Arthur Anton

Retired Chairman & CEO
Swagelok

Arthur Anton has an extensive background in finance and manufacturing from Ernst & Young and Swagelok Company. He was responsible for all areas of the manufacturing business and for executing the strategic vision; devoting particular attention to manufacturing, marketing, and engineering efforts to continually develop products and services to meet the changing needs of customers. Currently he holds various board positions in the health, manufacturing, financial and community sectors.

Gregg Bach

Vice President Fraud Investigations
KeyBank

Gregg manages fraud investigations for KeyBank. He has directly overseen special investigations involving corporate identity theft, business email compromises, ransomware and account take-over. He manages a team of Investigators who close approximately 8,000 cases a month ranging from less that 1000 dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars. Gregg provides expert testimony in both criminal and civil litigation involving financial crimes. He also works closely with Key's relationship managers and clients developing fraud risk mitigation strategies.

Greg Barrett

President
EVOQ Therapeutics

Greg is President of EVOQ Therapeutics, leading capital raising, organizational build-out, and partnering activities for their autoimmune disease therapies. With 30 years of Pharma/Biotech experience, he has developed and launched 10+ brands (several with billion-dollar sales) and held multiple senior roles (US & Global) at Schering-Plough, and Daiichi Sankyo (including President of the $2.8B / 2500 employee US Commercial division).

Robert Berdanier

Managing Director, Business Restructuring Services
BDO Consulting, LLC

Robert is a Managing Director in BDO's Business Restructuring & Turnaround Services practice. His focus is on middle-market companies, both distressed and healthy, seeking financial financial and operational improvement through interim financial leadership and re-organization. Robert is a seasoned restructuring professional, with significant experience in the manufacturing, distributing, hotels/ hospitality and entertainment industries.

Chetan (Che) Bhatia

Vice President Cyber Resilience & Engagement Management
Global Aon Cyber Solutions

Che is responsible for helping clients proactively manage the cyber and enterprise risk and leads digital forensics, cybercrime, data breach, compliance, electronic discovery and business intelligence and investigations matters.

Prior to joining Aon in 2017, Chetan served as the Chief Technology Officer at Data Partner, Inc. In this role, he was responsible for the technical vision, strategy and roadmap for the organization. He was also a cyber-security consultant for Advance Resources and Consultants, a firm made up of former senior-level government and military officers, where he conducted cyber security risk assessments for organizations awarded federal government contracts. He also worked for Nexum, where he served in a variety of roles such as business development director and practice manager and was responsible for the project management and network/security engineering teams. Before joining Nexum, he worked at Hewitt Associates and Aon, where he deployed and administered security controls and was part of a team that maintained the network security infrastructure protecting the PII of over 75% of the Fortune 500 organizations.

Carolyn Cassin

Co-Founder & General Partner
BELLE Michigan Impact Fund

Ms. Cassin is the co-founder & General Partner of BELLE Michigan Impact Fund. BELLE Michigan Impact Fund is Ms. Cassin’s second venture fund. BELLE provides much needed start-up capital to women owned businesses throughout the US. Her first fund, Belle Michigan Fund, started in 2012 was Michigan’s first venture fund to invest in women owned businesses and seek women as investors.

Ms. Cassin was a nationally recognized healthcare executive and turnaround specialist for almost 30 years in the hospice industry. She has led hospice companies in both the non-profit and for profit sectors. From 1988-98 she led and created Hospice of Michigan by merging 17 hospices into one company. She retired debt and maintained profitability throughout her tenure, growing the company to over $50 million in revenues and 1,000 employees, with seventeen sites which ultimately earned Hospice of Michigan “Best Managed Non Profit” award by Crain’s Detroit. In 1998 she was recruited to VistaCare, a venture capital backed for profit national hospice company, based in Phoenix, Arizona. As VistaCare’s leader, Ms. Cassin purchased hospices throughout the US & started others in critical markets ultimately merging all 48 sites into one company. She built the company from $3 million in revenues to over $200 million with positive EBITDA. VistaCare became a publicly traded company in 2005 and sold in 2009. Ms. Cassin has received numerous national awards from the first National Hospice Organization’s Heart of Hospice Award, to the Founders Award from that same organization. She has served as President of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and chaired its Board. She is now based in Detroit and serves as President & CEO of Michigan Women Forward, an organization that promotes social justice for women through access to capital, developing the next generation of young women leaders & addressing issues that disproportionally affect women. Most recently she was named one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Michigan.

