Private Equity Fast Pitch

Episode 64 of the Private Equity Fast Pitch features Nik Shah, the co-founder and managing partner of Cohere Capital. Prior to co-founding Cohere Capital with Daniel, Nik was a Managing Director at H.I.G. Capital / H.I.G. Growth Partners where he focused on private equity investments in high-growth, entrepreneur-owned companies in the business services, technology, media, and Internet sectors. In his 12 years at H.I.G., he has served on the board of over 10 past and current H.I.G. portfolio companies. Prior to joining H.I.G., Nik was with Landmark Growth Capital Partners in Boston, Massachusetts, a private equity firm focused on buyouts and growth equity investments in business services, manufacturing, and consumer companies. At Landmark, he was responsible for deal sourcing, due diligence, and assisting management as a board director and observer of several portfolio companies. Earlier in his career, Nik was at AH Ventures and Adams, Harkness & Hill in Boston. Nik received his Bachelor of Arts degree in biochemistry with honors from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. 000001FA 000001F9 000043D5 0000439E 0000A6A1 0000A6A1 00007F3F 00007F3F 0002880F 0002880F

Episode 63 features Brad Brenneman with Breck Partners. Prior to founding Breck, Brad was a partner at Wingate Partners for 16 years, where he served as Co-Managing Partner and was Chairman of Nekoosa Coated Products, Dunn Paper, and Sunrise Oilfield Supply, as lead board member for Industrial Container Services, and as a board member of S&N Communications and Binswanger Glass. ​ Prior to joining Wingate, Brad was an executive with Entergy Wholesale Operations where he led project teams in acquiring and developing power generation assets. He joined Entergy from Lufkin Industries where he served as an Officer.  In addition to his leadership roles in operations and finance, Brad developed and implemented Lufkin’s strategic planning process and coordinated the successful acquisition of companies in the U.S. and Europe to help implement the strategic plan.  Previously, he was a consultant with Bain & Company where he advised clients on strategy and corporate turnarounds. ​ Brad holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting, summa cum laude, from Kansas State University and a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.  He currently serves as an Elder at Preston Trail Community Church and is a Trustee of Legacy Christian Academy.  Brad is married to Leanne and they are the grateful parents of Abigail (21), Jonathan (19) and Matt (17). 000000F4 000000F4 00004BBB 00004BBB 0006C21A 0006C21A 00007E29 00007E29 0006BFA7 0006BFA7

Today we are excited to present a montage of college graduates advice from past Fast Pitch guests. Today’s college graduates find themselves in an unprecedented and challenging environment because of the COVID 19 national lock down.   To address this national challenge, we’ve compiled the best advice to college graduates from top private equity professionals.  we will hear how they overcame challenges in their past and tangible advice they would offer to young graduates in an unfamiliar environment. 000003FA 000003F7 000153B5 000153B5 000305C6 000305C6 00007ED2 00007ECC 00119087 00119087

Julia Karol is President and COO of Watermill Group. She is responsible for overall firm operations and helping Watermill portfolio companies develop and implement their strategies. Previously, as a Watermill Principal, Julia helped guide the day-to-day operations of the firm, directed the firm’s investor relations and managed fundraising initiatives for acquisitions. Prior to joining Watermill, Julia worked at Jumpstart, a national nonprofit organization. While at Jumpstart, she managed Boston-area fundraising, coordinated communication and marketing efforts, cultivated partnerships, developed alumni relations programming, and oversaw staff recruitment efforts.   Julia currently serves as a Partner with Social Venture Partners Boston, a venture philanthropy organization which connects Boston’s most promising nonprofits with the money and minds to fuel their success. Julia has served as a Mentor for Endeavor, a global high-impact entrepreneurship movement and that promotes economic growth and job creation. She also serves as a member for the Budget and Administration Committee for Combined Jewish Philanthropies. Previously, Julia founded and served as board chair for the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network in Boston. Julia is a member of ACG Boston and the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and has been named as one of the Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A by Mergers and Acquisitions Magazine for three consecutive years. In 2019, Julia received the Women of Influence Award from ACG Boston and was named one of Boston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 honorees. In 2017, Julia was named an Emerging Leader by the M&A Advisor.   EDUCATION: She received a M.A. in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership from Stanford University, completed the Owners, Presidents, Managers program at Harvard Business School, and the Summer Institute for Entrepreneurship at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and earned a B.A. from Tufts University.  

