Independent Sponsors & Capital Providers Dealmakers Meeting

Claudine Cohen is a managing principal and leader of CohnReznick’s Value360 practice. In this role, she 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.

With more than 25 years of business experience, 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 is a member of CohnReznick’s Executive Board and co-leads the firm’s Financial Sponsors practice. She was recognized by The Consulting Report as one of its Top 25 Women Leaders in Consulting for 2022, was named to the Mergers and Acquisitions 2019 list of the most influential women in mid-market M&A, and to Crain’s NY 2018 most notable women in consulting. She has authored several articles focused on buy and sell-side due diligence, working capital, and purchase price allocations.

Brooks has enjoyed over 30 years of investment banking, with extensive experience as an advisor to mid-sized and large corporate companies. Over the course of his career, Brooks has advised clients in transactions involving mergers and acquisitions, securitized debt structuring and placement, equity placement, capital structure optimization, and credit syndication. Brooks specializes in working with companies providing business services across a wide range of industries including commercial, consumer, health care, and manufacturing enterprises.

Prior to joining Balmoral, Brooks served as Managing Director and Partner of The Chicago Corporation, where he advised individual, family, corporate, and private owners on mergers, acquisitions, and capital raises. Before his tenure at The Chicago Corporation, Brooks founded and led his own investment banking firm, Highland Ridge Capital. He began his career at J.P. Morgan Securities and its predecessor companies in Chicago and London, concluding an 18-year tenure as Managing Director.

As an author and editor, Brooks has been published in various periodicals including HVACR Business, Plastics News, Axial Forum, MiMfg Magazine, TheStreet.com, and the Grand Rapids Business Journal. He earned an M.B.A. in finance and corporate strategy from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. degree in economics from the University of Michigan.

Jeff has more than 30 years of successful private equity investment experience. 

Prior to establishing Geneva Glen Capital in 2008, Jeff was a Managing Director for over ten years with Wind Point Partners, where he was a general partner in four funds that grew to over $2 billion today in total capital under management. 

Before Wind Point, Jeff was a Vice President of Heller Investments and an investment professional with GTCR. Prior to joining GTCR, Jeff was a Senior Strategy Consultant with Ernst & Young and an accountant with PriceWaterhouse. 

Throughout his private equity career, Jeff has been an active board member of more than a dozen companies and led control investments which have completed over 130 add-on acquisitions.

He has invested in and managed portfolio companies across numerous industry investment cycles in traditional buyouts, recapitalizations, take-privates, industry consolidations and turn-around investments. His prior investments have spanned companies that operate in a myriad of industries, including business services, consumer products, healthcare, industrial manufacturing and publishing. 

Jeff has a BS with honors in Accounting from Indiana University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.  Jeff is a Certified Public Accountant, a member of the Association for Corporate Growth and serves on the Board of Directors of Reusability, Envision Home Health & Hospice, and Salon Freedom.

Jeff lives in Glenview, Illinois with his wife Peg, son Nathan and daughter Elena.

Max founded Akoya Capital Partners in 2005. He serves as Managing Partner of the company and is involved in overseeing all aspects of the operation.

Max has sourced, evaluated, valued, and structured numerous investment opportunities across a variety of industries including manufacturing, professional information services, consumer foods and specialty chemicals. Max is uniquely expert at partnering with industry-leading executives to develop proprietary investment opportunities for family office and private equity co-sponsorship. The strategies he has developed and teams he has partnered with have created substantial shareholder value. Since its inception, Akoya has completed 20 platform investments and numerous add-on acquisitions across the portfolio.

Prior to forming Akoya Capital, Max spent over 20 years in talent acquisition, assessment and human capital consulting, most as the founder and leader of the Carlyle Group, a leading Midwest boutique retained executive search and consulting firm. In 1998, Max sold Carlyle Group to The Whitney Group, creating a top-ten global executive search firm with eight offices worldwide. During his tenure with The Whitney Group, he was elected vice chairman and served on Whitney’s board of directors and lead their global private equity practice.

Max is an active member of the Family Office Club, Association for Corporate Growth, and Vistage, a peer mentoring group for CEO’s and Tiger 21.

Max is also the former Chairman of the Century Foundation, a non-profit board focused on the development of Lane Tech College Prep High School and remains actively involved on the board.

Max works closely with our portfolio companies Edge Adhesives and TTG and prior to our exit, was a board member for NutriScience and Momentum Manufacturing Group.

