17th Independent Sponsors Summit

Claudine oversees an integrated team of transaction, valuation, restructuring, project finance, and dispute resolution professionals serving clients throughout the lifecycles of their businesses. With specific expertise in managing opportunities and roadblocks that can impact a business moving forward, Claudine and her team help clients achieve optimal outcomes in protecting and growing stakeholder value.

Claudine serves as an adviser to public and private companies, both domestically and internationally. Her clients comprise the full gamut of financial sponsors including private equity investors, independent sponsors, family offices, alternative investment funds, lenders, and strategic investors. Her areas of knowledge include strategic advisory, quality of earnings analyses, identifying revenue sources and profitability drivers, examining operating cost structure and sustainability factors, investigating business models including cash flow and financial projections, reviewing quality and realization of assets and liabilities, identifying working capital requirements and negotiating positions, post-close working capital verification, and adjustment mechanisms.  

Claudine was named to Mergers and Acquisitions 2019 list of the most influential women in mid-market M&A, and Crain’s NY 2018 most notable women in consulting.

Elena Mervine focuses on performing buy and sell-side due diligence for private equity firms, lenders, independent sponsors, family offices, and strategic buyers and sellers. With more than 16 years of experience in finance, public accounting, and transaction diligence, she serves clients throughout the lifecycles of transactions and assesses quality of earnings, working capital, financial reporting infrastructure, profitability, and value drivers of operations. Her industry experience spans consumer, retail, media, technology, manufacturing, construction, business services, and emerging markets including cannabis.

In 2018, Elena helped launch CohnReznick’s Cannabis practice and pioneered early due diligence work in the space. Before joining the firm, she worked at several Big Four firms where she was responsible for audits of large public and private companies across several industries as well as transaction diligence of acquisition targets. Her experience includes consulting as an interim CFO; assisting public companies with financial reporting, modeling, analysis, compliance, and corporate governance; and preparing and filing SEC forms and other information such as 10-Ks, 10-Qs, 8-Ks, MD&A, and S-1 registration statements. She has also worked with companies in the process of going public via IPOs, reverse mergers, and PIPE transactions, as well as obtaining a listing on NASDAQ and OTCBB.

Paul Marino is a partner in the Financial Services and Corporate Groups. Paul focuses his practice in matters concerning financial services, corporate law and corporate finance. Paul provides counsel in the areas of private equity funds and mergers and acquisitions for private equity firms and public and private companies and private equity fund and hedge fund formation.

Paul works on a variety of M&A transactions, including leveraged acquisitions, divestitures of business divisions, going-private transactions, and other strategic acquisitions and dispositions, in the following industries: manufacturing, telecommunications, consumer products, hospitality, healthcare, and technology, among others. His practice also includes joint ventures and general company representation matters.

Paul has represented national and multinational corporations, ranging from telecoms to tech companies, as well as real estate syndication and financial investors and investment advisors. He has also negotiated and structured a number of U.S. domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures.

Drew is a serial entrepreneur having started 5 businesses, sold a few and still owns some. He knows what it’s like to be in your shoes. He sees the Independent Sponsor model as the method executives and industry experts can take to own and run already established businesses. He now dedicates his career to helping individuals buy companies, find greater success and live life on their own terms.

Caroline Kung is the Managing Partner of SagePath Capital. With over 20 years of industry experience, she is an experienced investor with an extensive track record of executing private equity transactions and value creation at portfolio companies in business services, software, chemicals, healthcare, and retail. Previously, Caroline was a Managing Director at H.I.G. Capital. She has served on the boards of eight companies.

Mark Hauser is the Founder and a Managing Partner of Tamarix Capital Partners. Mark has over 30 years of experience in private equity, private credit, asset management, and investment banking. He founded the Tamarix Group in 1993 as an investment firm dedicated to providing flexible financing solutions to lower-middle-market companies led by U.S. and non-U.S. family offices. 

