and CFO, Matthew A Connolly is responsible for the Company’s financial reporting, accounting controls, and tax planning for all entities under the Varsity Investment Group, LLC umbrella. Matthew has been a partner with Donnie Gross for over 22 years. They first met while Matt was practicing as a Certified Public Accountant and Donnie was selling his first company, Edge. This successful early transaction led to numerous business startups and real estate development projects.
Donnie and Matt’s developmental entity is Varsity Investment Group, LLC, formerly Potomac Holdings, LLC. The Company has served as an incubator for real estate development and business startups, deriving revenue from developer and asset management fees.
Varsity has developed and sold student housing projects worth over $500 million, creating over 7,500 beds. The Varsity brand is well-known in the student housing industry for its commitment to quality and student life. Our brand is known for being student-centric, pedestrian, and class A core student housing. Varsity has recently become a market leader in converting office buildings to multi-family residential housing in the metropolitan DC market.
Varsity has founded numerous successful companies in diverse markets, which have been acquired by private equity and publicly traded companies. One entity became the fourth-largest dial-up internet service provider, another did cable auditing throughout the United States, and the last entity was one of the largest call centers with clients such as Comcast and Time Warner.
Alan Shankroff
Director of Business Development
Alan Shankroff joined Varsity Care as the Director of Business Development in 2023. He has held clinical and leadership roles in medical transportation companies, health systems, and durable medical equipment companies.
Utilizing a collaborative approach focused on the needs of patients, families, and care teams, he has developed service delivery plans, led expansion initiatives, and client engagement efforts. Using his operational and clinical expertise, he identifies opportunities for acquisitions and strategic partnerships.
A University of Maryland, Baltimore County graduate, Mr. Shankroff holds certifications as a paramedic and orthotist.