Tom Bakaitus

Partner
Louis Plung & Company

Tax Partner with Louis Plung & Company. Have 35 years experience primarily in tax. Focus area is transaction analysis. Undergraduate California University of PA. Masters in Tax from Duquesne University. Prior to Louis Plung I was regional managing partner and firmwide Director of Tax with a regional firm.

Brian Baum

Managing Director
Interchange Capital Partners

Brian is the Managing Director of Interchange Capital Partners. In this role he oversees strategic initiatives of the company with a specific focus on the Family Business and Entrepreneur client segment. His focus is on helping owners think through, build and execute on a value acceleration and transition strategy for the shareholders. He believes that at its core exit planning combines the plan, concept, effort and process into a clear, simple strategy to build a business that is transferable through strong human, structural, customer, and social capital. The future of each owner, their family, and their business are addressed by exit planning through creating value today.

Brian is also the President of the Pittsburgh Exit Planning Chapter, which he helped found in 2019. The chapters mission is to give business owners a forum to get educated on true exit planning – how to build a valuable and transferable business through a proven process. He graduated from Penn State with a Bachelors in Psychology and a minor in Business. He is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor and a CFP.

Robert Berdanier

Managing Director
Riveron

Craig Blank

Director of Investments
Woodland Management

Craig plays a key role in Woodland’s co-investment and fund investment efforts. He contributes a strong combination of operating experience, public market investing, mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, and real estate. Craig received a BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis and MBA from the Katz School of the University of Pittsburgh.

Mike Blehar

Chief Growth Officer & Managing Partner
Fort Pitt Capital Group

Michael Blehar is a Financial Advisor, Founding Partner & Chief Growth Officer at Fort Pitt Capital Group. As the Chief Growth Officer at the firm, Mike oversees the strategic plans for Fort Pitt Capital’s future expansion. He also provides guidance and mentorship to other advisors at the firm, coaching them on how to provide the best possible outcomes for our clients and clearly communicate our ideas to achieve financial success.

Dave Boyce

President & CEO
Bloom Engineering

Christopher Brodman

President & CEO
Metz Lewis Brodman Must O’Keefe LLC

Chris is the president of the firm and a member of the firm’s executive committee. His practice focuses on general corporate matters and business transactions for funds and privately held middle-market companies. Chris serves as outside general counsel for many clients. His transactional practice includes M&A, early stage investments, corporate finance and commercial transactions. Chris has led in excess of 100 M&A transactions during his career. Chris has been a member of the board of directors of many privately held companies throughout his career and he has invested in early-stage and mature businesses.

Teena Brown

Business Performance Advisor
Insperity

HELPING BUSINESSES TAKE CARE OF THEIR MOST IMPORTANT ASSET, THIER PEOPLE

Teena supplies businesses with a ready-to-use HR infrastructure that helps manage costs, minimize risk, and reduce administrative burden, resulting in more efficiency and profitability. As a Business Performance Advisor at Insperity, Teena offers full-service HR solutions that deliver, such as Recruiting, Insurance and Benefit Services, Payroll & Human Capital Management Suite. Performance Management Solutions, and Retirement 401(K). What makes Insperity different is the breadth of services, the depth of services and the level of care that each client receives...and of course, the people at Insperity who dedicate themselves to helping take care of each client's employees and their families.

Bill Coleman

Senior Vice President
Aon

Bill Coleman is responsible for the development and implementation of transactional-based risk solutions, including the deployment of insurance capital for M&A transactions through representations and warranties, litigation, tax and other contingent liabilities insurance. Bill is based in Houston and is further supported by a New York-based team of professionals in North America and colleagues in London, Hong Kong, Sydney and Bermuda who focus exclusively on transactional risk transfer. Prior to joining the Aon Team, Bill was an attorney at Sidley Austin LLP, where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions and private equity transactions, with a significant focus in the energy sector.

