Committee

Blair Badham is a Managing Director at Lafayette Square. Prior to joining Lafayette, Blair served as Managing Director, Mergers and Acquisitions at Butler Snow Advisory. During his time at Butler Snow Advisory, he led sell side, buyside and capital raise transactions for privately owned and closely held businesses. Prior to joining Butler Snow, Blair managed the market launch and business development activities of EBSCO Capital, the investment division of EBSCO Industries. Headquartered in Birmingham, EBSCO Industries is a privately held conglomerate comprised of over 20 businesses and more than $2.5 billion in annual revenue. Before his role at EBSCO Capital, Blair served in multiple capacities for Jemison Metals, a Birmingham-based steel service center, including strategic planning, cultivating new territories, implementing software-based supply chain management tools, and developing and managing relationships with Fortune 500 industrial conglomerates. Blair began his career in commercial banking, and spent five years with First Commercial Bank's commercial and industrial lending team, where he managed numerous middle market relationships for the bank.

Blair earned a B.S. from the University of Alabama in 2003 and an M.B.A., with honors, from Samford University's Brock School of Business in 2009. He is an active member of the Rotary Club of Birmingham and serves as treasurer for his church.

Brett R. Benson is a Private Wealth Advisor with Morgan Stanley’s Private Wealth Management division.

Brett graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science in Financial Planning in 2007. While attending Purdue he also owned and operated a pet store in the suburbs of Chicago. In addition, he worked as a runner at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) during the summertime. Upon graduation, he began working for Credit Suisse as a Sales Assistant. Brett moved to Florida in 2012 to assist with the opening of the Credit Suisse Tampa office. Soon after, he moved to Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management.

Drawing on over twenty years of experience in the financial services industry, Brett works with affluent families and individuals to create highly customized wealth management solutions based on their needs, goals and challenges.

Brett and his wife, Susie, have three young daughters. Blair, Rowan and Vivian take up much of his time outside of work. Brett’s family also has two dogs that keep him busy. He is an avid fisherman; and loves to spend his free time on the water. Brett believes in giving back to the community and volunteers at the Florida Aquarium.

Rob Brown has a background in both operating management and investing. He has led organizations to multiple Private Equity and Strategic transactions totaling over 1 billion in proceeds to his investors.

Currently his investment portfolio includes Technology Managed Services, Marine and Boating industry along with Healthcare. He co-founded and serves as the President of DataStrike.

Ben Cady, Certified Business Performance Advisor with Insperity partners with business leaders across the nation to identify areas where their businesses can maximize their organizational success through time-tested employment strategies and business solutions. With Insperity, Ben has a multi-disciplinary team of experts at his disposal to enable business leaders to be more systematic and strategic regarding the role people play in the success of their companies. Insperity, a trusted advisor to America’s best businesses for over 35 years serves more than 100,000 businesses with over 2 million employees in all 50 states.

As Director of Business Development and Communications, Christine Caven engages with investors, venture capital firms, incubators, entrepreneur support organizations, and universities to tell the story of PS27 Ventures and the PS27 Foundation to create lasting partnerships. Christine has been involved in dozens of investments and has been working in venture capital for over ten years. Caven also focuses on data-driven content marketing for PS27 Ventures and its portfolio companies. Her successes include helping them pitch on Shark Tank, present on Good Morning America, showcase products on The View, and secure features in publications like Forbes, Tech Crunch, and Entrepreneur magazine.

Giving back to the community, Christine serves on the board of directors for Women in Technology & Entrepreneurship and is passionate about women's inclusion in the startup and finance industries.

Proven CEO & Operating Partner | Lower & Mid-Market Specialist | Hands-On Value Creation in PE-Backed Companies

Jim partners with Private Equity sponsors to scale, strengthen, and save their portfolio companies.

He is a roll-up-your-sleeves CEO and Private Equity Operating Partner with 20+ years of experience driving rapid transformation and growth across lower and middle market portfolio companies ($20M–$250M revenue). Whether stepping into the seat as a permanent or Interim CEO, he leads with urgency, discipline, and a deep understanding of how to maximize enterprise value in lean environments.

Jim's track record spans multi-site healthcare services, provider practices, consumer products, franchising, and direct-to-consumer businesses — where he's consistently delivered outsized returns in complex, resource-constrained settings.

