19th Independent Sponsors Summit

Claudine Cohen leads a dynamic team specializing in transaction advisory, valuation, restructuring, project finance, dispute resolution, performance improvement, merger integration, carve-outs, M&A insurance advisory, and sustainability advisory. With a keen eye for identifying opportunities and navigating challenges, Claudine helps her clients achieve optimal outcomes, safeguarding and enhancing stakeholder value throughout their business lifecycle.

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.

I am a 8x Inc. 5000 CEO, currently leading Aspen HR and investing in search funds via ETA Equity. The areas I have impacted the most are organic sales, b2b marketing, crafting company culture, intentional hiring, talent development, and executing on add-on acquisitions. I often speak on the topic of Entrepreneurship through Acquisition.

Aspen HR provides private equity, venture capital, search funds, and their portfolio companies with an unmatched level of white-glove PEO services and support (employee benefits, HR compliance, HR tech and payroll).

Prior to Headway Capital, Katherine worked in the private equity division of a U.S. non-profit as well as at a U.S. healthcare focused buyout fund.

Katherine previously spent a decade at JPMorganChase as a Portfolio Manager in the J.P. Morgan Private Equity Group in New York. Katherine also held roles at the firm in Corporate Strategy and Product Management.

Katherine received a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School where she was a Private Equity Fellow. Katherine received a Master of Science with high honors in Governance from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude in Government from Georgetown University.

Founded the Tamarix Group in 1993. Over 30 years experience in private equity, private credit, asset management and investment banking. Previously Senior Managing Director of OFS Capital Management, Global Head of Private Equity at Sandell Asset Management and Managing Director at FdG Associates. Served on numerous private and public boards of directors and philanthropic organizations. Member of the Economic Club of NY and YPO/WPO. Master of Laws from London School of Economics and Bachelor of Economics and Laws from Sydney University.

Nate Niehuus is a serial entrepreneur who specializes in acquisition and disposition of levered assets. He has advised across the Lower Middle Market on businesses and the commercial real estate they occupy. 

He currently runs OutSearched as a buyside advisor and dealflow provider, specializing in proprietary pipeline building. 

Chad brings two decades of experience investing in private and public businesses. Prior to founding Black Lake, he was at leading private equity firms HIG Capital and AEA Investors, which manage $37B and $15B, respectively, and began his career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. He earned an MBA with Honors from the Wharton School and a BS in Chemical Engineering with Distinction from the University of Wisconsin.

Mr. Geisel has a diverse financial services background, including leadership experience growing regional banks for more than twenty years. He was President of Corporate Banking, at Webster Bank (formally known as Sterling National Bank). Prior to Sterling National Bank, Mr. Geisel was President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Sun Bancorp. Prior to Sun Bancorp, Mr. Geisel was at KeyCorp, including serving as President of the Northeast Region where he was responsible for $20 billion of assets within seven states, including commercial, consumer and private banking. He also helped to build the company’s general M&A investment banking practice in the East and West regions. Most recently, he was recruited to lead a turnaround of Republic First, which culminated in an assisted transaction.

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.

Megan Brobson is a vice president at Borgman Capital. She joined the firm in 2019 as an analyst. Prior to working at Borgman Capital, she spent six years working in client finance at subsidiaries of two global, public companies – WPP PLC and Publicis Group S.A. Megan focused primarily on forecasting and financial analysis, driving growth and profitability across her client businesses and improving internal agency wide operational processes.

Conner McGee is a Managing Director and Financial Advisor with The McGee and Ennis Group at Morgan Stanley – a 9-person team that provides a world-class wealth management experience to private equity principals and their family office investors, helping them build financial legacies that empower future generations. By orchestrating a full suite of customized strategies, Conner helps private equity principals and family offices navigate critical financial decisions they face. Conner and his team specialize in employing strategies to optimally manage liquidity associated with capital commitments; providing solutions to reduce tax burden of future capital gains on portfolio company monetization, carried interest, and related income events; and implementing generational wealth transfer plans.

 Conner attended high school at St. Paul's School in Concord, NH and graduated from Dartmouth College. Conner has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) and Certified Financial Planner® (CFP®) designations.  Born and raised in Vermont, Conner now lives in New Canaan, CT with his wife and four children.

Leah Beitner counsels clients on tax-efficient solutions in the context of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and business operations. She focuses her practice on federal income tax aspects of corporate and partnership transactions, representing private equity funds, institutional investors, and public and private corporations. She has broad experience navigating complex tax laws to maximize tax efficiencies and enhance deal outcomes for clients. Leah guides clients, enabling them to make informed business decisions based on a clear understanding of tax implications. Collaborative, creative and proactive, Leah provides clients with pragmatic tax solutions that help their businesses thrive.

