Independent Sponsors & Capital Providers Dealmakers Meeting

Dave has over 24 years of experience with middle market companies and has participated in more than 40 private capital transactions as a principal investor or co-investor.  In addition to supporting management by serving on the boards of more than ten private companies, Dave has developed expertise in sourcing investment opportunities, evaluating businesses and industries, conducting and facilitating due diligence, raising capital, and negotiating transaction documents

Dave is the Founder and Principal of Quadec Private Capital, an independent sponsor firm.  Prior to Penstock and Quadec, Dave was a partner at Peninsula Capital Partners, a private equity and mezzanine capital provider in Detroit, MI focused on lower middle market transactions with independent sponsors.  Before Peninsula, Dave spent 10 years at Strength Capital Partners, a committed capital and independent private equity firm in Birmingham, MI.  Dave started his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers’ middle market advisory and transaction services practices for 7 years before transitioning into private investing.

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Dave was born and raised in the Midwest and earned his BBA degree from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, where he also earned his MBA.  Since 2013, Dave has taught an MBA course at Ross titled “Entrepreneurship through Acquisition”.  He also currently runs the “Zell Entrepreneurship through Acquisition Program” under the Zell-Lurie Institute at Ross, mentoring more than a dozen students each year in pursuit of careers in search funds, private equity, and M&A.

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Outside of work, Dave enjoys a wide variety of outdoor activities, traveling, and coaching or cheering on his children.  He serves on the board of Birmingham Girls Softball, helping to provide athletic and personal development to more than 300 players each year. 

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 from 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 Ohio State University. Matt is also a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (“CAIA”) Charterholder.

John J. Darguzas, Managing Director, joined Merit in 2018.  From 2011 to 2018, John was a Vice President at Antares Capital Sponsor Finance Group in Chicago.  At Antares John worked on the Underwriting Team evaluating senior debt investment opportunities across a broad range of industries, on the Originations Team reviewing new investment opportunities and on the Credit Advisory Team working on troubled loans all while maintaining an active role in helping establish Antares as a standalone company after it was spun out of GE Capital.  While attending Kellogg part time from 2012 to 2014, John founded MyMenu, an app based platform that helps people with food allergies find restaurants that meet their dining requirements.  From 2005 to 2011, John was a Director in KPMG’s Transaction Service Group, overseeing financial buy-side due diligence of middle market acquisitions for private equity clients.

John Received an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 2012 with concentrations in Marketing and Entrepreneurship.  In 2005, he received a B.S. from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business with concentrations in Accounting and Finance.  John is a registered CPA.

 John currently serves on the Board of Directors of Glenn Rieder, MicroPrecision, LLC, Revision Military, LTD, Urban Surfaces, PFI Instore and U.S. Minerals, Inc. Previously, he served on the board of Manitowoc Tool and Machining (“MTM”) and Engendren Corporation.

He lives in Elmhurst with his wife and three sons.

Mark Sinatra is the CEO of Aspen HR, where he leads the strategic direction and growth of the company. Prior to Aspen HR, Mark was CEO of Staff One HR, where he led the company through a period of substantial growth highlighted by achieving the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies for four years in a row, and culminating in Staff One HR’s sale to its largest privately-held competitor, Oasis Outsourcing, in December 2017. Mark oversaw the Western half of the country for Oasis Outsourcing until its sale to Paychex for $1.3bn in December 2018. Prior to his leadership experience in the HR industry, Mark worked as a consultant and investment banker.

Actively involved in his community and industry, Mark has served as a Board director for NAPEO and ESAC and two non-profit organizations. He is also an active member of Young Presidents’ Association.

Mark is an MBA graduate of the Wharton School of Business and holds a BA in Economics from Fordham University. He has earned the SHRM-CP designation, is a Certified Predictive Index analyst, and is a graduate of the Stagen Integral Leadership Academy.

Paul Valentine is an experienced corporate lawyer who advises venture funds, private investment firms, middle-market companies and privately held companies across a broad array of industries, including carwash, hospitality, health care and consumer products. He has extensive experience with acquisitions, dispositions, minority investments and joint ventures. Paul also counsels clients with respect to legal opportunities and challenges related to qualified opportunity zones, real estate funds and fund formation.

