Independent Sponsors & Capital Providers Dealmakers Meeting

Mark co-founded Clarendon in 1998. He has over 30 years’ experience as a principal investor, board member, C-level executive, and management consultant focused exclusively on the Transportation, Logistics and Distribution sectors. Mark proprietarily sourced seven Clarendon investments and has served as Chairman and a Director on the boards of several companies in the Transportation, Logistics and Distribution sectors.

In 1998, Mark conceived RoadLink (now RoadOne), an intermodal logistics consolidation vehicle, as Clarendon’s first investment and worked with his Clarendon partners to organize and co-found the company in 2000. Following RoadLink’s formation, he guided the investment as a RoadLink board member and shareholder representative and served as CFO/SVP Finance & Acquisitions, Secretary/Treasurer and Chief Strategy Officer. Following a sale to a leading private equity firm in 2006, Mark continued in senior finance, M&A and strategic development roles, helping grow RoadLink to over $400 million in revenue. Over the course of his decade of RoadLink involvement, Mark executed over 25 acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and debt/equity financings comprising over $350 million of transaction value.

Before launching Clarendon, Mark was a senior manager in the Transportation/Logistics Management Consulting Practice of A.T. Kearney, where he led engagements in strategic development, M&A and profit improvement for transportation and private equity clients. Prior to A.T. Kearney, Mark was part of the team that launched Princeton Transportation Group (later sold to Manhattan Associates), where he led engagements applying university research from Princeton and M.I.T. to improve the profitability of transportation clients.

Mark received an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was named an Arjay Miller Scholar. He received a BS in Operations Research and BA in Economics from Cornell University where he graduated with highest honors. Mark serves on the national board of the “I Have a Dream” Foundation, which empowers children of low-income communities across the U.S. to achieve a college education.

Brad Batten is a Managing Partner at Broadtree. Brad brings 14+ years of private equity, direct investing, and investment banking experience. Selected highlights from Brad's background include:

•  Responsible for the build out of the Zwick Partners Family Office direct Private Equity investment strategy
•  Manages all aspects of the investment operation including deal sourcing/origination, diligence, execution, and strategic management and oversight of the portfolio through board of director roles
•  Frequent speaker at alternative investment conferences focused on independent sponsors, family offices, and private wealth management events
•  Prior to joining Zwick Partners, Brad worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. At BofA Merrill Lynch, Brad was responsible for structuring and underwriting credit products for Private Equity leveraged buyouts. In addition to transaction responsibilities, Brad was instrumental in managing the bank's exposure to an $8.7Bn credit portfolio of sponsor-backed leveraged loans.

Brad earned a B.A. in History with a minor in Economics from Davidson College.

Mr. Song has a diverse background with over 30 years in principal investments, investment banking, and operational experience. Prior to co-founding Prodos Capital ("Prodos"), Mr. Song was the head of investments and corporate finance for Verus International, a boutique merchant banking firm that was co-founded by Citigroup, where he led investments in both private and public companies in the emerging growth and middle market. Prior to Verus, Mr. Song was SVP of Corporate Development at On2 Technologies. At On2, Mr. Song led all aspects of strategic planning, financial analysis, mergers & acquisitions, financings and the capital markets. Prior to joining On2, Song was a Managing Director at Bluestone Capital Partners, where he was a senior banker and a manager in that firm's Corporate Finance Department. At BlueStone, Mr. Song was responsible for the execution of public offerings and private placements as well as merger and acquisition transactions. Mr. Song was a member of BlueStone's Management Committee and Commitment Committee. Previously, he held positions as an investment banker at Smith Barney in the Global Energy and Power Group and Chase Manhattan Bank in the M&A Group and subsequently in the Workout Group. Mr. Song received a B.S. in Finance, School of Management at Boston University.

Matthew joined Lockton in 2021 as Partner & Co Practice Leader on the industry-leading Transaction Liability team. Matt began his professional career at Proskauer Rose LLP, starting as an ERISA and Corporate Paralegal in 1998 and continuing through Matt’s time in law school, before starting as a corporate Associate in 2003. Matt’s Proskuaer practice focused on M&A and hospitality transactions until 2008, when he went in-house at AIG as an underwriter in AIG’s M&A Insurance Group. Matt ultimately progressed to managing the M&A Insurance Group before departing in 2010 to join Aon’s M&A insurance platform as a Senior Managing Director, where he spent the next decade building and managing that practice while marketing and broking the full suite of transaction liability insurance products. 