COMPANY OVERVIEW With over $10 billion in assets under management, The Riverside Company is one of the largest and oldest global private equity firms. Riverside makes control and non-control investments in companies with enterprise values under $400 million. Since its founding in 1988, Riverside has invested in more than 650 transactions and currently has a portfolio that includes more than 90 companies worldwide. The firms’ specializations include healthcare, education and training, manufacturing, tech-enabled business services, software, consumer, and franchising.   PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Robert Landis is a Founding Partner, Origination in the New York office of The Riverside Company, a private equity firm investing in premier companies at the smaller end of the middle market. Robert joined Riverside in 2002 and has over 42 years of commercial and investment banking experience gained at Deutsche Banc Alex Brown (18 years) and its predecessors, and at Citibank/ Chemical Bank.. At The Riverside Company he works with a team of 17 professionals who coordinate origination and structuring opportunities for Riverside's investment portfolios across 9 diversified funds globally. At Deutsche, he developed industry expertise in the consumer, industrial, transportation, and telecommunications sectors and in his last position (1987-2002) he created and  led the Aerospace and Defense Group in North America. Robert previously headed the firm's North American corporate finance group as it transitioned to an investment bank in the mid 1990's. At Citibank, he was Vice President of the Multi-National Group. Prior to that, Robert was a Major (ret.) in the U.S. Army, serving 6 years active duty and 14 years active reserve with the 42nd Infantry Division, NYARNG. PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS Association for Corporate Growth, NY Chapter Board Member EDUCATION Mr. Landis holds a BS from the University of Colorado and an MBA in International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management.   Personal: Married with two children: Matthew and Moshe: wife Norma formerly of Colombia , language translator at NU Langonne Matthew :Notre Dame Lacrosse:  2x NCAA lacrosse defenseman of the year ( Schmeisser Award), Tewaarton Finalist ( similar to Heisman Trophy) and professional lacrosse player:  2 years Major League Lacrosse ( PLL) and one year Professional League Lacrosse ( PLL) , currently as of 2020, Ensign, U.S. Navy Moshe Landis: currently living in Israel, formerly member of the IDF Special Forces unit  Sayeret Yahalom   000000C1 000000C0 000096B7 000096B7 0002140A 0002140A 00007E61 00007E61 00021958 00021958

Many of you listened to Episode 57 which addressed the importance of a plan, urgency and actions necessary to begin and implement a turnaround for a company facing challenging issues.  Our guest, Jeff Sands, shared his own journey in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and his work assisting companies with turnarounds.  At the time we recorded Episode 57 we had no idea just how significant the coming days would be in terms of the consequences of Covid -19.    For those that have not listened to Episode 57 it is well worth the time as it provides a road map for dealing with the challenging times we are all facing.     The economic circumstances associated with Covid-19 have impacted individuals, families, businesses, schools, colleges and universities, local, state and federal governments in ways never before experienced.  The impact is far beyond anything anticipated or contemplated by today’s contingency or crisis plans.    The results are something that we will all have to work to overcome in the coming days, months and years.  As optimists, we will all help our communities, businesses and people rise from the moment and return to a more normal way of life.    Our guests today share a unique background, perspective and experience in assisting companies with the impact of crisis, restructuring and bankruptcy. While insurance may not be the first thing we think of in times of crisis, on this episode you will hear the implications and considerations apply across a spectrum of businesses.  Insurance is more necessary than most think to position a company for recovery. We have three guests today… Devin Beresheim who is the Global Leader of Lockton Financial Services which includes Lockton’s Corporate Restructuring Team.  Allison Witt, an energy expert within LFS and the co-leader of CRT and Tim Kelly who is a Senior Advisor to Lockton Financial Services and the Corporate Restructuring Team. 00000187 00000185 00003ED7 00003ED7 0006D3A7 0006D3A7 00007E06 00007DD9 000284CB 000284CB

Being heavily involved in the Food & Beverage Industry, John has valuable insights on how the current COVID-19 lockdowns have effected businesses and what they are doing to combat the impacts.   John is a senior advisor to middle-market companies on sell-side and buy-side merger & acquisition transactions, corporate divestitures, management buyouts, recapitalizations and other corporate finance matters. John's primary responsibilities at Arlington include leading deal execution and business development.   Prior to Arlington, John worked as a financial analyst for AmSouth Capital Markets, now Regions Capital Markets (NYSE: RF).  At AmSouth, John specialized in corporate syndicated senior debt, leveraged finance, private placements, interest rate derivatives, taxable and tax-exempt bond issuances and other capital markets solutions for the bank's commercial clients.  Representative clients during his time at AmSouth include many notable public and private companies from $100 million to $3 billion in revenue.   John graduated Magna Cum Laude from Lipscomb University in 2001 with a B.A. degree in Political Science, where he was chosen to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy Assembly as the top Political Science student in his class. In addition, John was a four-year letterman on Lipscomb's NCAA Division-I golf team, where he was an academic All-American.  He also earned a Masters degree, with distinction, in Management, Economics and International Relations from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, where he was a Ransome Scholar.  At St. Andrews, John led a team of fellow students in winning the university's venture based business plan competition.   An avid amateur golfer, John is a Member of Fenwick Brands Advisory Board and Investment Committee, Former President of Glenwood Autism & Behavioral Health's Junior Board and an active member of Birmingham's Monday Morning Quarterback Club. 000000E5 000000D9 00003BF8 0000384F 0019CDEB 0019CDEB 00007EA7 00007A17 00014449 00014449