Mark was the founding partner of Tamarix Equity Partners, L.P., the group’s most recent private equity fund. He also co-founded Swat Equity Partners, L.P., a consumer-focused venture fund. Previously, Mark was a Senior managing director at OFS Capital Management and a member of its investment and executive committees. He was responsible for middle-market lending, having founded the firm’s SBIC Fund through OFS Capital Corporation. 

Prior to joining OFS Capital Management in 2010, Mark worked at companies such as Sandell Asset Management—an international multi-strategy alternative asset manager, where he founded and was global head of the firm’s private equity practice, FdG Associates, a New York-based middle-market private equity fund focused on investing in family-owned businesses—and Ocean Capital Corporation, a private international investment banking firm.

Mark has participated on numerous private and public Boards of Directors and philanthropic organizations. He is a member of the Economic Club of NY and YPO/WPO. Mr. Hauser holds a Master of Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Law from Sydney University.

Rob Bauer is the founding member of Bassett Creek Capital, a private capital partner with a focus on entrepreneurial grit, industry and operating expertise, and cultural connectivity. Rob and his partners at Bassett Creek use a low-ego, collaborative partnership approach to make equity investments in middle-market companies, typically at a critical inflection point in the business.

Bassett Creek has completed seven acquisitions since its founding in 2016. Rob and his partners have a combined 100 plus years of investing experience spanning 76 investments valued at over $10.0 billion.

Nichol Chiarella is a partner and Citrin Cooperman's Mergers and Acquisitions Tax Practice Leader, with over two decades of experience in public accounting. She provides high level tax planning and consulting services related to buy-side, sell-side, and restructuring transactions involving private equity firms, closely-held businesses, business owners, and high net worth individuals within the technology, manufacturing and distribution, wholesale, retail, cannabis, healthcare, real estate, staffing, and professional services industries.

Nichol handles transaction tax matters for private equity funds, independent sponsors, limited liability companies (LLCs), domestic partnerships, corporations, and S corporations. She specializes in buy-side and sell-side tax advisory, including tax due diligence, pre-transaction planning, tax structuring, and modeling, and post-transaction compliance support. She also handles mergers, divestitures, and restructuring matters, in addition to helping privately-held business owners transition to related parties.

Nichol also leads the firm’s global diversity, equity, and inclusion mission, branded as CC EDGE (Empowering Diversity and Gender Equality). In this role, she interfaces regularly with all CC EDGE leads in each of our metro geographies in the United States and in India.

Nichol's specialized tax knowledge and network of professional contacts allows her to act as a resource not only for her clients, but for other professionals seeking solutions for their clients and customers.

Nick has spent over 25 years in M&A and corporate development with firms including Huron Capital, CCC Intelligent Solutions, Ryan Enterprises Group, and Bear, Stearns & Co. He has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan, and an M.B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

James Illikman is a Partner of Peninsula Capital Partners, LLC and joined the firm in 2003. He has over twenty-five years of corporate finance experience in private equity, mergers and acquisitions and operations management. His career comprises private and public sector investing from both a strategic and financial investor perspective. Immediately prior to joining Peninsula Capital Partners, Mr. Illikman was with Talon Equity Partners LLC, a middle-market buyout firm, where he was responsible for investment transactions and portfolio management. Before that, he held positions with Freudenberg-NOK General Partnership, United Technologies and the predecessor entity to Delphi Corporation. At these firms, Mr. Illikman was responsible for identifying, conducting due diligence, negotiating and closing acquisitions consistent with the business development objectives of the companies. Mr. Illikman has also served in various management and corporate finance roles for operating companies. Mr. Illikman earned both a Bachelor and Master in Business Administration degrees from the University of Michigan and is a member of the CFA Institute.

Grant is a Partner at Align Collaborate and a member of its Investment Committee. Align Collaborate invests $10 to $50 million of equity exclusively into transactions led by independent sponsors in the lower-middle market. Prior to becoming a capital partner, Grant co-founded NCK Capital (“NCK”), a boutique independent sponsor that acquired controlling interests in lower-middle market companies, with his business partner, Michael Kornman. NCK was a pioneer in the independent sponsor community; it won numerous awards and built a successful portfolio of companies. Prior to NCK, Grant was the Florida Development Partner for The Lane Company, a large multifamily management and development company that acquired and developed between $1B and $2B of assets per year. Grant began his career as an Associate at Sterling Partners, a private equity firm with over $4B AUM. Grant has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Finance from Georgetown University and is a Board Member of the Lone Star Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO).