Harry Cendrowski

Managing Director
Cendrowski Corporate Advisors

Harry is a founding member of Cendrowski Corporate Advisors and a licensed CPA in Michigan, Illinois and Florida. He is a veteran of the private equity and venture capital industries as an investor, founder and advisor to several funds. He has served as an expert witness in numerous disputes, as court-appointed receiver for multimillion dollar estates and as the accountant to the trustee in high-profile bankruptcy cases.

Quinn Damon

Vice President
Lockton Companies, LLC

Quinn is a Vice President with Lockton specializing in risk management and insurance. Lockton is the world's largest family owned brokerage with over 8,000 Associates. His expertise centers around M&A, construction and manufacturing. He's been with the firm for ten years and is part of the leadership team for Lockton Michigan.

Matt Davis

CFO
Mission Veterinary Partners

As CFO with Mission Veterinary Partners, Mr. Davis will be financially guiding MVP towards better automated systems and financial streamlining. Mr. Davis was previously engaged as Chief Administrative Officer for the Stepping Stones Group (SSG), a nationally-recognized leader in school-based therapy and behavioral health services. SSG operates in more than 20 states across the U.S. through several brands, including Cumberland Therapy Services, MyTherapyCompany, AlphaVista Services, and Staffing Options & Solutions. Prior to joining SSG, Mr. Davis was the CFO for Fast Pace Urgent Care, a Shore Capital portfolio company dedicated to providing walk-in and urgent care services to rural communities across Tennessee and Kentucky.

Mr. Davis was actively involved with the growth of Fast Pace and its successful sale to Revelstoke Capital Partners in August 2016. Mr. Davis initially joined the Shore Capital team in 2012 through Shore’s investment in Michigan Rehabilitation Specialists (MRS), where Matt was serving as CFO prior to Shore’s investment. MRS grew rapidly through multiple acquisitions and new clinic openings and was sold to ATI Physical Therapy in 2013.

Mr. Davis also has experience working with physician practice management organizations, real estate investment groups and property management service providers through a number of entities where he held senior leadership positions. Mr. Davis obtained a B.S. in Aviation Management and General Business from Eastern Michigan University. He also received an MBA in Accounting and Finance from the University of Michigan, Stephen Ross School of Business.

Brian Demkowicz

Chairman, Managing Partner & Co-Founder
Huron Capital

Brian is the Chairman, Managing Partner & Co-Founder of Huron Capital where he leads the firm’s Management and Investment Committees. Over the past three decades, Brian has established a successful, long-term track record of acquiring, repositioning and growing middle-market companies in partnership with experienced operating executives. Brian began his career at Heller Equity Capital Corp. where he was responsible for sourcing, closing and managing middle-market buyout transactions as well as operational restructurings. In 1996, Brian left to pursue transactions in a more entrepreneurial setting utilizing an operational approach, establishing Huron in 1999. In addition to working with Huron Capital’s portfolio companies, Brian is active in the local community, serving on the boards of numerous industry, community, educational and charitable organizations. Brian earned a B.S. in Accounting from Purdue University and an M.B.A. from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and passed the CPA exam. He has five kids, four dogs and one wife, and is a die-hard Chicago Bears fan.

Robert Diehl, Jr.

Member
Bodman PLC

Bob chairs the Banking Group and the Bankruptcy and Debtor-Creditor Rights Group at Bodman PLC. He represents corporate clients in complex business law matters, including domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, with a focus on debtor-creditor rights and bankruptcy. He also advises businesses on corporate finance matters and on managing their relationships with financially troubled suppliers and customers.

Eric Dietz

Regional President - Southeast Michigan
Huntington National Bank

Eric W. Dietz, Regional President SE Michigan region, joined Huntington in 2012. He previously served as Huntington’s Regional Director in The Private Bank for both Southeast and Mid-Michigan regions. Dietz is a financial services veteran with more than 34 years of diverse experience, including 25 years in commercial middle market roles.