Bradley Fincher is a senior relationship manager and head of CIBC Private Wealth’s Tampa office with over 25 years of industry experience. In this role, he fosters new and existing relationships with high net worth clients, family offices, foundations, endowments and key intermediaries. He currently sits on the CIBC Private Wealth hedge fund investment committee, where he helps support the firm’s hedge fund strategic direction. He formerly served on the firm’s national ambassador board, where he helped bring additional tools and resources to clients by collaborating with 150 senior CIBC professionals across the nation, from 11 distinct lines of business, to systemize firmwide cross-line of business collaboration.

Cory Gaffney joined The Anderson Group in 2006. Previously, Mr. Gaffney worked in private equity at Wynnchurch Capital. In addition, Mr. Gaffney worked as an Equity Research Associate and Investment Banking Analyst with Thomas Weisel Partners and Raymond James Financial.

Cory also has previous work experience with Beacon Strategic Resourcing, a provider of Asian manufacturing outsourcing services to United States-based manufacturing and distribution companies.

Cory is a graduate of Yale University (BA) and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jeff Galgano is a C-level entrepreneurial executive and board member with approximately 35 years of operational and transactional experience. Mr. Galgano spent 18 years as an Investment Banker, then over 15 years as a strategic CFO for 2 private equity backed companies. As CFO, he was an integral member of the ownership and executive teams overseeing all strategic and operational matters of the companies. He presently is a member of the Board of Directors for Ent Credit Union ($10 billion in assets) and The Crisis Center (provides emergency shelter and services for victims of domestic violence).

In 1998, Mr. Galgano moved to Denver to open and lead A.G. Edward's Corporate Finance office. He then led Stifel Nicolaus' Denver Corporate Finance office until 2006. During the course of his Investment Banking career, he was involved with over 75 public and private capital raising, and merger and acquisition transactions.

In 2006, he was a principal in the leveraged buyout of Tidel Engineering and became its CFO. Over the 12+ years as CFO, Tidel was bought and sold by 4 private equity companies, created and spun-off a successful division, and participated in multiple dividend recaps. In 2018, he joined Grease Monkey as CFO. During his tenure, the company was sold by a private equity company and purchased by another and completed over 35 acquisitions with Mr. Galgano leading the M&A team for most of the transactions.

Mr. Galgano earned his MBA from Northwestern University's J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and his BS from DePaul University. He was named one of the Denver Business Journal's "40 Under 40". He has been and continues to be a guest speaker in multiple business and alumni forums.

Justin Garrod has 25+ years of alternative investment, corporate finance and legal experience from both large global and specialized institutions. Over the last 15 years he has been specializing in U.S. lower middle-market private capital fund, secondary and direct deal advisory within private equity and private credit across a broad range of industries.

Having worked with several senior team members at Star Mountain on various direct and secondaries investment opportunities with his U.S. lower middle-market clients during his prior roles over the last decade, Mr. Garrod is now focused on originating, analyzing and helping manage fund, secondary and direct investments at Star Mountain.

Mr. Garrod’s experience in secondaries dates back to 2007 when he worked with the Lehman Brothers secondaries business, now part of Neuberger Berman. During the Global Financial Crisis of 2009, he assisted the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy estate in the sale of its LP interests.

Mr. Garrod co-founded and was co-Managing Partner for Stonington Capital Advisors, a specialist placement agent and strategic advisor on fund, secondaries, and direct investments in U.S. lower middle-market private equity and private credit. For over a decade, he worked with numerous managers and global institutional investors. He also specialized in working with independent sponsors, advising them on deal structuring and raising them capital for often proprietary transactions.

Mr. Hill is a managing partner and co-founder of Hyde Park Capital Advisors, LLC.
‍
During his career, Mr. Hill has executed hundreds of transactions, in aggregate totaling more than $5 billion, including numerous mergers & acquisitions, financial advisory engagements, initial and secondary public offerings, private placements of equity and debt securities and fairness opinions.

Prior to forming Hyde Park Capital in January 2000, Mr. Hill was employed for nine years in the Investment Banking Department at Raymond James & Associates, Inc., most recently in the position of Managing Director and Head of the Investment Banking Technology Group, which he co-founded in 1991. Prior to Raymond James, Mr. Hill was employed by Morgan Stanley in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group within the Investment Banking Department in New York City. Mr. Hill also has prior work experience at IBM Corporation.