Ryan has been leading Associated’s Private Equity Practice for 4 years and is responsible for leading a team of 15 individuals who focus on various aspects of transactions. He is focused on developing new sponsor relationships and new deal execution while also overseeing existing portfolio companies to ensure all aspects of insurance and employee benefits run smoothly. Ryan also works in a leadership capacity by supporting the strategy and vision for the firm along with Associated’s Private Equity Practice.

Mr. Pansing is a Managing Director at Merit Capital Partners, an investor of junior capital in middle-market companies.  Dan joined Merit in 1999 and is involved in all aspects of the firm’s business including fundraising and LP relations, deal origination, transaction execution and portfolio company oversight.  Dan is one of the leaders of Merit’s efforts to develop and expand its relationships with independent sponsors, and has completed several transactions with these groups.  Dan began his career at the First National Bank of Omaha, and later worked at LaSalle Bank, NA in Chicago where he focused on leveraged and commercial loan transactions.  He received his MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA and his BS from Miami University (Ohio).  Dan lives with his wife and two daughters in Western Springs, Illinois.

Based in Chicago, Merit Capital Partners has raised more than $2.0 billion through seven institutionally sponsored limited partnerships.  Merit invests a combination of mezzanine debt and equity alongside management teams and other investors to support management buyouts, recapitalizations, leveraged acquisitions, and growth initiatives.  Merit invests across a wide range of manufacturing, service and distribution businesses.  The firm specializes in private transactions with middle-market companies and targets individual investments of $15 million to $60 million.  As a result, the firm focuses on opportunities involving companies with EBITDA of more than $4 million.

Merit is a leading provider of financing for independent sponsor transactions.  The firm has completed more than 40 independent sponsor-led transactions over the last 25 years, and views its partnerships with independent sponsors as an important component of its investment strategy.  Merit typically provides all of the junior capital (both the mezzanine debt and the necessary equity) to complete its independent sponsor-led deals. To learn more about Merit and its approach to independent sponsor investing, visit www.meritcapital.com.

Nick oversees Cyprium’s origination and marketing activities.  He is primarily responsible for sourcing, evaluating and structuring new investments and leveraging his network to raise third-party senior debt for portfolio companies. Additionally, his experience is called upon for investments in the federal contracting, consumer durable and agricultural industries.

Prior to joining the firm in 2007, Nick worked at Northlight Capital, a private equity firm focused on leveraged buyouts, where he was responsible for developing proprietary acquisition opportunities, transaction execution and managing operational projects at the portfolio level.  Earlier in his career, Nick worked in the U.S. Capital Acquisitions, a boutique middle-market mergers and acquisitions practice in Wichita, Kansas after beginning his career as a Financial Analyst at NASA – Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Nick received his MBA with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and graduated cum laude with a BBA in international business from Wichita State University.

Nick is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and the National Board of Governors for Sigma Phi Epsilon.  Having grown up on a farm in central Nebraska, he is still an early riser who misses no opportunity to be outdoors.   Nick and his wife live in Oak Park, Illinois.

Rob Kissling 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 fourth fund, which is a $200 million SBIC fund focused on senior debt investments with meaningful equity co-investments in primarily independent sponsor transactions.

Prior to joining Source, Rob worked at Antares Capital, a middle market sponsor finance firm, where he was a member of the Credit Advisory practice, responsible for restructuring troubled portfolio companies. Before that, Rob was a Vice President at Chatham Capital, an Atlanta-based mezzanine debt investment firm, where he was responsible for sourcing, structuring, and underwriting new investment opportunities. Rob started his career in investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he spent time in both Leveraged Finance and Sales & Trading.

Rob received his MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School with a concentration in Alternative Investments and was a John Robson Memorial Scholar. He received a BA in economics from Vanderbilt University and graduated magna cum laude.

Sylvester (“Sly”) Burley is a Principal at Avante Capital Partners. Based in Los Angeles, Mr. Burley is responsible for identifying, underwriting, executing and managing investment opportunities. Sly joined Avante in 2019.

Mr. Burley has over twelve years of investing experience, across both private equity and private credit. Prior to Avante, Sly worked at Bregal Investments where he advised on the origination, execution, management and operation of investments across the mid-market infrastructure and energy sectors. Prior to Bregal, he held private equity positions at Basalt Infrastructure Partners and Riverstone Holdings. Sly started his career in investment banking at J.P. Morgan in the natural resources group.

For several years, Sly has volunteered with non-profits including America Needs You, Apex for Youth, and Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), which provides educational opportunities and career training to underrepresented students.

