NYC Independent Sponsor Summit: Multiple Panels (IN PERSON)

Chase Stuart is a partner in Ice Miller's Business Group and the Office Managing Partner in New York. He represents a variety of private equity funds, family offices, independent sponsors, privately-held businesses, private credit funds, and mezzanine funds. He provides strategic and legal advice in their investment and general corporate strategies, including on leveraged buyouts and other M&A, financings, minority investments, growth capital transactions, and early and late state private equity investments. He represents family, founder, and entrepreneur-owned businesses as general corporate counsel and as a sell-side advisor. He has represented a variety of companies in sectors such as aerospace and defense, technology, manufacturing, consumer products, business services, gaming, and health care.

Dan is a Partner and serves as a member of the Investment Committee for Comvest’s direct lending strategy. He is responsible for originating, structuring, and managing investments.

Prior to joining Comvest, Dan was a Senior Director with Dymas Capital Management, where he served on the Investment Committee and was instrumental in the formation and growth of the firm from its start-up phase to an established middle-market finance company. He has served as a Managing Director at Square 1 Bank and Kugman Partners, and as an investment banker at Salomon Smith Barney. Prior to getting his MBA, Dan began his career with Arthur Andersen and Heller Financial’s Corporate Finance Group.

Dan received an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame.

Prior to joining Brightwood, Mr. Porter was a Partner at Uni-World Capital, a lower-middle market buyout fund, where he spent over five years sourcing, executing and managing private equity investments. Prior to Uni-World, Mr. Porter worked with Brightwood co-Founder, Sengal Selassie, as a Partner at Cowen Capital Partners, LLC, the private equity affiliate of Cowen Group, Inc. ("Cowen"), where he spent nine years in a similar capacity to his role at Uni-World. While at Cowen, Mr. Porter was instrumental in assisting the company in a number of business development activities that included the company's spin-out from Société Générale S.A. and subsequent IPO, the creation of a $500 million healthcare-focused private equity fund and the acquisition of an Asian boutique investment bank. Mr. Porter started his career working in Chase Securities High Yield Corporate Finance Group, where he executed over $3.5 billion in lead managed and $7.0 billion in co-managed transactions in the media, telecommunication, healthcare, chemical, consumer products, manufacturing and service industries. Mr. Porter earned his B.A., magna cum laude, from SUNY Binghamton.

Parkway Capital is the mezzanine credit affiliate of Calvert Street. Chris joined Calvert Street in 2019 to lead the mezzanine investment business. Prior to joining Calvert Street, Chris co-founded and managed Parkway Capital Investors. Parkway was formed in 2000 to invest mezzanine debt and private equity in lower middle market companies. Prior to co-founding Parkway, Chris served in numerous corporate finance, client management, and credit policy roles at Bank of America and predecessor banks focused on the middle market.

Chris holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University.

Curtis is involved with investing activities at Grafine. He has over 25 years of experience as a private equity investor at firms such as Fortress Investment Group, Perseus LLC, and Goldman Sachs. He is a graduate of Princeton University and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Joella is responsible for originating, underwriting and managing investments across the MGG platform.

Prior to joining MGG, Mr. Joella worked in the Private Debt Group of AEA Investors where he helped manage approximately $2 billion in assets across senior secured term loans and mezzanine debt strategies. Mr. Joella began his career at Deutsche Bank Securities, where he was a member of the Media & Telecom Investment Banking group advising clients on M&A and capital raising transactions.

Mr. Joella received his BS in Economics, cum laude, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Drew Scannell is a Principal at NewSpring with the Firm’s dedicated mezzanine strategy, and joined the Firm in 2015. At NewSpring, Drew is responsible for all stages of the investment lifecycle, including sourcing, diligence, execution, and portfolio value creation.

Previously, he was with Baker Tilly Capital, a Philadelphia-based investment banking and corporate finance advisory firm where he was responsible for financial analysis as well as drafting pitch books, confidential information memoranda, management presentations, and valuation reports for sell-side investment banking engagements, buy-side advisory, and corporate planning.

Prior to Baker Tilly Capital, Drew was with Hempstead & Co, LLC, a boutique business valuation and corporate finance advisory firm where he performed financial analysis and prepared business valuation reports for estate and gift planning, fairness opinions, financial reporting, litigation support, and corporate planning.

Drew received a BA from Bucknell University in Economics and Spanish.

Eric is a Principal with WhiteHorse Capital. Based in the Boston office, Eric focuses on sourcing and executing debt investments in middle market companies in a range of industries.