Over the last twenty-five years, Jason Duzan has led over twenty private equity transactions in consumer, service, and industrial companies, primarily in the Midwest. Over the last ten years, Jason has invested in over ten family-owned or closely-held businesses in combination with operating executives to grow the businesses. Since 2017, as Colfax Creek, Jason has managed six platform companies with two exits, GLE Precision and Fluence Automation. Jason is a managing partner and board chairman of Midwest Innovative Products, Premier Engineered Products, Traverse City Products, and Dial Tool Industries. His prior work experience includes Glencoe Capital and BMO Harris Bank. Jason earned an MBA from the University of Chicago and a B.S. from the University of Illinois. He was raised on a corn and soybean farm in Colfax, Illinois. Jason and his family live in Birmingham, Michigan.

Andrew leads Virtus’s Private Capital Insurance Practice (PCIP). Andrew’s team focuses exclusively on insurance brokerage and consulting services for private equity investors and their portfolio companies. Their work includes M&A and value creation driven insurance due diligence, P&C and employee benefits brokerage, M&A integration, and transaction related insurance products to improve risk and economic terms for deals (representations and warranties insurance, tax insurance, and contingent liability insurance). Prior to joining Virtus, Andrew worked Lincoln Financial for ten years where he advised insurance brokers on employee benefits for large businesses. Andrew resides in the Chicago area and holds a BA from the University of Michigan.

Sylvie Gadant is the managing partner of the Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) Practice and a partner within Citrin Cooperman’s Private Equity and Capital Markets Practice. She leads buy-side and sell-side due diligence engagements for private equity firms, independent sponsors, family offices, and strategic buyers.

Prior to joining Citrin Cooperman, Sylvie was the principal-in-charge of the TAS practice at a top-20 national accounting firm, where she also spent more than 10 years with its audit and advisory practices. Previously, she served middle-market private companies across several industries for another public accounting firm.

Sylvie has advised clients on over 600 transactions valued between $5 million and $300 million, including platform investments, add-on acquisitions, leveraged recapitalizations, carve-outs, and minority investments. Her areas of expertise include analyzing an acquisition target’s quality of earnings, understanding key performance indicators, assessing working capital requirements, and identifying key deal issues and risk areas. She also provides her clients with guidance on accounting for mergers and acquisitions.

In 2017, Sylvie launched Citrin Cooperman’s Independent Sponsor Survey, which was the first of its kind. The subsequent reports continue to be the definitive resource on the state of the independent sponsor community. Sylvie is a frequent speaker, panelist, and moderator for various industry forums including the Kayo Private Equity Conference, the iGlobal Forum, the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), the Exit Planning Exchange (XPX), and Expert Webcasts. She has been featured in business and industry publications, including Inc. Magazine, Forbes, PE Hub, Buyouts Magazine, Crain’s New York Business, and Accounting Today.

Sylvie is the recipient of several prestigious industry awards which honor the most accomplished and respected dealmakers, especially from the middle-market segments. In 2023, she received an honorable mention in the Mergers & Acquisitions Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A List. She was one of the "2019 USA Women Dealmakers" from the Global M&A Network. Sylvie is also a former recipient of the “40 Under 40” Award from M&A Advisors.