Dietz serves on the boards of the Metro Detroit Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), Forgotten Harvest, Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, and the Dr. Gary Burnstein Community Health Clinic.

David Dunstan

Managing Director
Citizens Bank M&A Advisory

David co-founded Western Reserve Partners in 2004, which was acquired by Citizens in 2017, and has more than 25 years of experience advising middle market companies in mergers and acquisitions and capital raising across a wide range of industries. Prior to co-founding Western Reserve Partners, he was a Managing Director at KeyBanc Capital Markets and Manager of Consumer Investment Banking at McDonald Investments. David started his career at Ernst & Young, where he provided financial consulting and audit services to middle market companies.

Rick Ehrman

CEO
VNN Sports

Rick has been CEO of VNN for approximately 18 months after successfully growing and exiting a software company focused in the youth sports space to Comcast / NBC Sports (SportsEngine). Prior to this he held leadership positions at General Electric, NBC, Univision and a few other media enabled technology companies.

Danny Ellis

CEO
SkySpecs

Danny is the CEO and co-founder of SkySpecs. He splits his time between strategy, partnerships, acquisitions, fundraising, team growth, and key account sales. He has a BSE and MSE in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan. He is an Endeavor Entrepreneur, Techstars alum and mentor, and the recipient of the Forbes' "30 under 30" award in 2016.

Mike Farley

Senior Vice President
Citizens Bank

Commercial banker in Metro Detroit for over 30 years. Currently Senior Vice President at Citizens Bank focusing on Middle Market companies with sales from $25MM - $500MM.

Philip Fioravante

Operating Principal - Chairman
Industrial Opportunity Partners

Dr. Fioravante has over 35 years of industrials sector experience. He has lead start-ups to larger multinationals in a variety of industries including transportation, healthcare and consumer products. His expertise - both professional and in academia focuses on strategy, innovation, agile organizational systems, sustainability and shepherd leadership. Currently, he is Chairman and CEO of three portfolio businesses with IOP.

Paul Glantz

Co-Founder/Chairman
Emagine Entertainment, Inc.

Paul Glantz is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Troy, Michigan-based theatre chain Emagine Entertainment, Inc. Glantz has raised over $150 million in capital to develop 12 world-class entertainment venues and in doing so has brought his concept of an exemplary entertainment experience to reality. Glantz is regarded as an expert in the cinematic exhibition industry.

Ryan Greenawalt

Chairman & CEO
Alta Equipment Group

Ryan joined Alta in December 2008, and serves on the Hyster-Yale Dealer Council, Volvo Construction Equipment’s Dealer Advisory Council, and is a Regional Director for Associated Equipment Distributors. Ryan holds a BA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and an MBA from the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University.

Kalyan Handique

Vice President, CDG Advanced Technology
BioRad Laboratories

Kalyan Handique is a serial entrepreneur based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. He cofounded Celsee, an innovative life science company that was acquired by BioRad in 2020. Earlier, he co-founded HandyLab that was acquired by Becton Dickinson for over $275 MM. Kalyan also serves as an adviser to many entrepreneurs, startups and technological organizations in the Michigan biotech region.

Daniel Hoops

Senior Wealth Strategist
PNC Wealth Management

As a Vice President and a Senior Wealth Strategist in the Detroit market, Daniel Hoops leads the deep and dynamic discovery process to achieve a mutual understanding of your family, business (if applicable) and financial goals. He works with you and your advisors to help develop a strategic financial plan utilizing an ongoing process that enables you and your team to understand what’s truly important to you in achieving peace of mind. Daniel identifies and prioritizes your objectives and with your team develops tailored solutions to help achieve them. Daniel has the knowledge, experience and desire to help bring about successful outcomes as your trusted advisor. In December 2019, Daniel joined PNC Wealth Management as a Vice President-Senior Wealth Strategist and Private Business Strategist.

Mark Jones

Partner
River Associates Investments, LP

Mark is a 26 year partner with River Associates Investments, LP. The firm is focused on control investments in lower middle market (EBITDA $3-12M) companies in a wide variety of industries and is currently investing River VII, LP ($285m).