Jeff grew up in working in his family's manufacturing business and returned as an adult to help grow, fix, grow again, fix again and eventually exit that business.Since then he has specialized in corporate turnarounds; fighting to save businesses, jobs, fortunes and the communities they support.   3-times Jeff has been awarded of one of the Turnaround Management Association's prestigious Turnaround of the Year Awards for each of the following businesses; Vermont Aerospace (2017), Canadian Kraft Paper (2018) and Union Metal Industries (2019). Since 2002, he has transformed dozens of businesses in dozens of industries with a reputation for taking on the most dire situations.   In addition to corporate turnarounds, Jeff is known widely for his ability to attain top dollar in the sale of distressed businesses, maximizing going concern value while saving jobs, revitalizing the local economy and providing a dignified exit to the debtors. Jeff recently authored Corporate Turnaround Artistry, Fix Any Business in 100 Days which will be published by J. Wiley & Sons in 2020. Jeff married his college sweetheart and they enjoy their free time skiing, biking and shuttling their 3 children around to sporting events.   For more information, here are a few links: http://dorsetpartners.com/we-wrote-the-book/  www.DorsetPartners.com                www.AIAC.com Corporate Turnaround Artistry Book   0000011E 0000011E 00003B2B 00003B2B 0002A524 0002A524 00007ED6 00007ED6 000281D6 000281D6

Lauren is a Partner at MiddleGround where she is responsible for transaction sourcing and management of the Investment Team with John Stewart. Prior to founding MiddleGround, Lauren spent more than ten years executing transactions as an investment banker and private equity investor.    She started her career in investment banking as part of the Financial Institutions Group at Banc of America Securities and then moved to Macquarie Capital to help launch a private capital markets platform. She subsequently spent 6 years at Monomoy Capital, where she was a Director on the transaction team and served on the Board of Directors for three portfolio companies.    Lauren received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (go Tarheels!) as well as an MBA with Honors from Columbia Business School (go whatever Columbia's mascot is!).   While Lauren is now a certified New Yorker, her native Iowa roots are easily identifiable thanks to her love of corn. She and her husband, Brian, are the proud parents of two girls, Maddie and Cece. Lauren likes to spend her spare time golfing, is the worst FIFA 2019 soccer player on the Investment Team and is currently the tallest member of the firm. 000000DE 000000DE 000028E3 000028E3 000FD93E 000FD93E 00007C5F 0000790E 00010292 00010292

Brett Hickey is the Founder & CEO of Star Mountain Capital, LLC, a $1+ billion AUM specialized U.S. lower middle-market investment firm. Star Mountain employs a data-driven approach to provide value-added debt and equity capital to established small and medium-sized companies leveraging its large market expertise, scale-driven resources, and longstanding relationships. With approximately 30 full-time people and over 25 operating partners and advisors, Star Mountain brings proven large market expertise to help business owners maximize value. Star Mountain’s team and partners include former senior executives from GSO / Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, and Citigroup. Star Mountain provides flexible capital solutions including debt and equity for business owners and has a strategic primary and secondary fund business through which it invests in over 250 U.S. private businesses. This secondary business provides early liquidity to investors in U.S. lower middle-market credit and equity funds. Star Mountain’s in-house technology team has built proprietary systems to support its data-driven approach to maximize value for investors and business owners alike. Star Mountain is a trademarked brand, including “Investing in the Growth Engine of America ®” and Star Mountain’s distinctive “Collaborative Ecosystem ®” includes hosting and participating in 100+ events per year. Star Mountain’s Charitable Foundation supports career development form women, veterans, and athletes as well as health & wellness initiatives including cancer research. Prior to becoming a principal investor starting in the early 2000s, Mr. Hickey was an Investment Banker at Salomon Smith Barney / Citigroup Global Markets in New York City where he covered global Asset Managers and Financial Institutions. In that role, he analyzed asset managers and asset classes, ultimately working on over $20 billion in completed strategic acquisitions and capital raises. Mr. Hickey’s board memberships include member and former Chairman of Networks for the NYC Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), Global Board of Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs, and Global Board of Help for Children (HFC). Mr. Hickey received a Bachelor of Commerce with Distinction from McGill University (Finance Major and Accounting Concentration) and is an alumnus from Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management executive leadership program. He is a frequent guest lecturer on industry panels and at academic institutions. Mr. Hickey is also a former Canadian national gold medalist and North American medalist in speed skating. Mr. Hickey is married with two children and lives in New York. 00000370 0000036E 0000B524 0000B524 00025F0A 00025F0A 00007EB8 00007EAB 00005829 000071E0