Middle Market Musings

Christina Pai is a partner at Fort Point Capital, a Boston-based private equity firm focused on service businesses with high growth potential. This episode begins and ends with Christina and Charlie swapping captivating Boston sports insights. In between, she charts her Massachusetts childhood, college at Dartmouth, and path to her current role at Fort Point. Discussion ensues around the strengths and appetites of the family office, the fundless sponsor, and the LP-based fund. Andy attempts to get in on the Boston mojo with an origin story that sounds suspiciously like the opening of Good Will Hunting. Christina and Charlie (to no one’s surprise) see through the ruse.

Mark Chesen is a founder and managing partner at SSG Capital Advisors, a special situations-focused investment bank that has completed more than 400 transactions since its founding in 2001. Mark zips through growing up in Iowa, college at the University of Texas and an early stint in public accounting before turning to the wide world of investment banking. He and the hosts chart SSG’s growth, its sale and repurchase by the founders, and the unusual continuity Mark and his partners have maintained over 23 years. There’s also some interesting discussion about the DNA of the special situations banker and how Mark both uses and plays off of his own good nature. This ones goes smooth “like buttah.” (If you get the dated SNL reference – you are in the core MMM demographic.)

The Middle Market Musings tour bus rolls into southwestern Ohio for a discussion with Ashley Hess, Partner-in-Charge of Baker Hostetler’s Cincinnati office. Ashley draws vivid stories out of a succession of stops in his journey: Western Virginia boyhood, school at UVA and Washington & Lee, marriage and life as a young connector in the Cincinnati community and, finally, a demanding and varied corporate law practice. Ashley’s clients include multi-national firms like Toyota and buyers/sellers in the middle market deal space. He talks with equal verve about trends in the automotive industry and his enthusiasm for blues music. One of the MMM hosts springs to life at the chance to talk about the blues, while the other struggles awkwardly for on-point references.

This time around, Chrisanne Corbett classes up the proceedings. Chrisanne is Managing Director of KPMG Corporate Finance LLC, leading the Diversified Industrials Team, and co-leading the Private Equity Coverage Team. She starts off recalling a busy, promising childhood in Minnesota and Connecticut. Andy and Charlie – rarely interested in the same thing at the same time – both come to full alert for tales of appearing in early commercials for the gum and candy company where her father worked. Chrisanne then moves on to college at Notre Dame and a career in investment banking, including the last 24 years spent at KPMG. She recounts KPMG’s current areas of focus, from the perspective of a banker versatile enough to have industry vertical responsibilities while keeping a hand in sponsor coverage.

Jon Skinner is CEO of PSP Partners, a diversified private investment firm founded by former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. Jon is the latest financial honcho to miss his exit and end up in the Middle Market Musings recording complex with Andy and Charlie. Jon reviews his path to his current role – childhood in suburban Boston, football and undergrad at Brown, law school at Boston College, then a storied investment banking career culminating in his tenure as a vice chairman at William Blair. Jon then reviews the investment practices and culture of PSP and concludes by sharing his interests outside of work, including serving as board chair of the Honor Foundation, which is devoted to job placement for U.S. Special Ops veterans.

Andy Souder grew up in a steel town and attended Notre Dame, but the similarities to “Rudy” end there. Andy is vice president of acquisitions at RAF Equity, a family office turned private equity fund based in suburban Philadelphia. Andy regales his old friends with stories of his own upbringing and early career in commercial banking and law, then he and Andy Greenberg trade stories about Bob Fox, RAF’s remarkable founder. Discussion then turns to RAF Equity today – new leadership and focus on higher growth industries combined with traditional values and approach. Charlie rises to the challenge of two Philadelphians by talking up the last days of the Belichick era in Boston.

Bob Whalen is CEO of HB Global, a $550-million revenues commercial specialty contracting firm based in Harrisburg, PA. Bob talks about HB’s evolution since his acquisition of the business and its transition to ESOP ownership in 2008, as well as HB Capital, a private equity vehicle formed to acquire other businesses suited to similar management and ownership. Some interesting discussion on valuations prevailing in HVAC/commercial services. Bob opens with his learnings from being a competitive D-1 college wrestler and the relevance to running HB Global. Andy and Charlie show their prowess as D-1 interviewers, as usual.

Brent Baxter is several months into his tenure as Chief Executive Officer of the Association for Corporate Growth, the premier trade organization serving the M&A deal making community. Brent shares his immediate vision and priorities for serving ACG’s membership, then delves into the path that brought him to this role. Childhood in western Pennsylvania, a college-era stint as in the restaurant business that honed his people and management skills, then a business and banking career in St. Louis culminating at Nolan & Associates. Brent’s youthful experience leads to the discovery that Andy and Charlie have the same favorite Italian dish – linguini alle vongole. Who says nothing in common?

Jim Apple is partner and head of sourcing at The Sterling Group, an operationally focused private equity firm based in Houston. Jim hits the ground running with stories of a rich upbringing that included antique road shows and no TV in the house. Discussion culminates with a review of Sterling, its two current vehicles and model that includes seven drivers of value including the one Jim is responsible for – acquisitions. Before that, we hit highlights from Jim’s two earlier career stints in industrial development and investment banking. As is often the case, conversation ends up on music tastes. Jim scores with his recommendation of the Black Pumas, “an American psychedelic soul band based in Austin, Texas.”