Nick Jean-Baptiste is Managing Partner of Jacmel Growth Partners. He developed the firm’s differentiated approach to value creation after nearly fifteen years of Wall Street and private equity experience, working to scale businesses and provide growth capital to companies. Prior to founding Jacmel, Nick was Principal at Peterson Partners, a $1.5 billion AUM growth private equity firm, where he sourced and led transactions across a wide range of industries. He also served as Vice President with Macquarie Capital, where he provided strategic advice and capital market solutions to private equity clients. Nick began his career in Citigroup’s Investment Banking Division as a member of the banks’ Healthcare Coverage Group. Over the course of this career, Nick has taken part in providing over $10 billion of debt financing to private equity-sponsored recapitalizations and several published equity offerings. Nick earned a B.A. from Duke University and an MBA from the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Mark Sinatra is a 7-time Inc. 5000 CEO who is currently CEO of Aspen HR. Aspen HR is a white-glove PEO that provides independent sponsors and their portfolio companies with cost effective employee benefits, streamlined payroll and expert HR guidance. Prior to Aspen HR, Mark was CEO of Staff One HR where he led the company through a period of substantial growth highlighted by the company's sale to its largest privately-held competitor, Oasis Outsourcing, in 2017. Mark oversaw the Western half of the country for Oasis Outsourcing until its sale to Paychex for $1.3bn in December 2018.

Mark is an MBA graduate of the Wharton School of Business, and holds a BA in Economics from Fordham University. He is an active member of YPO (Young Presidents Organization) and a partner with Social Venture Partners. Mark enjoys spending time with his family and playing tennis and basketball.

Anthony Knight is the Assistant General Counsel and HR Consultant for Aspen HR. He holds a Juris Doctor from Stetson University of College of Law and is a licensed attorney in Florida with prior experience as an employment attorney in private practice. Anthony’s prior practice included Title VII, ADEA, ADA, Unpaid Wages, FLSA, and FMLA. Anthony was brought to Aspen to spearhead Aspen’s best-in-class HR offering and provide clients with an unmatched level of HR compliance and employment law expertise. He also leads Aspen’s HR Due Diligence process by assisting private equity sponsors and ETA searchers with HR due diligence needs during their acquisition process.

Claudine oversees an integrated team of transaction, valuation, restructuring, project finance, and dispute resolution professionals serving clients throughout the lifecycles of their businesses. With specific expertise in managing opportunities and roadblocks that can impact a business moving forward, Claudine and her team help clients achieve optimal outcomes in protecting and growing stakeholder value.

Claudine serves as an adviser to public and private companies, both domestically and internationally. Her clients comprise the full gamut of financial sponsors including private equity investors, independent sponsors, family offices, alternative investment funds, lenders, and strategic investors. Her areas of knowledge include strategic advisory, quality of earnings analyses, identifying revenue sources and profitability drivers, examining operating cost structure and sustainability factors, investigating business models including cash flow and financial projections, reviewing quality and realization of assets and liabilities, identifying working capital requirements and negotiating positions, post-close working capital verification, and adjustment mechanisms.  

Claudine was named to Mergers and Acquisitions 2019 list of the most influential women in mid-market M&A, and Crain’s NY 2018 most notable women in consulting.

Matthew Harnett is a founding Partner of Tecum and serves on the firm’s Investment Committee.  In this position, he is responsible for leading all aspects of transaction origination, analysis, structuring, underwriting, deal execution and monitoring of subject private equity and mezzanine debt investments.

Matt currently serves as a Board Member of Aging With Comfort, BP Business Solutions, BP Express, Connecticut Electric, Conco Services, Midwest Equipment Sales, National Power, Blackwood Solutions, Dry Acquistion LLC, and the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Association of Corporate Growth (ACG).  He also serves as a Board Observer for The Marwin Company, Inc., Gilman Cheese, DelGrosso Foods, Sentrics, and Arrow Waste.

Prior to co-founding Tecum, Matt served six years at the predecessor organization, F.N.B. Capital Corporation, LLC, where he was Vice President. Matt started his career at Ford Motor Company where he worked for four years. He completed the management program and became Zone Manager of Ford Division’s largest market in the Pittsburgh Region. Matt was responsible for annual franchisee revenues exceeding $300 million and was named Ford’s 2006 Zone Manager of the Year.  He was recognized as one of the top-performing Zone Managers nationally for exceptional results in sales and market share growth, market representation actions and franchisee profitability.