Mr. Hill is a former director and Chairman of the Florida Venture Forum. He is a former Director and Chairman of the Investment Advisory Council, the Oversight Board for the $130 Billion State of Florida Pension Fund. He is a member of the Tampa Bay CEO Council and the Association of Corporate Growth (ACG). Mr. Hill is also actively involved in STAR (Special Operator Force Transition Resource), comprised of select Tampa Bay business leaders, working with retiring special forces operators out of Tampa-based United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) at MacDill AFB.

Mr. Hill holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Virginia Tech and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mr. Hill was awarded the Beta Gamma Sigma honorary at the University of North Carolina. Mr. Hill holds Series 7, 24 and 63 securities licenses.

Tim R. Holcomb PhD is CEO at Embarc Collective, a tech innovation leader for early-stage tech entrepreneurs ranked as the top incubation program in N America by UBI Global. Embarc's mission is to empower Florida’s entrepreneurs and startup talent to build bold, thriving, and highly impactful companies that are scalable and help shape the state of Florida into a leading technology hub. Tim has 35+ years of strategy, international business, and startup experience, including work in 25+ countries. He is a serial founder with two successful exits and has advise(d) startups and high growth companies that have raised more than $700M in venture, growth equity, and PE funding.

With more than 25 years of financial services experience, Marc came to Morgan Stanley in 2012. Committed to his clients, he believes that trust and confidence are the foundation for any successful relationship. Through hard work and dedication, he endeavors to exceed client expectations. He provides well-balanced solutions for each client based on their respective goals, tolerance and needs. A graduate of the University of Michigan, his experience with Bo Schembechler helped shape his commitment to integrity, ethics, and values.

As an active philanthropist, Marc has a history of mentoring children. He served as Chairman of the Board for All Children’s Hospital Foundation and Boys and Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay Foundation and on the board of The Vinny LeCavalier Foundation focusing on pediatric cancer. Marc currently serves on the Advisory Council of the World Federation of Youth Clubs, the Executive Board of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay, and the Board of The Uniform Funding Foundation. In addition, Marc founded a Social Justice Coalition with global reach aimed at generational change.

Marc and his wife Lisa have two sons, Jordan and Eric.

At Gridiron Capital, Sean focuses on developing new business partnerships, marketing, communicating with business owners, and managing investment sourcing and exit planning. Prior to joining Gridiron Capital, Sean served as vice president at BB&T Capital Markets in Richmond, Virginia. His responsibilities at BB&T included executing mergers and acquisitions advisory for middle-market businesses, as well as establishing and strengthening business development relationships with middle-market investors. Earlier in his career, Sean worked at Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank.

Bryce is the founder and Managing Director of the Kenny team, a group of investment professionals that reside within Morgan Stanley’s Private Wealth Management division. Bryce is based in Tampa, Florida however, he and his team work with clients throughout the United States. The Kenny team’s clients are typically high net worth individuals and families. Many are business owners and entrepreneurs or part of a family office. Bryce has been recognized as a top Advisor in the country by several national publications starting in 2012 through present.

As President and Chief Operating Officer, Robert “Bob” Kocis is responsible for Aptean’s overall business operations and customer success for the regions, focused on the seamless execution of Aptean’s go-to-market strategy. Previously, Mr. Kocis served for two years as the company’s Chief Revenue Officer, guiding the company’s organic growth and partnership efforts.

Mr. Kocis brings over 20 years of sales leadership to his role at Aptean. He previously served as the CRO of Continuum where he helped transform the company’s go-to-market teams and culture across sales, customer success and marketing. Before that, he was the VP of Worldwide Sales and Customer Excellence at ANSYS Inc., a leader in simulation software.

Mr. Kocis holds a Bachelor of Science degree in marine engineering from the United States Merchant Marine Academy.

Lee is managing director of Smart Business Network LLC, a national events, media and marketing company founded in 1989, primarily responsible for expanding the company’s Dealmakers Conferences throughout the U.S. He plays a key role in establishing corporate policies and developing long-term strategy and growth plans. Previously, he founded and chaired the Growth Group at national law firm Arter & Hadden LLP (now Tucker, Ellis & West), which focused on working with middle-market and high-growth technology companies. 

Matt is a distinguished professional known for his multifaceted career spanning sports, academia, and investment. As a former Major League Baseball (MLB) player and Olympian, Matt demonstrated exceptional dedication and skill on the field, representing his country with pride and excellence. Transitioning from his athletic career, Matt pursued higher education and graduated from Northwestern University's prestigious Kellogg School of Management, where he honed his strategic and leadership capabilities.