Jim Andersen wakes up as if from a bad dream, and finds himself in conversation with Andy and Charlie. Jim is a managing partner and co-founder of Clearview Capital, a Stamford, CT based private equity fund that is often the first source of institutional capital for lower middle market owner/managers. Clearview is currently investing Fund V, an $850 million vehicle. We start off with tales from Jim’s early career experience stationed in Egypt with Schlumberger. Charlie seizes the opportunity to show off his mastery of the geography of North Africa. Jim goes on to detail Clearview’s trajectory as a fund that balances industry focus against selection of the right vehicle and management team. Conversation turns to a Middle Market Musings staple – culture. As a partner in a fund that has never had a principal team member leave, Jim brings some authority to the subject.

This time out, Rob Brown takes us inside Lincoln International LLC, one of the preeminent middle market investment banks. Rob joined Lincoln as one of its first employees in 1998, rising to become CEO in 2021. He charts his own and Lincoln’s development with great insight and good humor. Stick around for the second half, in which Rob, Andy and Charlie have an extended discussion about the “science of the pitch,” particularly as it bears on and channels the development of younger team members. The guitar on the wall in Rob’s Zoom background leads to an even more animated conversation – where each of the combatants list their top three greatest living guitarists. The responses are equal parts cringe-worthy and enlightened, depending upon your perspective.

Hollywood settles the writer’s strike, the vast creative team supporting Middle Market Musings swings back into action, and we launch our third season with a standout guest! Nishen Radia is Senior Managing Director and Co-Head of M&A at B. Riley Securities. Nishen starts off with a panoramic tour of his well-traveled boyhood, including a stint selling (and wrecking) cars at his father’s London car dealership. Andy and Charlie then delve into an M&A career highlighted by the 20-year run of FocalPoint Partners, the M&A firm founded by Nish and Duane Stullich in 2002 and the integration of that firm into B. Riley Securities in 2022. This one is packed with business insights, but still makes room for the infamous Bollywood wedding video.

Chris Burbach draws the black marble and finds himself on the podcast with Andy and Charlie. Chris is Co-founder, Partner and CEO of Fundamental Income, an institutionally backed firm that offers efficient real estate-based capital to business owners and buyers, and access to net lease real estate to investors. Chris explains when and how thinking about the monetization of real estate makes sense for a buyer in the capital structure of a contemplated transaction. Before that, Chris shares an entertaining origin story – growing up in Phoenix, getting exposed to real estate value through his parent’s charter school business and having a low ceiling on the basketball court at Santa Clara University.

Ted Kramer is the CEO of HKW, a private equity firm that traces its lineage to the early years of the 20th century. Ted not only shares an overview of his firm’s lineage, but also traces his own beginnings in northwestern Ohio and his immersion in hockey as a schoolboy, University of Michigan star, and eventually as a professional player in the early 90s. From there, the conversation evolves into Ted’s career path, which maps to the increasing centrality of the business development role in private equity fund management. Andy and Charlie relish the appearance of an old friend who makes a lot of serious points but also joins in their often pointless, competitive, digressive repartee.

Devin Mathews wanders out onto the Middle Market Musings stage and the audience goes wild at the cross-platform possibilities. Devin is co-founder of ParkerGale, a Chicago-based private equity fund focused on profitable technology investments, and co-originator of their successful podcast devoted to companies in the tech space. Devin entertains with his account of how an art history major from SUNY Binghamton found his way to the upper reaches of private equity. He assesses the current state of the market and shares best practices on producing an industry focused podcast, something that both Andy and Charlie believe the other desperately needs.

Parker catches the guys up on Cowen’s successful integration into TD since his last visit. He discusses the current market from the perspective of a larger firm with two dozen professionals on the ground in Vegas. Parker and Charlie trade insights on Jerry Garcia vs. Bob Weir while Andy weighs the possibility that this conversation will make him seem “cool” by osmosis. (Prognosis? Unlikely).

Bruce shows his skills as M&A lawyer and raconteur have not diminished since his last visit. Bruce talks about his unusual intentionality in marketing off of a law firm platform at DealMAX and elsewhere. His account of a past encounter with Peyton Manning takes about half as long as an actual football game, but is materially amusing and perfectly captures Bruce’s je ne sais quoi.

Michelle drops by to talk about how Crest Rock – a Denver-based PE fund founded in 2019 and devoted to software, tech and business services – set out to establish a market presence in the midst of the pandemic. She ignores the premise of “Charlie or Andy” but scores a direct on the hosts by answering, in response to a question about who you would choose to look after your children, “Neither.”

Andy and Charlie set their sights on David Welinsky, a young star in the private credit industry. (Young = younger than Charlie.) David is a managing director in capital markets at Monroe Capital, widely regarded as a premier boutique asset management firm specializing in direct lending amongst other strategies. David talks about his upbringing, Monroe’s evolution from public BDC to diversified asset manager and the state of middle market private finance today versus a year ago.

Not unlike the guy who drives through the carwash with his top down, Jay Weinstein gets the full Middle Market Musings treatment from the co-hosts. Jay is Vice Chair of Industries and Markets at the EisnerAmper accounting, tax and business advisory firm. Jay has seen all sides of the M&A business – from running accounting firms that merged into progressively larger practices, to overseeing acquisitions for EisnerAmper, to being involved in EA’s 2021 recapitalization by TowerBrook Capital Partners. A common theme is how to build and capture value in a complex professional services firm. Jay shares all – and is able to give (potshots) as well as he gets.