Eric has over 15 years of experience in principal investing and investment banking in a range of industries including business services, healthcare, technology, manufacturing and specialty finance. Prior to joining WhiteHorse Capital, Eric was a Principal in the Special-Opportunity Lower Middle Market Group at Hercules Technology Growth Capital, where he focused on debt and equity investments. Prior to Hercules, Eric worked at firms including, West End Capital and Advisory, D.B. Zwirn, and The Wicks Group of Companies.

Eric earned a B.A. in International Politics and Economics from Middlebury College and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

Mr. Saltzman is the Managing Partner of Torque Capital Group where he is responsible for all aspects of the firm and its investment process. Prior to co-founding Torque, Mr. Saltzman was a senior investment professional at The Cypress Group, a New York-based private equity firm. Prior to The Cypress Group, Mr. Saltzman sourced and led transactions at BG Strategic Advisors, a boutique investment bank focused on the supply chain sector. Previously, Mr. Saltzman also worked in corporate finance for Amsterdam-based transportation, logistics and shipping multinational firm TNT N.V., and started his career in investment banking at Salomon Brothers. Mr. Saltzman graduated with highest distinction from Emory University and received his MBA from The Anderson School at U.C.L.A.

Co-founded Valley Ridge Investment Partners to make control investments in lower middle market industrial businesses with $5-12mm in EBITDA. 20 years of prior experience in growth strategy design and execution in F500 companies, top tier strategy consulting as well as performance improvement in lower middle market businesses. MBA, engineering undergrad, military veteran. www.valleyridgeip.com

Ms. Adler is a founder and Managing Partner at Mizzen Capital. Prior to launching Mizzen Capital, Ms. Adler held senior management roles with SBIC investment funds including Medley SBIC LP, Sunrise Equity Partners LP and Hudson Venture Partners LP. Prior to that, she worked at Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association in the fixed income group and at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in the investment banking division.

M&A magazine has named Ms. Adler as one of the top women in middle market for the last seven years – 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016. She was also named ACG’s Women of Leadership awardee for 2018. Ms. Adler is a board member of UJA’s private equity division, banking & finance division and women of wall street division. Previously, Ms. Adler was a Board Member of the SBIA Board of Governors (2014 to 2019) and chair of its BDC committee (2015 to 2017).

Ms. Adler earned an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BS with distinction from Cornell University.

Prior to joining the Greyrock Principals, from 2013 to 2015, Paul worked for Prostar Capital, an energy-focused private equity firm. In 2011 and 2012, he worked for GE Capital’s Energy Finance division. Paul has a degree in Economics and Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin.

Richard is the Managing Partner of Consumer Growth Partners (CGP), a private equity investment/independent sponsor and advisory firm with an exclusive focus on middle-market specialty retail and non-perishable branded consumer products companies.
Prior to co-founding CGP in 2005, Mr. Baum spent more than fifteen years as a sell-side equity research analyst at Sanford Bernstein, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse where he was consistently ranked among the industry leaders in the annual Institutional Investor and Greenwich Associates polls. Previously, Mr. Baum spent six years in the merchandising organization at Bloomingdale’s. He began his career as a strategy consultant with The Boston Consulting Group.

Mr. Baum currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Harris Originals, Inc. and as a Board Director for Factory Connection, Inc. He served as a board director of Vera Bradley, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRA) for nine years. He is also President of the Retail Marketing Society, a not-for-profit organization that focuses on leading edge topics of interest for the broad retail community.

Mr. Baum earned a BA degree in Economics from the University of Michigan where he graduated magna cum laude with Phi Beta Kappa honors and a JD degree from Harvard Law School. Mr. Baum lives in Westchester County, NY with his wife Robin. He is the proud father of two young men, Zachary an attorney in Washington, DC and Ross a musical theatre composer in New York City.

Mr. Hokayem joined Colbeck in 2013. Prior to joining Colbeck, he was a Director at PNC Capital Markets. While at PNC, he worked in numerous capacities as a corporate banker and portfolio manager across the corporate bank. Mr. Hokayem has also held positions in the risk management, contract finance, asset based lending, and specialty finance verticals. He has spent most of his career focused on private middle market companies. Additionally, Mr. Hokayem has lectured at New York University's Stern School of Business, taught at Wall Street Training, and spoken at multiple investment conferences. Mr. Hokayem holds a Master’s in Business Administration from New York University’s Stern School of Business where he graduated with highest distinction. Mr. Hokayem holds the rank of Eagle Scout and is actively involved with mentorship programs across New York City.