15th Independent Sponsors Summit & Golf Outing

Kevin Christmas is a corporate partner in Holland & Knight's Charlotte office, where he focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, financing matters, search fund transactions and general corporate advisory work. Mr. Christmas leads Holland & Knight's Search Funds practice and has substantial experience representing domestic and international search funds in connection with capital raising, acquisition transactions and related matters. 

Mr. Christmas has more than 15 years of experience advising clients on the full life cycle of business issues, from company formation and capital raising to exit strategies. He serves a portfolio of clients across various industry sectors, including healthcare, life sciences, financial services, distribution, software, retail, manufacturing, and mining and minerals. Mr. Christmas' practice includes representation of private equity funds, family offices, search funds, independent sponsors, entrepreneurs, family-owned businesses, and public and private companies.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Christmas was a corporate partner at an international law firm based in Charlotte, N.C.

John co-founded New State Capital Partners in 2013. Prior to joining, John spent over 14 years in investment banking. Most recently, John was an Executive Director in the Financial Sponsors & Leveraged Finance Group at UBS Investment Bank, where he was responsible for originating and executing leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations and refinancings as well as co-covering middle market private equity firms. Prior to UBS, John was at Credit Suisse First Boston (previously Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette) in the Private Placements Group, where he helped raise over $2 billion for growth companies in a variety of industries. John began his career at Deutsche Bank in the Commercial Real Estate Finance Group.

John graduated from the University of Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics.

Paul has over thirteen years of leveraged finance and private equity investing experience.  A member of Greyrock’s investment committee, he joined the firm in 2015 and is responsible for sourcing and executing transactions as well as portfolio management.  Prior to joining Greyrock, Paul spent three years at Prostar Capital, an energy-focused private equity firm.  He began his career as a member of GE Capital’s Energy Finance Division.

Mark Tedford is Co-Founder and Managing Director at Valley Ridge Investment Partners, an independent sponsor private equity firm.  He is responsible for all phases of deal origination, due diligence, financing, closing and portfolio company performance management.   Mark has twenty-five years of experience developing and implementing strategic growth initiatives for lower middle market, mid-market and large (F500) corporations as an internal executive and external consultant.  Prior to founding Valley Ridge, Mark served in senior executive corporate strategy roles in large global financial services firms including Prudential, TIAA, Citibank and Fidelity Investments.  Prior to that, he led strategy engagements for The Boston Consulting Group for industrial products, telecommunications, data storage and retail apparel clients.  Prior to BCG, Mark led operations improvement engagements for lower middle market manufacturing clients at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting. Mark is a military veteran, having served two tours as a Naval officer, managing industrial operations for the Marine Corps on bases in Japan and Quantico, VA.  He has been a principal investor for years and has experience serving on and supporting corporate and non-profit boards of directors.  ​

Mark holds an MBA from The Fuqua School at Duke University where he was a Fuqua Fellow.  He earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Minor in Industrial Management from Tufts University, while on a Navy R.O.T.C. scholarship at M.I.T.​

David M. Abner is a practicing attorney with over 20 years of experience representing Fortune 500 and emerging companies in mergers and acquisitions, commercial transactions and business litigation matters. Mr. Abner is currently based in Los Angeles, California, and his practice focuses on helping clients manage risks associated with a variety of private equity transactions, as well as commercial and complex litigation matters. Mr. Abner has considerable experience dealing with matters involving ownership and valuation of shares in privately owned companies. As in-house counsel for Ashland Inc., Mr. Abner worked daily with business leaders to assess, manage and prevent a variety of legal risks that threatened the viability and profitability of products, services and customer relationships. His efforts produced results that included settling a $700M anti-trust class action lawsuit for less than $7M; assisting in closing the sale of the company’s joint venture interests in an oil and gas subsidiary; assessing and quantifying the liabilities associated with the acquisition of other businesses; and supervising Ashland’s responses to DOJ, FBI and EPA investigations. In addition, he has tried nearly a dozen cases in private practice, including cases involving breach of contract, products liability, fraud, and personal injury issues. Mr. Abner has been licensed to practice law in Texas since 1993, and in California since 2012. Mr. Abner obtained his Juris Doctorate from the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University in 1993, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Carolina in 1990.

Raji is the Founder & President of Broadgate Capital based in Dallas, TX.  Prior to Broadgate, Raji was the CEO & President of Impex, a private-label & branded manufacturer with offices and joint-venture factories throughout North America and Asia.  Raji is deeply involved in the global economy, and is experienced in all facets of management, including accounting & finance, marketing, manufacturing, negotiation, and strategy.  Raji earned his BA from Pepperdine University and is a graduate of the Owner, President Management Program (OPM) at the Harvard Business School.

Rob Bauer is the Founder and Managing Member of Bassett Creek Capital.  Bassett Creek makes equity investments in lower-middle market companies, typically at a critical inflection point in the business.  Bassett Creek has completed seven acquisitions since its founding in 2016.  

We are a private capital partner for business owners who want to harness the power of cultural connectivity and entrepreneurial grit to reach the next level of growth. We are a trusted partner, ally and advisor for management teams who are passionate about meaningful growth achieved through low-ego collaboration.

Franklin has led direct investments into private companies for the last 18 years, and has been in the finance industry for over 25 years. Prior to founding Essex Bay, Franklin was a Managing Director at Audax Private Equity, a leading middle market investment firm with over $9 billion of capital under management. At Audax, he led investments in the industrial, business services, healthcare and technology markets, among others, completing over 60 acquisitions. Representative investments include Aavid Thermalloy (sold to Boyd), Astrodyne TDI (sold to Tinicum), Gabriel Performance Products (sold to Huntsman), Northern Digital (sold to Roper) and Winchester Electronics (sold to Snow Phipps). In addition to leading investments for the bulk of his career at Audax, Franklin also was a member of the Business Development team, maintaining relationships with a variety of deal intermediaries.

Prior to Audax, Franklin was Interim CFO and VP of Corporate Development at Coast Crane Company, then an Audax portfolio company. Earlier, Franklin worked in investment banking in New York, London and Providence.

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.

​Chris has over 28 years of business experience in M&A, turnaround consulting, public accounting, and sales. He has worked with Huron Capital, Conway McKenzie, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Revlon. He has a B.A. in English and Speech Communications from the University of Nebraska, and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan, and is a former CPA.