2025 Dealmakers of the Year Honorees
Presented By: Return on Life Wealth Partners
Tracy Garrison
CEO
GEON Performance Solutions
Rob Abrams
Principal
SK Capital Partners
GEON Performance Solutions is a global leader in the development and manufacture of performance polymer solutions for a broad range of markets including building & infrastructure, consumer, healthcare, transportation, and power & communications.
This year, GEON acquired Foster Corp., a differentiated compounder of medical polymers used in the high-growth healthcare industry. This acquisition strengthens GEON’s position in the high-value medical polymer market, adding advanced capabilities like cleanroom and implantable materials manufacturing.
This is GEON’s fourth acquisition since 2021– a key component of its strategy to enhance and diversify its portfolio of engineered polymer solutions and further expand its global footprint for customers. GEON® Performance Solutions is a portfolio company of SK Capital Partners, a leading private investment firm focused on the specialty materials, ingredients, and life sciences sectors.
Todd Federman
Managing Director
North Coast Ventures
Adam Roth
Founder & President
AmpliFund
AmpliFund, founded in 2008 and headquartered in Cleveland, provides leading grant management software supporting the full grant lifecycle for grant makers, seekers, and sub-recipients.
North Coast Ventures, also based in Cleveland and founded in 2006, is the nation’s largest early-stage investment fund of its kind, with over 500 limited partners. Its LPs bring deep industry expertise and networks to support portfolio success. North Coast led both the Series Seed and Series A rounds for AmpliFund.
On March 3, 2025, AmpliFund was acquired by Euna Solutions, backed by GI Partners, in a leveraged buyout valued at $85 million. The acquisition enhances Euna’s grant management capabilities and highlights its commitment to the public sector.
Jerry Grisko
President & CEO
CBIZ
In July 2024, CBIZ announced the acquisition of Marcum, representing the largest transaction in the company’s history. The acquisition closed in November 2024, augmenting the company’s breadth of services and depth of expertise, making the combined entity the largest professional services provider of its kind in the U.S. Now, with unmatched industry knowledge and expertise in accounting, tax, advisory, benefits, insurance, and technology, CBIZ delivers even more forward-thinking insights and actionable solutions to help clients anticipate what's next and discover new ways to accelerate growth. The company now has more than 10,000 team members across more than 160 locations in 22 major markets coast to coast.
Aaron Grossman
Chairman
Praos Health
Praos Health, headquartered in Independence, OH, is a hiring optimization platform designed to support Nursing and Allied Healthcare Professionals for both Travel and On Demand job opportunities. Through its unique private marketplace for Healthcare Facilities and Medical Staffing agencies, and its career end to end management briefcase tool for clinicians, Praos Health drives tremendous efficiencies and cost savings throughout the entire hiring process.
TalentLaunch acquired the platform in December 2021, raised a 1.6 million Pre-Seed round in 2023 and is currently in the process of completing a $4 million seed round in March of 2025.
Chris Jones
Managing Partner
Align Capital Partners
Founded in 2016, Align Capital Partners is a growth-oriented private equity firm co-headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, and Dallas, Texas, and is a buy-and-build specialist focused on investing in platform companies with under $20M EBITDA. The firm manages $1.8 billion in committed capital and makes control investments in differentiated companies within the business services, technology, specialty manufacturing and distribution sectors. ACP has closed more than 140 transactions totaling more than $5 billion of transaction volume since it was founded, including completing 40 new investments during the last 24 months.
Robert Klonk
Chairman & CEO
Unison Risk Advisors & Oswald Companies
Unison Risk Advisors is a high-growth platform of independent firms delivering risk management and insurance brokerage solutions to clients worldwide. The formation of Unison Risk Advisors by Oswald Companies was to build a brand agnostic platform to empower independence of risk management and insurance brokerage firms. URA leveraged the employee-ownership model of their anchor platform. For each partner firm that joins the URA family of companies, equity is offered to all employees from top down. Over the last three years, URA has fundamentally changed the way prospective privately held and independent firms view M&A growth. The results speak for themselves: Twenty-five closed deals since 2022, at least seven more expected by year-end 2025. Each platform has retained their brand and seen record growth through the support of their URA partner firms. URA utilized local talent and service providers to execute on its transactions. Instrumental in the transaction were Jessica Jung, President, Oswald Companies, Andrew Maisano, SVP Corporate Development, Unison Risk Advisors, and Andrew Vento, Director Corporate Development, Unison Risk Advisors.
Brian Krusz
Chief Growth & Development Officer
Sgt. Clean Car Wash
Founded in 2013, Sgt Clean Car Wash is an express exterior chain, currently with 16 locations throughout Northeast Ohio. Sgt Clean is a five-time Inc 5,000 winner, two-time Smart Culture Award recipient and Smart50 Award Recipient.
Sgt. Clean Car Wash completed a debt refinancing round in December 2023. This follows a strategic partnership formed in April 2021 with Prairie Capital and the Sgt. Clean management team through a collaborative management-led buyout. The recapitalization was designed to fuel the company’s next phase of growth, with a shared focus on expanding site development, investing in talent, enhancing sales and marketing efforts, strengthening infrastructure, and pursuing strategic acquisitions.
Sanjay Singh
Private Investor and Board Advisor
Mace Security International
Mace is a well-known name in the personal safety industry, offering products like pepper sprays, stun guns, personal alarms, and home defense kits. These products are trusted by everyday consumers as well as security professionals, and the military—all under the respected Mace Brand.
Earlier this year, under the leadership of CEO Sanjay Singh, Mace Security International merged with W Electric Intermediate Holdings, LLC. This merger brings together two strong companies with a shared commitment to innovation, quality, and long-term growth.
Sanjay’s leadership helped guide Mace through this important transition, positioning the company for greater reach, stronger capabilities, and even better service to its customers and partners.
It’s a proud moment for both teams, and we’re excited to see how this next chapter unfolds.
Justin Thomas
Partner
Cohen & Co
Cohen & Co, a nationally recognized assurance, tax, and business advisory firm, has completed a strategic growth investment with Lovell Minnick Partners (LMP), a private equity firm focused in financial services, business services, and fintech. This marks Cohen & Co’s first institutional capital investment and will support key growth areas including technology, expanded services, and geographic reach.
The investment will help accelerate the firm’s multi-year strategic plan, with a focus on growth, people, innovation, quality initiatives, and service areas of interest to clients. It will also substantially increase the number of employee equity holders, strengthening the firm’s long-term commitment to its people.
The investment closed on December 31, 2024.