Matt is a member of the Association for Corporate Growth (“”ACG””) and was a founding member of the ACG Future Corporate Leaders Board, where he served on the Board of Directors from 2012 to 2016 and was elected Chairman of the Board 2014 to 2016.  He also served on the Pittsburgh Advisory Board of Economics Pennsylvania (2008 to 2016), which develops programs for young people focused on essential economic and financial literacy concepts.

Matt received an MBA degree from the Katz School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh, with focused studies in Finance and Strategy.  He also received dual major B.S.BA. degrees in Supply Chain Management & Logistics and Marketing from The Ohio State University.  Matt is also Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (“CAIA”) Charterholder.

Tony Brindisi is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at RTC. Prior to joining the firm, he worked in the Organizational Transformation practice at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Working with organizations ranging from late-stage startups (~$600M in revenue) to large corporations at the top of the Fortune 100, Tony has experience engaging directly with executive teams to develop and implement organizational strategies aimed at accelerating growth, building operational efficiencies and maximizing profitability. He has extensive experience in the development and execution of M&A strategy and post-merger integration operations. Prior to BCG, Tony spent several years as the Director of Sales and Marketing for The Keller Group, an insurance and financial services firm, where he eventually helped with the sale of the company to a PE-backed roll-up.

Eric Taylor is the Founder, CEO and CIO of Trident, a private equity firm focused on acquiring US-based small businesses in industrial, consumer and healthcare sectors. Trident uses proprietary technology to systematically source and diligence small-cap opportunities, with an eye towards reducing the racial wealth gap by incorporating post-transaction elements of diversity, equity and inclusion to amplify commercial outcomes. Eric oversees day to day operations, the Investment Team and is actively involved in portfolio management. He also leads the firm’s Investment Committee and makes final decisions on all additions to the portfolio. Mr. Taylor began his career at Goldman Sachs, where he spent 4 years in the Special Situations Group, focused primarily on lower and middle market companies. After Goldman and prior to Trident, Eric was a Portfolio Manager at Brightwood Capital. Eric holds an AB from Harvard University with Honors and is a CFA Charterholder.

Vinay is a Founding Partner at Weave Growth. Weave is an investment firm that brings a tech-enabled growth playbook to middle market companies looking to embrace technology and M&A in order to build robust and durable franchises. Vinay has spent over a decade in investing and financial services at Q Investments, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, and the Grassroots Business Fund, an impact investing fund from the IFC/World Bank. He has also served as an executive/operator at an HR outsourcing and insurance services business. Vinay received a BA in Political Science from Yale University and an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School.

Darien K. Smith, Esq. is a private equity independent sponsor based in South Florida. He started his collegiate career playing college football for Eastern Illinois University and finished his undergrad degree in finance and mathematics at the University of Miami (FL). Subsequently, Darien received his J.D. from New York University School of Law. Upon graduation, he became a licensed corporate attorney at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in their private funds group in New York City. After practicing law at Stroock, Darien transitioned to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as a Management Consultant in their Corporate Finance and Strategy Practice Area where he advised multi-billion dollar conglomerates and private equity firms, building and executing organic and inorganic growth strategies. Darien left BCG in 2019 to launch D.K. Smith & Co. where he focuses on acquiring, operating, and advising lower middle market businesses.

Mr. Pettagrue is responsible for the origination, underwriting and management of state targeted funds, SBIC and New Markets Tax Credit transactions. Prior to joining Stonehenge, Mr. Pettagrue worked for HOPE Enterprise Corporation where he managed, structured, and led the business development initiatives in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee for New Markets Tax Credit financings. Prior to that, Mr. Pettagrue implemented a supplier diversity platform for the Birmingham Business Resource Center that created greater capacity for underserved small business entrepreneurs to build and sustain competitive business models. Prior to that, Mr. Pettagrue worked for 18 years in the investment and commercial banking space, providing private equity and debt capital raising services to privately held, growth minded business firms for JP Morgan and Regions Bank. Mr. Pettagrue earned his BA in Banking & Finance from Morehouse College and his MA in International Economics from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

David Eshaghian serves as the Managing Partner of Panther Equity Group, a lower middle market private equity group primarily focused on tech-enabled and B2B service providers up to $100M in enterprise value. He was previously an investment banker at Guggenheim Securities and Operated a Managed IT Services Company via a Search Fund. David graduated from the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business.