Greg Kadens

CEO
Boston Trade Interior Solutions

Greg has been in the hospitality FFE design, procurement and project management industry for 10 years. He joined the industry with American Hotel Register as the head of that company’s FFE division and then joined forces with Blackford Capital in January 2017 to buy Snowhite Textile and Furnishings. Prior to the acquisition of Snowhite Textiles and Furnishings, Greg was the President of Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet, the CEO of Kiefer Swim Products, the General Manager of Block and Company and spent two years in Europe setting up and running Staples Office Products Direct Division. Greg has a Bachelors in Communications from Ithaca College and an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management and lives with his family in the north suburbs of Chicago.

Rajesh Kothari

Managing Director
Cascade Partners

Raj draws on nearly 30 years of experience as an investor, a financial advisor and an entrepreneur. He is the founder and managing director of Cascade Partners where he helps lead divestitures, recapitalizations, acquisitions and other strategic transactions for clients in the healthcare, industrials, business services and technology sectors. He has also co-managed multiple private equity funds and dozens of investments from early stage to buy-out in healthcare, automotive, technology and other industrial companies.

Prior to forming Cascade Partners, Raj co-founded Seneca Partners, Inc., a similar investment banking and private investment firm. While at Seneca Partners, he helped form Seneca Health Partners, a healthcare private equity fund. Prior to establishing Seneca Partners, he was a director at Beringea, a boutique investment-banking and venture capital firm. During this time, he co-managed the firm’s $70 million healthcare private equity fund, InvestCare Partners. Prior to the formation of their own fund, Raj has also served as an investment officer for ProVen Private Equity in London, England, a venture capital affiliate of Beringea.

He began his investment career as a money manager, most prominently for Masco Corporation. He left Masco to co-found Cranbrook Capital Management, a $650 million money management firm, where he was treasurer and director of international investing.

Jack Lawless

CEO
Belle Tire

Jack Lawless has been CEO of Belle Tire since 2015. He started his career with a 3-yr stint in Commercial lending. As President/CEO over the past 25+ years, his teams have consistently increased market share with an intense focus on the customer. During his CEO career, he has bought/sold/managed $1.3 Billion of transactions across family owned, private equity and public platforms.

Gary Lewis

Founder & Managing Partner
Aquila Equity Partners

Gary is the founder and Managing Partner of Aquila Equity Partners, an entrepreneurial private investment firm focused on partnering with growth-focused management teams and operating businesses which generate between $500k and $10mm in EBITDA. He brings greater than 20 years of private equity investing, investment banking and operational experience to the firm, including involvement in approximately $8 billion in transaction and advisory assignments.

Gary began his career in investment banking with Banc of America Securities in New York City. While working in the firm’s Global Industrials and Services Group, he assisted middle market and Fortune 500 clients with mergers, acquisitions and divestitures and capital-raising transactions.

James J. Loughlin, Jr.

National Practice Leader - Business Restructuring & Turnaround Services
BDO Consulting, LLC

James Loughlin is a nationally-recognized restructuring professional with 30 years of financial and operational restructuring experience working with distressed companies, senior lenders and other creditors.

Jim has led nearly 200 engagements and has successfully restructured more than $75 billion of debt, including several large and complex cases in a variety of industry sectors, including retail & consumer products, healthcare, manufacturing & distribution, energy, media, and telecommunications. He has served as an expert witness providing court testimony on valuation, plan feasibility, executive compensation, and other financial matters.

Justin Mast

Founder & CEO
Bloomscape

Justin is the founder and CEO of Bloomscape, Inc., the Detroit-based modern online garden center delivering the largest variety of quality indoor and outdoor plants directly from the greenhouse. Stemming from five generations of greenhouse growers and floral industry pioneers, Justin has deep roots in horticulture. A serial entrepreneur, Justin first started a plant stand at nine years old out of his parents’ greenhouse that grew to be a local phenomenon over several years. Justin launched Bloomscape in 2018 to redefine the way consumers purchase and care for plants, and thanks to its patented shipping technology, Bloomscape is the only company that has the capability to ship a full range of plant sizes anywhere in the continental United States. The company has since seen investment from leading venture capital firms, such as Revolution Ventures and General Catalyst, and founders of category-defining consumer brands including Allbirds, Away, Eventbrite, Harry’s, Quora, and Warby Parker. Prior to Bloomscape, Justin founded and operated multiple startups including Practice Space, which brought together entrepreneurs, creatives, and the local community to shape businesses. Justin holds a degree in business management from Hope University and a master’s degree in architecture and urban planning from the University of Michigan.