Mr. Burley graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in Economics and a minor in Applied Math. Sly lives in Los Angeles and enjoys traveling, engaging in sporting activities, and playing the piano.

Jonathan Wolfe is Co-Founder and Managing Principal of STREAM Capital Partners. In 2012, Jonathan Wolfe and his partner, Jordan Shtulman, formed STREAM Capital Partners with the intent to advise institutions, real estate developers, REITs, private equity firms, and business owners on all phases of net leased and sale leaseback properties. Since forming the company, Jordan and Jonathan have led a team of trusted advisors across the country completing over $15 Billion in net leased and sale leasebacks transactions throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Central America. 

Jonathan has a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an M.B.A. from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Evan R. Gallinson, Managing Director, joined Merit in 2005. Evan previously worked in Investment Banking with BMO Capital, William Blair & Company, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions advisor work for middle market companies in a variety of industries.

Evan received an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 2002 with a concentration in finance. In 1997, he received a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan with a concentration in finance and accounting.

Evan currently serves on the Board of Directors of CyCan Industries, Elgen Manufacturing Company, Glunt Industries and Urban Surfaces.  Previously he was on the board of Choice Adhesives, RSA Engineered Products and Storage Solutions.

He is a native of New Jersey, but has lived in the Chicago area for over twenty-five years, and is currently residing in Northbrook, IL with his wife and two daughters. Evan’s non-work activities involve watching his daughters’ lacrosse and tennis matches as well as playing platform tennis and uninspiring golf.

Michael has extensive operational and private equity expertise.  He has sponsored transactions across many industries. During the financial crisis, Michael architected the rescue of Patriot National Bancorp and, subsequently, the relaunch of The Bank of Ireland’s U.S. ABL subsidiary, now known as Siena Lending Group. Prior to founding Solaia, Michael was co-founder of Bard Capital Group, and previously worked at Mitchell Madison Group and Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Michael earned his MBA in Finance from the Stern School of Business at New York University, his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and studied at The Juilliard School.

David McReynolds is the Managing Partner of Five Crowns Capital and has nearly 30 years of experience originating, evaluating, advising, structuring, and investing in middle-market transactions. Throughout his career, he has participated in private equity, corporate divestitures, carve-outs, special situations lending, M& advisory, and leveraged lending transactions. He currently serves on the board of ArborWorks, LLC, and Broadcast Microwave Services, LLC. Mr. McReynolds was previously with Twin Haven Capital Partners and Versa Capital Management, each with approximately $1 billion in capital under management. He was a Principal and head of the Los Angeles office of the Special Situations Group within American Capital, Ltd., a publicly-traded investment company (NasdaqGS: ACAS) with $20 billion in capital under management at the time of his employment. He is a Past-President of the Southern California Turnaround Management Association Chapter and a member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO). Mr. McReynolds received his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and B.S. from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Raji is the Founder & President of Broadgate Capital. Prior to Broadgate, Raji was the CEO & President of Impex, a private-label & branded manufacturer with dedicated offices in North America, India, & China, and joint-venture factories throughout Asia. After the sale of Impex in 2005, Raji diversified into real-estate & private investing, which ultimately led to the creation of Broadgate. Raji is deeply involved in the global economy and experienced in accounting & finance, marketing, manufacturing, negotiation, and strategy. Raji has a BA degree from Pepperdine University and is a graduate of the Owner / President / Management Program (OPM) at Harvard Business School.

Tom Ellis is the president of The Ellis Company, a private capital company located in Fort Wayne, IN. The Ellis Company is an independent deal sponsor and does not have a committed capital fund. Ellis finances its transactions by partnering with various equity funds and high net worth individuals. Ellis has completed over 25 acquisitions with companies ranging in revenues from $5 million to $30 million.

He received his B.S. in finance from Indiana University in 1976. Ellis then started The Ellis Company, a private capital firm specializing in business and real estate acquisitions. His investment philosophy is to be patient and conservative, with the primary objective of enhancing shareholder wealth. He began by acquiring smaller businesses and then worked his way up to larger corporate acquisitions.

Tom was a long standing member of the Association for Corporate Growth, a national association of private equity groups and corporate development executives. He also a director of the Defense Orientation Conference Association.  DOCA is a program of the Dept. of Defense to acquaint leading citizens from across the US with policies related to our national defense. In addition, he is a director of several private companies and plays a role in monitoring their performance.