Paul works creatively and efficiently, partnering with his clients to understand their business operations and risk profile to tailor his legal advice to their business goals. Clients rely on Paul to neutralize obstacles, focus on practical solutions to business and legal problems, and navigate the changing legal landscape.

After 17 years as a market leader in the pharmaceutical industry in Spain, Ignacio Macias Zaldivar moved to the U.S. to increase the eyecare industry’s ability to be intimate and build relationships with patients by letting the care professionals outsource business management to his company – CECOP USA. 

He now serves as the CEO and is helping 2,200 independent eye care professionals that represents 15 percent of the U.S. market to help them perform better while competing with the big eyecare chains.

CECOP USA has a business model that is centered around fostering the growth and profitability of independent eye care professionals with services tailored to enhance their practice management, procurement processes and overall business capabilities. Within three years, the company has grown 700 percent. In addition, CECOP USA was named the Best Company of the Year in 2022 by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and has donated 2,000 glasses to the homeless in the first six months of operating its foundation.

In addition, the firm has thrived on assertive Merger and Acquisition strategies, dovetailed with active business expansion efforts, ultimately offering a significant impact on the company’s growth trajectory.

Stephen is the Founding Managing Partner at InterAlpen Partners, a US-European Private Equity firm focused on innovative growth stage, entrepreneurial companies.  InterAlpen collaborates creatively and flexibly with family offices, founders, independent sponsors, and small-cap VC and PE funds to identify and invest in ‘hidden gems’ – companies that are emerging but not yet widely known, poised to become future category leaders.  Prior to founding InterAlpen, he was Founding Managing Partner of Capricorn Investment Group, a $10 Billion private investment arm for the Co-Founder of eBay, which focused on global innovative private market investments.  Stephen began his career in M&A in New York, London, and Silicon Valley with Goldman Sachs and University at Cornell with honors; holds a CFA

Rob is a Partner in LP's Corporate Practice Group. He leads Levenfeld Pearlstein’s Independent Sponsor team, co-leads its Private Equity team, and previously served as the Corporate Practice Group Leader.

His practice focuses on M&A, private equity, and corporate transactions in the middle market and lower middle market across multiple industries throughout the United States. He has extensive experience leading a wide spectrum of complex transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, minority investments, joint ventures, recapitalizations, restructurings, securities offerings, and other business transactions.

Rob takes a client-centric approach and combines his deep transaction experience, legal knowledge, and business acumen to focus on the issues that matter to help his clients achieve successful outcomes that align with their business, risk tolerance, and objectives.

Rob has been recognized in mergers and acquisitions and corporate law by the Legal 500, Super Lawyers and Leading Lawyers.

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. 

Mike Blume is a partner at Tail End Capital Partners. He is responsible for all aspects of investment management, including sourcing and executing new investments, monitoring existing portfolio company performance, and leading employee training and development. Before joining Tail End, Mike spent three years on the investment team at Incline Equity Partners, where he was responsible for evaluating and executing new investments and managing existing portfolio companies.  Before Incline, Mike spent two years in PNC's Asset Backed Finance group, focusing on the origination, structuring, and execution of securitizations. Mike graduated with a BBA in Finance cum laude from the University of Notre Dame.

Dan is a Vice President at Moelis Asset Management and a member of the Catalyst team. He is responsible for manager research, investment sourcing and capital formation.  Prior to Moelis, Dan was a Vice President on the private markets team at Asset Consulting Group, where he helped oversee nearly $1 billion of annual commitments. Dan also led ACG’s opportunistic investment effort, which included first-time funds, independent sponsors, and co-investments. Prior to ACG, Dan began his career at Summit Strategies Group, where he was a member of the private markets team conducting private markets research. Following Summit’s acquisition by Mercer, Dan became a Principal at Mercer, where he co-managed two discretionary funds focused primarily on small market opportunities.  Dan is a CFA® charter holder and holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance and Banking from the University of Missouri.

Burt Francis is a Managing Director of Business Development at ECA. He works with clients to fill permanent and project based roles. Burt has wide-ranging experience in engineering, business leadership and management consulting in various industries including aerospace, software, financial services, and manufacturing. This includes notable tenure with Oliver Wyman, The Boeing Company, General Dynamics and Starbase Technologies Inc.

Burt graduated summa cum laude, with a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.