At Black Granite Capital, Mr. Kroloff leads the firm's growth equity stage investing in healthcare and technology, with a focus on software for the healthcare sector. Prior to founding Black Granite Capital, Mr. Kroloff invested in healthcare companies at NGN Capital for 11 years, with a focus on medical devices and diagnostics. Prior to NGN Capital, Mr. Kroloff served as an executive officer at i-STAT Corp., a publicly-traded medical device and diagnostics company where he was Vice President for International Sales & Marketing and Corporate Development. He led the creation of global alliances with Abbott Laboratories and Hewlett-Packard Medical Products Group and created i-STAT’s international distribution network. He was actively involved in the sale of i-STAT to Abbott for approximately $450 million. Prior to i-STAT, Mr. Kroloff was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Co. where he advised leading pharmaceutical, diagnostics, and tech companies on R&D management, portfolio strategy, and alliance formation. Mr. Kroloff also worked in international business development at Merck & Co.

Mr. Kroloff received his BA in general science from Brandeis University and his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management where he was a co-founder and served as a judge of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition--one of the largest such competitions in the world. Mr. Kroloff is currently or was previously a board member or board observer of Valtech Cardio, Cerapedics, OptiScan Biomedical, Hospital IQ, TigerConnect, Bluesight (Kit Check), IntelyCare, Jump Technologies, and Z Software. He is a member of the board of the American Technion Society-NY and has served as an advisor to the NYC Economic Development Corporation’s healthcare initiative and as a member of McKinsey's alumni advisory council.

Claudine oversees an integrated team of transaction, valuation, restructuring, project 

Claudine oversees an integrated team of transaction, valuation, restructuring, project 

Mr. Lynch is an experienced leader in the consulting industry based in Atlanta, GA.
His expertise and specialization is primarily in Finance, Operations, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain, turnarounds, restructuring, and strategic advisory. In addition, Mr. Lynch has worked with Enterprise Resource Planning systems including SAP implementations and support, LEAN manufacturing implementations, Supply Chain improvements, and international development.

Mr. Lynch's industry expertise includes: International Development, Aerospace/ Defense, Forestry, Education, Building Products, Retail, Oil & Gas, and Non-Profit/NGOs.

Mr. Lynch has received an MBA, cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame and a BSBA in Computer Information Systems and Finance from Northern Arizona University.

Scott has over 30 years of investing, lending, capital markets, operations and leadership experience. Until December 2017, Scott was a Managing Director at Tenex Capital Management (a New York based private equity firm with over $2 billion of capital under management). During his 8 years at Tenex, Scott helped the firm raise two of their private equity funds and was responsible for the origination and execution of many of the firm’s investment platforms. He also led the firm’s debt capital markets function which arranged the debt financing activities for all the firm’s investments. During his tenure, Scott arranged over $2 billion of debt placements at various Tenex portfolio companies.

Matt Harnett is a founding Partner of Tecum Capital Partners (“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, monitoring, and exiting of subject private equity and mezzanine debt investments.

As the deal team lead, Matt has closed and managed the full life cycle of over 100 unique mezzanine debt and private equity transactions. He has been with the same investment partners for the past 18 years, where the team has invested over $1 billion across multiple funds. His focus is on companies with $10-100 million of revenue and $3-10 million of EBITDA, primarily in the business-to-business services, manufacturing, and value-added distribution markets. Matt and his partners recently launched their 4^th Small Business Investment Company (“SBIC”), a $350 million committed fund focused on supporting best-in-class sponsors, management teams and operators.

Matt currently serves as a Board Member of Aging with Comfort, BP Business Solutions, Connecticut Electric, Conco Services, Midwest Equipment Sales, National Power and Blackwood Solutions. He also serves as a Board Observer for The Marwin Company, Inc., Gilman Cheese, Long Island Waste Management, CM Industries, Five Point Dental Specialists, CDE Services, Hainesport Transportation, The Lewis Group, DelGrosso Foods, Arrow Waste and 5280 Waste Solutions.

This extensive investment experience has provided him with significant expertise in sourcing and structuring transactions, growing companies, and executing & negotiating successful exits.

In addition, Matt is an active member of the Small Business Investor Association (“SBIA”) and is on the SBIA Independent sponsor committee and has served on the Midwest conference committee. He is a member of the Association of Corporate Growth (“ACG”) and serves on the Board for the Pittsburgh Chapter.

Ankit joined Clarendon in 2024 as a Vice President. In this role, Ankit is focused on origination, due diligence, deal execution and portfolio company value creation initiatives across the Transportation, Logistics and Distribution sectors.

Prior to joining Clarendon, Ankit was at ACON Investments and The Carlyle Group where he focused on deal evaluation and execution as well as portfolio company management across a variety of different industries. Ankit has served on the board of a hardware distribution business and has evaluated several opportunities in the broader Distribution sector.

Ankit began his career at Raymond James as an investment banker, where he provided financial advisory services on mergers and acquisitions to corporate and institutional clients.

Ankit received an MBA from The Wharton School. He received a BS in Economics and a BA in Sciences, summa cum laude, in Finance from The Wharton School and in Computer Science from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, respectively, at The University of Pennsylvania. Ankit serves on the board of The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, which restores the lands and waters of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.