Mark McCammon

Managing Partner
Strength Capital

Mark founded Strength Capital along with a partner in 2000. As Managing Partner of Strength Capital, Mark is primarily responsible for investment sourcing and valuation, transaction structuring, investment oversight, fundraising and all administrative activities. Strength Capital has acquired over 70 companies since inception throughout the manufacturing, distribution and service industries. Mark is currently a board member of six of Strength's investments, three of which he is Chairman of the Board. Mark has held the Chairman role at 13 companies while leading Strength Capital.

Mark previously worked at Goldman Sachs & Co. and T. Rowe Price Associates. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He also received his Masters of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.

Lisa McLaughlin

Co-Founder & Co-CEO
Workit Health

Lisa is a social entrepreneur, researcher, and Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Workit Health who holds Masters of both Social Work and Information from the University of Michigan. She’s laid the groundwork in Michigan and the greater U.S. for effective strategies for on-demand substance use disorder treatment and prevention resources for health plans, employers, and individuals. As Principal Investigator on Workit Health’s initiatives with the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, she’s developed digital interventions to solve for social determinants of health and algorithms to measure and predict substance use recovery. In 2019 she was named Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year and winner of the Lyfebulb and United Healthcare Innovation Challenge.

Lynn Mustazza

President & CEO (Retired)
Jawood Business Process Solutions

Founded in 1989 and with over 500 employees, Lynn Mustazza Founder, President and CEO of Jawood Business Process Solutions found great success in providing Information Technology and Business process solutions including staff augmentation, project solutions and software tools to the Healthcare payer industry.

Lynn sold Jawood Business Process Solutions in 2013.

Christopher Naso

Senior Vice President, Enterprise Payments Team Lead, Great Lakes Region
KeyBank

Chris is the Group Head for KeyBank's Enterprise Payments efforts in the Great Lakes Region. He leads a group of 20 payments professionals engaging middle market companies with differentiated capabilities and value-added solutions across liquidity and risk management, financial technology, and working capital optimization.

Zan Nicolli

Member
Dickinson Wright PLLC

Zan Nicolli is a member of Dickinson Wright PLLC. She has over 30 years of business transactional law experience, from mergers and acquisitions, securities and corporate finance to real estate development, leasing and finance. Her clients range from international to local and their industries run the gamut: from OEM automotive to private equity, from national retailers to local strip centers, from copper cathodes to medical cannabis. She also devotes her time to charitable work, including acting as general counsel to Michigan’s Thanksgiving Parade Foundation and working with Beyond Basics, a nonprofit that tutors illiterate children in the Detroit public schools.

Janet Pasco

Market President
Horizon Bank

Janet is the Market President, Metro Detroit for Horizon Bank. She's launched the Troy team for Horizon 3 years ago after 30 years in banking in the community serving healthcare, small business and middle market clients for other organizations. She takes great pride in unraveling the mysteries of banking vernacular for her clients and getting things done with her straightforward approach.

Kevin Prokop

Managing Partner
Rockbridge Growth Equity

Kevin Prokop is a Managing Partner of Rockbridge Growth Equity, which he co-founded with Dan Gilbert and Brian Hermelin. Rockbridge manages more than $1.25 billion of invested capital and is affiliated with the Rocket Companies (NYSE: RKT), Quicken Loans, and the Quicken Loans family of companies.

Tony Pulice

Partner
Huron Capital

Tony is a Partner at Huron Capital, a lower middle market private equity platform based in Detroit, MI. Tony’s experience includes minority and majority equity recapitalizations, mergers and acquisitions, and debt financings for businesses across a variety of industries. Prior to Huron Capital, Tony was a Principal at Rockbridge Growth Equity, Vice President in the Principal Investment Area of Goldman Sachs and a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.