Sam Snyder is the Managing Partner at junior capital-focused private equity firm Greyrock Capital Group. Greyrock is a leading one-stop equity and debt financing provider to Independent Sponsors with 37 platform investments close to date. Greyrock is investing out of Fund VI with $284MM in committed capital. Sam currently serves as a board member of Bentec Medical, Blast Deflector, Inc., Competition Specialties, Daron, Ford Gum, Helm, Laguna Dental Arts, Tricoci University, and Triple Shift Entertainment. Former board member of Ogle School, Paleteria La Michoacana, Powertronix, Solair Group, and Westside Equipment. Prior to joining Greyrock, Sam was an Associate at Goldman Sachs in the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications investment banking division. Before Goldman, Sam worked as a Senior Research Analyst at Renaissance Capital. Sam earned an MBA with Honors from the Haas School of Business and an AB in History from Princeton University. Sam is also a CFA charter holder.

Bryan Rand is the CEO of Rand & Co Holdings– a private holding company that makes long-term investments in companies across a wide array of industries. Rand & Co currently has a portfolio containing ownership stakes in 9 growth platforms with more than $300mm in annual revenue. Additionally, Bryan serves as President of Vacation Innovations, the largest marketplace in the vacation ownership industry. Previously, Bryan served as a Partner at Tritium Partners, a private equity firm with more than $1.5 billion in assets under management. Prior to joining Tritium, Bryan helped launch Brightwood Capital Advisors. Bryan began his career in investment banking at Credit Suisse. Bryan is a member of the Southern 7 Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization. Bryan received his MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated magna cum laude from Morehouse College with a B.A. in German Studies and a B.A. in Business Administration.

Rob has nearly two decades of principal investing experience across credit and private equity and covers Source Capital’s credit strategies practice, where he is primarily responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and structuring new investments. Source Capital is currently investing out of its Fifth fund, which is an SBIC fund focused on senior debt investments with meaningful equity co-investments in, primarily, independent sponsor transactions. Prior to Source, Rob was with with Antares Capital, Chatham Capital, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Rob received his MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and BA in economics from Vanderbilt University.

Jay is a Principal at Tamarix Equity Partners, a middle-market fund based in NYC, where he leads deal execution, investment strategy, and portfolio management. Over ten years’ experience in private equity, growth capital, investment banking and as a consumer startup founder. Prior investment firms include Centre Partners, a middle-market private equity firm in NYC, Palisades Growth Capital, a growth-equity firm in Los Angeles, and Macquarie Capital, an investment bank. Bachelor of Arts degree from Middlebury College with a major in International Politics and Economics.

Jonathan Barnes has more than 20 years of private equity investing and investment banking experience, including at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Barnes was a Partner at Halyard Capital, a U.S. lower middle-market private equity fund manager where he spent 15 years. Mr. Barnes helped lead Halyard’s successful investment of over $600 million in the technology, business services, media and communications industries, backed by sophisticated institutional investors such as Goldman Sachs, Abbott Capital and the Bank of Montreal. Mr. Barnes has a broad spectrum of private equity investing experience across technology-enabled services industries including Human Capital Management, Digital and Direct Marketing and IT/Cybersecurity Services. He has represented Halyard on the board of directors of numerous portfolio companies and has also actively worked with Halyard portfolio companies on negotiating and structuring finance solutions, advising on management changes and restructurings as well as helping find and integrate add-on acquisitions. Prior to Halyard, Mr. Barnes was an Analyst at Aragon Global Management, a long/short public equities hedge fund affiliated with Tiger Management. Mr. Barnes began his career in Morgan Stanley’s Media Corporate Finance Group and subsequently worked at Consolidated Press Holdings, a Sydney, Australia based private investment company. Mr. Barnes received an MBA with honors from Columbia Business School and an AB (cum laude) from Harvard University where he played JV lacrosse, among other activities.