Nick Russell is a Managing Partner at Tuckerman Capital where he leads the firm’s efforts to execute small company buyout investments. He has over twenty years of experience as an investor, advisor, strategist and operator.  The entirety of his career has been focused on helping engineering-driven businesses across a range of sectors generate value for stakeholders. 

Nick joined Tuckerman in 2010. He is responsible for all facets of the firm’s efforts including business development and partnership origination, investment execution, portfolio management, investor facing activities, and internal firm operations. He has been a Board Director and has led several Tuckerman investments including Orthofeet, TRS Services, Freedom Communication Technologies, Dauntless Air, Anser Advisory, and Verdantas.

Nick began his career as a strategy consultant focused on growth strategy, corporate venture strategy, operational improvement, and private investment due diligence, and was a founding team member of a boutique private investment advisory firm. For the last fifteen years, Mr. Russell has focused on partnering with middle and lower-middle market companies to execute buyout investments and partner with portfolio companies and their leaders to develop and execute growth and other value enhancement initiatives. 

Nick earned his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and his MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Nick has been a Trustee and/or advisor for several New England based nonprofit organizations focused on the natural environment, science, and education, and serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Tuck School of Business where he teaches an MBA elective on small market buyout investments. 

Judd Kohn is a Managing Director at Lafayette Square. Prior to joining Lafayette, Judd served as Managing Director and Head of Private Credit at White Wolf Capital, where his responsibilities included managing the day-to-day activities of White Wolf Private Credit, including managing deal flow and origination activities and execution of due diligence . Prior to joining White Wolf, Judd with First Merchants Bank in its Sponsor Finance Group. At First Merchants, Judd was responsible for establishing the Southeast Region, and led the deal process on numerous lower middle-market credit opportunities. Prior to joining First Merchants Bank, Judd was with CIBC Bank USA. At CIBC Judd was a Managing Director who was responsible for establishing relationships with lower middle-market and middle-market businesses and private equity firms. Across Judd’s 16-year career, he has sourced, underwrote, and executed over $2.5 billion in lower middle-market and middle-market private credit transactions.

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.

Erik is the Managing Partner of Slate Capital Group, which he co-founded in 2004. Erik has worked in the private equity industry for over 25 years. He co-founded and is the former CEO of Let’s Dish! Mid-Atlantic, a retail chain of meal assembly stores in Maryland and Virginia.

Prior to Slate, Erik was a Director with DB Capital Venture Partners, investing in enterprise infrastructure and application software companies. He joined ABS Ventures, the predecessor to DBCVP, in March 2000. During his tenure with DBCVP/ABS Ventures, Erik served on the boards of several software portfolio companies.

From 1996-2000, Erik was a Senior Vice President with Sterling Capital, Ltd., a private equity investment firm, where he acquired and ran companies in the direct marketing and e-commerce industries (although the firm acquired businesses in various industries, including education/testing, specialty distribution, and marketing services). His tenure included operating stints with two of Sterling’s portfolio companies: as the CEO of NLP, Inc. and as EVP-Corporate Development of ICS, Inc.

From 1993-1996, Erik was an Associate with Kirkland & Ellis in their private equity group, where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, leveraged buyouts and venture capital transactions.

Erik either currently serves or has served on the board of directors for the following organizations: B&S Site Development, Broadcast Sports International, CoastTec, Cumberland Diversified Metals, eCoast Marketing, First Source, LLC, Horizon Facilities Services, Let’s Dish! Mid-Atlantic, Mercari Technologies, NLP, Inc., Nova Technologies, O’Donnell Metal Deck, Triplehop Technologies, Vertical Mechanical Group and White Distribution & Supply.

Erik is a 1988 graduate of Brown University and received his J.D./M.B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1993.

Erik and his wife, Lisa, have three young adult children and live in Nashville, TN.

Mr. Dangar is responsible for the origination, underwriting and management of mezzanine and equity investments from the Atlanta office. Prior to joining Stonehenge, Mr. Dangar led business development for transaction services for Aprio, LLC, a regional tax and accounting advisory firm focused on growing, middle market companies. Prior to that, Mr. Dangar was the National Deals Sales Leader for PwC, responsible for driving M&A conversations and advice with the firm’s U.S. clients. Prior to that, Mr. Dangar worked for 20 years in the investment banking field, providing buy-side M&A and financing advice to privately-held, growing companies in the US and abroad for Westminster Securities, Wachovia Securities and E&Y. Mr. Dangar earned a BS in Building Construction and a Minor in Economics from The Georgia Institute of Technology and his MBA at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.