Private Equity Fast Pitch

We are excited to present a montage of quotes and mottos from prior guests that have inspired them throughout the years in both their careers and personal lives.  As we begin a new year, we hope this special episode sets the stage and provides you with a new mind set for conquering the challenges & opportunities that lie ahead.

Steve is a Founding Partner and the Managing Partner of BVP. Steve combines financial expertise with a disruptive approach to value-add strategies in private equity. Previously, Steve was a Co-Founder and a Managing Partner of a lower-middle market private equity fund focused on the consumer sectors. Steve was previously a corporate lawyer at Kirkland and Ellis, and Cahill Gordon & Reindel. Steve received his BA in East Asian Studies with honors from Harvard College in 1992 and his JD from Harvard Law School in 1995. He was the New York State High School Chess Champion in 1988. Steve is married to his wife, Gretchen, and has three boys, Andrew, Joshua and Matthew.  In addition to spending time with his family, Steve is passionate about traveling, classic rock music, Disney and the Buffalo Bills.

Meahgan is well known in the Middle Market M&A community for her knowledge of and views on investing trends, creative and effective deal sourcing techniques, macro-market perspectives and best-practices in which private equity firms can bridge the gap between “Main St. and Wall St.” Meahgan is the Chairwoman of the Association of Corporate Growth’s “Women of Leadership” committee, was named one of McGuire Woods’ “Women to Know in Private Equity” and has been a featured speaker at multiple professional association conferences as well as “Women in Business” focused events. Meahgan is a Director of Business Development for Palladium Equity Partners where her primary focus is on new investment generation and intermediary, founder, executive and corporate relationship management across North America and Europe. Furthermore, Meahgan assists portfolio companies with add-on acquisition strategy development and the sourcing of tuck-in opportunities. She received her Master’s in Business Administration from Duke, The Fuqua School of Business and her B.B.A. from William and Mary’s Mason School of Business.

Mr. Parisi helps family and independent businesses sell or recapitalize their companies’ capital structure, realize a liquidity event, transfer ownership to next generation, or combine with a larger partner to accelerate growth. Prior to joining Carl Marks Advisors, Mr. Parisi was a Managing Partner of FPG Advisory where he focused on all aspects of sourcing and executing deals, including structuring, due diligence, financing, and post-transaction integration throughout North America and internationally. Previously, he was a senior investment banker at Jefferies & Company where he was instrumental in building the General Industries Group into one of the firm’s largest and most profitable units. He maintained a broad industry specialization, working closely with companies in the basic materials, chemicals and capital goods sectors. Earlier, Mr. Parisi was a Vice President with KeyBanc Capital Markets, focusing on middle-market consumer companies, including Food & Beverage and Retail. Before his investment banking career, Mr. Parisi worked in the private equity division of The Blackstone Group, one of the world’s largest private equity firms. He began his career with Ernst & Young. Mr. Parisi earned a BS in Accounting from the University of Scranton and an MBA from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He is a FINRA Registered Representative and a Certified Public Accountant.

Our host Jeff Henningsen, president of Lockton companies in Houston and the Podfather of private equity, is speaking on the female committee panel for Wave (Women's Association of Venture & Equity   Wave allows the panelists to discuss three main topics: One - how Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has changed in corporate America and what the future looks like for female executives, Two - advice on beginning your career: including what can be done to revamp your application in the job market and the underlying difference between female and male job applicants, and Three - feeling the fear, but doing it anyway.   We hope you enjoy this extraordinary episode.

Dominique Mielle is a Wall Street veteran with a comprehensive knowledge of corporate finance, capital markets, and the bankruptcy process.  She was a partner and senior portfolio manager at Canyon Capital, a $25 billion hedge fund, where she worked from 1998 to 2018. In 2017, she was named one of the “50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds” by the Hedge Fund Journal and E&Y. After retiring in 2018 she started writing. Her book, Damsel in Distressed: My life in the golden age of hedge funds, was released on September 7, 2021. She is a Forbes contributor on hedge funds, distressed investing and women in finance. One of the only senior women in the hedge fund business, she played key roles in complicated bankruptcies, serving as a leading creditors’ committee member for Puerto Rico, and as a restructuring committee member for U.S. airlines in the wake of the September 11 attacks. She was a director of the board and the audit committee chair for PG&E during its fifteen-month bankruptcy process and emergence, and now serves on several corporate boards: Digicel Group, ReadyCap, Tiptree, Osiris Acquisition and Studio City. 

Kevin McAllister has extensive private equity experience, including opportunity origination, execution, negotiation, and portfolio company support. Prior to founding Access in 2013, Kevin was at Sterling Partners where he was a member of its investment committee and led the Business Services practice (~$2 billion of AUM).    While at Sterling Partners, Kevin led the sourcing, underwriting, and management of Livingston International, FPG and MOSAID Technologies.     Prior to joining Sterling in 2008, Kevin was in the Buyout Group at American Capital. Kevin has also held roles in strategic consulting at Accenture and A.T. Kearney and in business development at a NYSE-listed acquisitive holding company.     Kevin holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business (Dean's List) and a BA in Economics from Dickinson College.

Jeffrey Hooke, senior finance lecturer at the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business, discusses the negative effects of private equity and shares advice for pursuing a career in the industry. He also explores the target audience for his book, offers career navigation tips, and talks about communication dynamics and challenging conventional wisdom in private equity.

Jeff Henningsen, recently nicknamed the podfather of private equity podcasts will be speaking with Scott Kolbrenner, a managing director at Houlihan Lokey. Scott co-heads Houlihans Industrial Services practice with a focus on engineering services. He was recognized by Investment Dealers’ Digest as a recipient of its “Forty Under Forty” award and in 2020, as a contestant on Wheel of Fortune became the highest paid male contender in the history of the show. Scott generously donated the entirety of his $145,000 prize money to Uplift Family Services and Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Today they’ll be discussing Scott’s 20 years of experience in Investment Banking, the current trends in infrastructure, and his insights on powerful and impactful leadership.

Christopher W. Kersey serves as the Founding Managing Partner of Havencrest Capital Management, and prior to founding Havencrest, Dr. Kersey served as a Managing Member and Partner of Camden Partners Holdings, LLC. From 2011 to 2017, Dr. Kersey served as the Chairman of the Board of Johns Hopkins Medicine International. During that time, Dr. Kersey helped spearhead John Hopkins Medicine International's growth from an emerging pioneer to the established leader in global collaborative health care partnerships by engineering innovative private sector - public sector partnerships with blue-chip institutions such as Saudi Aramco in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, HCL Healthcare in India and Pacifico Salud in Peru. In 2010, Dr. Kersey was elected to the boards of trustees of Johns Hopkins Medicine and the iconic Johns Hopkins Hospital, U.S. News & World Report's #1 ranked hospital in the United States for 21 consecutive years. Dr. Kersey also serves on the boards of directors of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Endowment Fund and Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare (JHAH) — a joint venture based in Saudi Arabia and one of the world's largest population health management initiatives. Dr. Kersey is also a member of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Compensation Committee, the Johns Hopkins Medicine Patient Safety and Quality Committee and the Johns Hopkins Hospital Credentials Committee. In 2017, Dr. Kersey was elected to the board of trustees of the GuideStone Funds, the largest Christian mutual fund in the world with more than $12 billion in assets under management, where he serves on the Investment Management Committee and the Nominating and Governance Committee. Dr. Kersey earned his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree from Stanford University, his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree from the Emory University School of Medicine and his Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Harvard Business School.