Fueling Growth: Building Capital Stacks to Power M&A
Presented By: Key Bank
Financing acquisitions today requires more creativity than ever before. This session explores how companies can leverage senior debt alongside alternative capital structures to fund growth through M&A. Panelists will break down the evolving financing landscape—highlighting the role of banks, private credit, mezzanine lenders, and structured equity—and share real-world examples of how to assemble the right capital stack for different deal types.
Moderator:
Illinois Market President, Regional Commercial Leader Illinois & Northern Indiana
KeyBank
With over 25 years of banking experience, Ben has built multiple teams and client portfolios working with a variety of privately owned companies, non-profits, family offices and private equity firms. His teams take a unique approach to deeply understand the 5-year strategy of a management team while identifying key challenges, mitigation of risks, and key connectivity opportunities. This allows him to drive value to executives by enhancing business strategies, identifying and advising strategic acquisitions, constructing complex capital solutions, providing new client introductions and guiding succession planning.
Ben is the Illinois Market President and Commercial Regional Leader supporting Illinois and Northern Indiana at KeyBank. Previously, he served as Commercial Regional Manager of Commercial Banking in Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa at Huntington Bank/FirstMerit Bank for 14 years. Prior to this experience, Ben was the Illinois Commercial Banking Group Manager at Banco Popular North America. Prior to joining BPNA, Ben began his career at American National Bank.
Ben is active in the local community where he is a board member of Facing Forward to End Homelessness and member of the Finance Committee for 5 years. He is the current Chapter Chair of the YPO Chicagoland Chapter with over 8 years of board roles, and he is a member of the Veteran’s Committee at Rosecrance Behavioral Health.
Panelists:
Founder & Managing Partner
TJM Capital Partners
Tom McDonough, based in Chicago, IL, US, is currently a Founder and Managing Partner at TJM Capital Partners. Tom McDonough brings experience from previous roles at American FINCO Financial Services, CES Companies, AWTP, LLC and BMO Capital Markets.
Tom holds a JD/MBA in Law/Finance at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. With a robust skill set that includes Customer Service, Public Speaking, Negotiation, Strategic Planning, Business Development and more.
President & CEO
Meridian Title Company
Randy Rempp brings a background spanning financial services, technology, and real estate services. He previously served as President of van Wagenen, a national insurance tracking and risk management firm, where he led operational transformation and growth initiatives. Since acquiring Meridian Title, which now operates 36 offices, he has completed one add-on acquisition with more set to close in the coming months. Randy also manages Armatage Capital, focused on expanding Meridian’s regional footprint and developing adjacent products and services.