Brian Rassel

Partner
Huron Capital

Brian is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, executing and managing investments made by the firm.

Prior to joining Huron Capital, Brian was an Associate at Prophet, a global growth strategy consulting firm advising clients on positioning, innovation and customer acquisition for B2B and B2C businesses. His responsibilities included strategic, competitive and customer analyses across a range of industries. Prior to Prophet, Brian was a consultant with New England Consulting Group where he led project management in their private equity practice for buy-side clients.

Steve Robert

CEO
Autobooks

Steve is co-founder and CEO of Autobooks. Autobooks helps Financial Institutions become a digital destination for small business owners. Previously, he was the technical co-founder and CIO at Billhighway, an integrated payment and accounting solution provider to large membership-based organizations. In 2012, he was invited to the White House to be part of the historic signing of the Jumpstart Our Business Startup Act (JOBS) by President Obama through his community involvement with Startup America.

Jim Robinson

Regional President for Southeast Michigan
TCF Bank

Jim's professional knowledge, drive and energy as Regional President of Southeast Michigan for TCF Bank have been key catalysts to the bank breaking into the Southeast Michigan market. With more than 24 years of banking experience and a specialty in commercial lending, Jim is integral in aligning the efforts of a cross-functional leadership team to drive growth and ensure consistent service delivery throughout Southeast Michigan.

Bill Rosin

Partner
Dickinson Wright, PLLC

Bill is a Member of Dickinson Wright PLLC and has been representing buyers and sellers of businesses for over 25 years. As a trusted advisor and experienced negotiator, Bill has successfully closed an extensive list of M&A transactions across a broad spectrum of industries including automotive, snack food, manufactured homes, healthcare and consulting, among others. Typical deal values range in size from a few million dollars to several hundred million dollars.

Carrie Schochet

Founder & CEO
Purple Squirrel Advisors

Carrie is the Founder and CEO of Purple Squirrel Advisors, a boutique retained executive search firm based in Troy, Michigan. With a passion for helping companies grow by creating exceptional leadership teams, she has spent the past 16 years connecting C-level and senior executives with leadership positions in finance, accounting, human resources, operations, sales, and marketing. Carrie and her team work with PE-backed and family owned businesses from coast to coast.

Jay Schreibman

Area Chairman, Michigan
Gallagher

Jay is the Michigan area chairman for Gallagher, a global leader in insurance, risk management & consulting services.  He previously served as president and chief executive officer and majority shareholder of LSG Insurance Partners, Michigan’s largest privately held insurance agency until its acquisition by Gallagher in October 2019.  Jay leads Gallagher’s local mergers and acquisitions consulting team, which supports private equity firms with diverse portfolios as well as large organizations seeking consistent and cohesive, risk management solutions across various holdings. 

Vlad Slapak

Senior Vice President, Special Assets Group Manager
Comerica Bank

Vlad Slapak is a Senior VP at Comerica Bank and has been a manager in the Special Assets Group since 2011.  Vlad started his career in banking at Comerica over 20 years ago and has originated and managed special situations for hundreds of middle market companies, many of which were tier one and two automotive suppliers.  Vlad is a frequent speaker at Turnaround Management and other industry associations, speaking on the topics of senior lending, capital markets, automotive supply, turnaround and special situations.

Mina Sooch

Co-Founder & CEO
Ocuphire Pharma, Inc.

Mina is a co-founder and CEO of of Ocuphire Pharma. With more than 23 years of pharmaceutical and biotech experience as entrepreneur, venture capitalist and strategist, Ms. Sooch has successfully raised hundreds of millions of dollars for more than 10 biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, which included two successful IPOs. Prior to Ocuphire, Ms. Sooch was a co-founder and CEO of Gemphire Therapeutics, a publicly traded, clinical-stage cardiovascular company. Ms. Sooch was a co-founder and CEO of ProNAi Therapeutics, a public, clinical-stage oncology company. Ms. Sooch received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. summa cum laude in Chemical Engineering from Wayne State University in Michigan.