Prior to co-founding True Up Capital Advisors, Matt established himself as an investment partner at A111, where he specialized in sourcing and funding deals in the lower middle market. His keen insight and strategic acumen have been instrumental in identifying and nurturing promising investment opportunities, contributing significantly to the firm's success. Matt's unique blend of athletic discipline, academic rigor, and investment expertise makes him a dynamic and influential figure in the industry.

Meahgan is the Head of Business Development and Originations for Palladium Equity Partners. Prior to Palladium, Meahgan was Vice President and Head of Global Business Development for KPS Mid-Cap. Meahgan also serves as a limited partner for Dash Fund – a micro-cap venture capital fund looking to invest in the next phase of industry leading entrepreneurs. As Head of Business Development, 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.

Ty is the Managing Partner of Burr & Forman's Orlando office, a former member of Burr's Executive Committee and a member of its Corporate & Tax practice group. His legal practice involves representing clients in general corporate matters, mergers & acquisitions, venture capital and start-up/early-stage financings and other corporate financing transactions.

As a Managing Director at Benchmark International, Mr. Smoot has originated more than 100 deals at Benchmark International and now heads a team that originates each US transaction.

His primary role is to direct the different aspects of origination so that we can identify the most attractive businesses, and properly educate business owners on the M&A process and market conditions. Throughout this process, it is important that we serve potential clients to Benchmark standards and instill confidence in anyone considering hiring us to represent them for this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Mr. Smoot has originated over 100 deals at Benchmark International and now manages the Deal Origination Team that originates all US transactions. 

Lauren Smyers is a Principal, Business Development at Validor Capital with over 10 years of private equity experience. Prior to Validor Capital, Lauren led business development at Weatherford Capital. Previously, Lauren served in marketing and investor relations at The Carlyle Group and Siguler Guff. Lauren earned her BS degree, cum laude, in Behavioral Neuroscience from Northeastern University. When Lauren is not in the office, she can be found on the golf course or pickleball courts.

Doug Starcher is the Managing Partner of the Orlando office of Nelson Mullins, an AmLaw 75 law firm. He is also head of the firm's Florida M&A team. Doug has spent his entire career counseling entrepreneurial business owners from start-up to exit.

With over 25 years of experience in the space, satellite, and telecommunications industries, I am a passionate leader with a proven track record of creating innovative and profitable solutions for the global market. As the Founder, Chair, and CEO of Lonestar Data Holdings Inc., I am leading a venture to pioneer the future of data services from the Moon for the Earth.

I have a strong track record of delivering shareholder value, developing strategic partnerships, and fostering a culture of social responsibility and innovation. I am also an active mentor, advisor, and board member for several not for profit organizations and initiatives that promote the advancement and education of space sciences, commerce, and policy. I hold a Master of Science in Space Sciences from the International Space University and I am both author, and a multi-award-winning documentary film maker and executive producer. When I can't sleep, I read my own bio.

With over a decade of professional experience, Dirk brings expertise in new business development, marketing, and business strategy to his role as Director of Business Development at Medrus Capital Partners. Focused on creating meaningful partnerships with portfolio companies, Dirk is driven by the mission to foster scalable growth and team-oriented collaboration. His goal is to align with organizations that share values of innovation and opportunity, empowering businesses to take confident, calculated risks for top-line and bottom-line growth.

At Medrus Capital, Dirk works closely with portfolio companies in entertainment, technology, consumer products, and real estate to optimize brand strategy and financial performance. Leveraging his background in business development and marketing, he contributse to identifying and nurturing growth opportunities while facilitating partnerships that align with shared values and long-term scalability.

Tim Templeton has been sourcing deals for Trivest since 2001. Tim’s focus is to talk with founders to determine if their goals and objectives align with Trivest’s unique approach to private equity, which has earned Trivest the distinction as one of only 15 PE firms in the country recognized as a “Top Founder Friendly Investor” by Inc. Magazine every year since the list’s inception in 2019.

Leader in Redpath and Company's Consulting Services Practice including Valuation, Transactions Advisory, Business Advisory and Accounting Services across multiple industries including Private Equity, Manufacturing, Government, Retail, Healthcare, Financial Services, Construction and Distribution.