Jennifer has 20 years of experience as a lead lawyer and strategic partner who uses sound legal judgment, smart business acumen, and deep operational expertise in counseling public corporations, privately held companies, large private equity platforms, and venture capital firms through complex, high stakes, multidimensional business transactions.

Jennifer’s expertise includes advising and leading cross-functional in-house, client, and third-party teams in structuring, negotiating, and executing high-profile international mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, financings, restructurings, bankruptcy proceedings, venture capital initiatives and equity co-investments for U.S. and international clients. Her experience spans numerous industries including financial technology, healthcare, real estate, manufacturing, and transportation, as well as early-stage, high-growth companies where she advises on the full business life cycle from formation, capitalization, and acquisition through operation and ultimate exit.

Jennifer advises clients and C-suite executives on a range of corporate matters, including governance, legal strategy, risk management and mitigation, and ongoing operations for subsidiaries and portfolio companies. She also has prior experience serving in the in-house legal function role for a large international manufacturer and distributor as well as a high growth electric mobility manufacturer.

Azhar is a successful entrepreneur, operator and investor with over 20 years of experience investing and building businesses. Azhar has a track record of success in private equity and special situations investing and his experience spans the gamut from sourcing, transaction execution, value creation and exit. Prior to founding Queens Court, Azhar worked at firms such as Advent Capital, Perry Capital, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley. Throughout his career Azhar has been a successful private markets investor across a variety of industries. Azhar served as Chairman of the HairCuttery Family of Brands, VCG Holdings, and is currently the Chairman of Pet Resort Hospitality Group. Azhar was also part of the founding team of Convene, an Inc 500 real estate services business.

Azhar is a graduate of Columbia University where he received a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics as well as Columbia Business School where he received his M.B.A.

Ms. Karter is a founder and Managing Partner at Mizzen Capital. Prior to launching Mizzen Capital, Ms. Karter held senior management roles with Enhanced Capital in a direct lending fund. Prior to that, she managed several Angel Groups and managed an active consulting practice for small business growth. She served as CFO at Netkey, Inc., and CEO Resource Recovery Systems Inc.. She began her career at Morgan Stanley and Co. Inc. in the investment banking division.

Ms. Karter earned an MBA from The Yale School of Management and a BA from Columbia University.

Mr. Saltzman is the Managing Partner of Torque Capital Group where he is responsible for all aspects of the firm and its investment process. Prior to co-founding Torque, Mr. Saltzman was a senior investment professional at The Cypress Group, a New York-based private equity firm. Prior to The Cypress Group, Mr. Saltzman sourced and led transactions at BG Strategic Advisors, a boutique investment bank focused on the supply chain sector. Previously, Mr. Saltzman also worked in corporate finance for Amsterdam-based transportation, logistics and shipping multinational firm TNT N.V., and started his career in investment banking at Salomon Brothers. Mr. Saltzman graduated with highest distinction from Emory University and received his MBA from The Anderson School at U.C.L.A.

Mr. Puopolo brings to the team nearly 30 years of education, private equity and investment banking experience. Mr. Puopolo is responsible for overseeing all of Epic Partners' activities. As such, Mr. Puopolo originated, among others, Epic Partners' investments in St. Matthew's University School of Medicine and Oasis Children's Services. Before co-founding Epic Partners, Mr. Puopolo was a partner at Leeds Equity Partners, the largest private equity firm focused on companies involved in education and training. At Leeds Equity Partners he structured, financed and negotiated the LBO of DataMark, the leading marketing services firm for the for-profit colleges and schools market. While at Leeds, Mr. Puopolo also originated growth capital investments in two leading e-learning companies. He also identified and assisted in recruiting the CEO for Leeds' largest portfolio company, Ross University Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. Mr. Puopolo was an investor in Edison Schools, the largest private management company of K-12 public and charter schools, and is currently an investor in Lincoln Educational Services, a leading proprietary post-secondary schools group. He is currently Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Oasis Children's Services and a member of the board of Panax Capital. Mr. Puopolo is a former director of St. Matthew's University School of Medicine, Datamark, Provant, the University of Sint Eustatius School of Medicine, LAWYERStv, Helma Institute and Paxar, and a former director or advisory director of four other private companies.

