16th Independent Sponsors Summit & Awards

Claudine 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.

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 was named to Mergers and Acquisitions 2019 list of the most influential women in mid-market M&A, and Crain’s NY 2018 most notable women in consulting.

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.

Grant is a seasoned investment professional with years of both deal and operating experience. Over the last few years, Grant has honed his operating skills by founding several innovative companies such as MoneyToGo, HelpMeToBuy and Vuru. Grant’s leadership and these companies have been profiled in numerous national media outlets including an appearance on CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. Grant was also Director of Business Development at Isadra, an enterprise software company that was acquired by VerticalNet (NASDAQ: VERT).

Prior to rolling up his sleeves and running companies, Grant spent years investing in operating companies and real estate. He was the Florida Development Partner for The Lane Company, one of the largest multifamily development companies in the U.S. In that role, Grant focused on acquiring and developing apartments and condos that ranged from $15 million to $50 million in project size. Grant began his career as an associate at Sterling Partners, a private equity firm with over $4 billion under management. At Sterling, Grant structured investments in numerous companies and spent considerable time advising senior management teams on their growth and capitalization strategies.

Grant has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Finance from Georgetown University.

Drew is a serial entrepreneur having started 5 businesses, sold a few and still owns some. He knows what it’s like to be in your shoes. He sees the Independent Sponsor model as the method executives and industry experts can take to own and run already established businesses. He now dedicates his career to helping individuals buy companies, find greater success and live life on their own terms.