David Sowerby

Managing Director & Portfolio Manager
Ancora

David is managing director and a portfolio manager for multiple investment strategies at Ancora. Prior to Ancora, he was most recently a portfolio manager at Loomis, Sayles & Co., where he worked since 1998 and held multiple senior positions. At Loomis, David worked directly with institutional clients on asset allocation strategies and multi-product accounts. Earlier in his career, he was a senior portfolio manager for Beacon Investment Management Co.

Dan Sporka

Vice President
UHY Corporate Finance

Dan has extensive investment banking and consulting experience and is a FINRA licensed representative, having earned his Series 82, Series 79 and Series 63 licenses. He is a client focused advisor with 14 years of investment banking and consulting experience.

His engagements include sell-side and capital advisory services serving strategic and private equity clients; divestitures and carve-outs; buy-side processes and acquisition strategy; and debt funding.

Dan also has extensive experience with all aspects of a transaction process including strategic positioning to optimize value; identifying potential buyers/ acquisition targets; facilitating management presentations; managing due diligence processes; and reviewing purchase and sales agreements.

Tim Streit

Co-founder and Partner
Grand Ventures

Tim is a Co-Founder and Partner at Grand Ventures. Prior to Co-Founding Grand Ventures, Tim Co-Founded Huron River Ventures (HRV) an early-stage venture fund focused on innovative agriculture, energy, and transportation companies. HRV raised $16mm across multiple funds and invested in 20 companies including Ambiq Micro, Deliv, FarmLogs, SightMachine, and Tachyus. Tim serves on the Boards of HRV portfolio companies Cribspot, FarmLogs, SkySpecs, and Sportsman Tracker.

Tim has more than 16 years of operating, investing, and financing experience, including corporate venturing and as an intrepreneur, where he commercialized disruptive new high-tech consumer finance products. Tim has led business development and marketing in start-up environments and has planned, launched, fundraised for and operated a start-up technology business.

Tim graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and received his MBA with High Honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He lectures on entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan and Grand Valley State University.

John Sznewjas

Vice President & CFO
MASCO

John is Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In this position since July 2007, Mr. Sznewajs is also responsible for Masco’s Corporate Development and Information Technology Departments.  Mr. Sznewajs is a 1989 graduate of Kalamazoo College with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He earned his Master of Business Administration degree in finance from the University of Chicago in 1996.

Jacob Taylor

Managing Director, PNC Wealth Management - Southeast Michigan
PNC Bank

As Managing Director of PNC Wealth Management® in the Southeast Michigan, Jacob Taylor leads a team of wealth management professionals, striving to achieve the highest levels of client satisfaction. Through his leadership and commitment, Jacob ensures that clients benefit from the full complement of investment, trust, financial planning and private banking services to help them achieve their financial goals.

Michael A. Teplitsky

Partner
Wynnchurch Capital, LP

Kathy Weaver

SVP & Managing Director
Aon

Kathy is a seasoned strategist with more two decades of experience bringing organizations innovative solutions on two of the most important issues facing them: risk and people. In her current role she leads Michigan’s Business Development team helping clients of all sizes, in every industry. Kathy earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Management from Northwoods University and holds the Certified Insurance Counselor and Certified Risk Manager designations. In 2019 she was named a Power Broker Finalist in Cyber by Risk & Insurance and in 2018 was named as an Automotive Power Broker Award by Risk & Insurance. She sits on the board and serves as the Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair of Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan, whose mission it is to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.

Monica Weaver

President & CEO
TGI Direct

Monica is the President & CEO of TGI Direct, Inc., a direct marketing company specializing in fulfillment, direct mail, email, and print communications for highly regulated industries with a focus on healthcare, insurance, education, and automotive. TGI partners nationally with clients among the Fortune 100. Monica acquired TGI Direct, Inc. in the summer of 2020, though her holding company, Carmel Hill Acquisitions.

Monica’s background consists of Information Technology consulting, Marketing, Strategy, and Sales. She has a Bachelor of Business Administration from The University of Michigan and a Master of Business Administration from The University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.

Tom Zucker

President
EdgePoint Capital

Tom is President and Founder of EdgePoint Capital. He and his team provide M&A advisory and investment banking services to middle market private held companies across the nation. Tom drives the execution and culture at EdgePoint which can be summarized by their motto of "Results with Integrity".