Prior to joining Leeds, Mr. Puopolo spent 18 years in the M&A and Corporate Finance Departments of Oppenheimer & Co., Bear Stearns and Kidder, Peabody. While at Oppenheimer & Co., he founded and ran the Firm's M&A group for three years. Mr. Puopolo also co-founded and was co-head of the Firm's Private Equity Firm Coverage Group. During his 18-year investment banking career, he originated and/or executed over 50 M&A and other corporate financing transactions, over one third of which were LBOs and other highly leveraged M&A transactions. During his investment banking career, Mr. Puopolo represented BET plc in the sale of its Rediffusion flight simulation business to GM/Hughes Electronics. He also performed investment banking services for various other education-related companies including GP Strategies (NYSE: GPX), ECC International, Gilat Satellite Networks (NASDAQ: GILT) and Doron Precision Systems. Other than his time at Leeds and Epic Partners, Mr. Puopolo has personally invested either with clients, in clients or independently in over 20 private equity transactions.

Mr. Puopolo holds an AB in Economics from Harvard College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Brinda Yohannan is a Managing Director at First Haven Capital, where she sources, evaluates and executes on non-control equity investments in leading lower middle market companies. Prior to First Haven, Mrs. Yohannan spent ten years as part of the investment teams at First Atlantic Capital and Permira, where she was responsible for sourcing and executing leveraged buyouts, as well as managing portfolio companies across diverse industries. She started her career as an analyst in the Financial Sponsors Group at Credit Suisse. Mrs. Yohannan holds a B.S. in Business with highest distinction from Indiana University, and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

Steve has been a private equity investor since 1998, with an emphasis on lower middle-market manufacturing and industrial service companies. To date, he has invested in transactions totaling $350 million in enterprise value. He enjoys assisting management teams with strategic planning, add-on acquisitions, operational improvements, personnel development and recruiting, and financial analysis. He has also served as interim CEO and CFO for his companies. Prior to joining Cornerstone, Steve was a principal with Long Point Capital, a middle-market private equity fund. Before Long Point, Steve worked for Masco Corp. and affiliates for ten years in a variety of operational, financial, and business development roles, primarily focused on turning around troubled operating divisions. His last position was as president of an operating division.

Rick Perkal is Firelight’s Chief Executive Officer and formerly a senior managing director of Irving Place Capital where he focused on investments in the retail and consumer sectors.  There, he led or co-led investments in a broad range of well-known consumer and retail firms. Mr. Perkal was instrumental in the founding of Star Avenue Capital, a growth equity firm focused on investments in retail and consumer branded companies. Earlier in his career, Mr. Perkal was a Senior Partner at Kirkland & Ellis. 

Cliff Meijer has over 30 years of experience in the private equity sector. He is a Managing Director in Headway Capital’s U.S. subsidiary and joined Headway Capital in 2015. His responsibilities include portfolio management, deal sourcing and business development activities. Prior to joining Headway Capital, Cliff was Managing Partner of the private equity fund management practice at Thomas Weisel Partners and subsequently Stifel Financial Inc. Cliff also previously worked at BancBoston Capital and Abbott Capital Management. Cliff has a Bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurship / Entrepreneurial Studies and a Master of Business Administration from Babson College.

As Managing Partner, Mike Lonergan works with Georgia Oak’s partner companies to help drive value creation through revenue growth and acquisition strategies, while also evaluating new investment opportunities. Mike started Georgia Oak with a philosophy built for the business owner who is deeply passionate about their legacy and the success of the organizational family that helped propel their business to new levels. Prior to founding Georgia Oak, Mike was Vice President of Private Equity for Strategic Value Partners (SVP), a global hedge fund. He was also with Sun European Partners in London and Sun Capital Partners in Boca Raton, Fla. Sun Capital is one of the world’s most active turnaround private equity investors. While at Sun Capital, he evaluated and facilitated control buyout investments.