Patrick Colletti

Founder, Net Health
Author, Refounder

Serving as the President of Net Health for over two decades, Colletti and his partners took an organization on the brink of bankruptcy and transformed it, turning it into a thriving healthcare business serving millions of people each year. Net Health solutions are used in over 20,000 facilities, including 98% of the country’s largest healthcare systems. What’s more, their award-winning culture has made them a mainstay on lists ranking the best place to work.

An experienced board director and advisor for angel, VC, and PE-backed organizations, Colletti is a frequent speaker, selective consultant, and redemptive investor. He is also author of the book Refounder: How Transformational Leaders Take What's Broken and Make it Better.

Jeffrey Conn

Chairman & Member
Clark Hill PLC

Jeff’s primary areas of practice are mergers and acquisitions, general corporate, commercial and real estate finance and real estate law. He regularly represents private equity groups, small, middle-market and large corporations, lenders, borrowers and real estate developers in a variety of transactional matters and matters involving general corporate advice. Jeff has been selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America.

Nick Conti

Senior Associate
Three Rivers Capital

Josh Curtis

Managing Partner
Footprint Capital

Josh works with business leaders on ownership transactions and liquidity events, including sell-side and buy-side engagements and transactions, such as management buyouts, succession and exit planning, ESOP formations, capital sourcing and leveraged recaps. Prior to leading Footprint Capital, Josh was vice president at Insource Spend Management Group. He led Insource through two synergistic acquisitions and ultimately, its sale.

Brian Dandrea

Partner, Business Development
Continuim Equity Partners

Brian is a co-founder and Partner at Continuim Equity Partners, a Private Equity firm in Pittsburgh, PA. Brian leads Continuim’s relationship-based approach to identifying and acquiring successful, family-owned industrial businesses within the region. Brian previously led the business development effort for PNC Mezzanine Capital and served as a Commercial Lender for PNC Bank.

Jonathan Dane

Founder & CIO
Defiant Capital Group

Jonathan founded Defiant Capital Group and is the Chief Investment Officer. He has over a decade of financial markets experience and leads the firm's investment process across all asset classes, including portfolio construction, manager due diligence, and deployment of client capital. He previously served as the Director of Portfolio Strategy & Research for a $900mn multi-family office, and prior worked in Investment Banking in New York City at Goldman Sachs and Jefferies.

Jeff Deane

Partner
FORVIS, LLP

Jeff Deane is an audit partner at FORVIS. He is a member of firm's National Commercial Services Group. He has more than 30 years of experience in providing assurance and consulting services in various industries. In addition to domestic companies, he also serves both inbound and outbound international companies, with specific areas of emphasis being Europe and Asia.

Brad Domitrovitsch

Chairman & CEO
American Environmental Partners, Inc.

Brad Domitrovitsch has 20 years of expertise in analyzing, identifying, and developing new market opportunities. His entrepreneurial background spans multiple industries including recycling, transportation, real estate, and environmental services. Brad brings his experience and skill set to provide value to his shareholders first, while putting to work a suite of environmental solutions with demonstrated success. He holds a B.S. in Economics and obtained his MBA from Moravian College with distinction of Valedictorian.

Ron Donatelli

Pittsburgh Regional President
First National Bank

Ronald is President of the Pittsburgh Region of First National Bank. He is responsible for integrating FNB’s successful cross-functional business model and for developing small business, middle market and corporate banking opportunities in the Company’s headquarters market. Donatelli also oversees FNB's Asset-Based Lending group, which operates across the Company footprint.

Donatelli joined FNB in 2009 to lead its Asset-Based Lending division and has had oversight for various corporate banking groups within the organization, including Syndications and International Banking Services. He has more than 40 years of financial services experience, having held a range of leadership roles with asset-based lending groups at major banks in the Pittsburgh area.

A graduate of LaRoche College, Donatelli is active in the community as board chairman for Bridgeway Capital and chair of the Watson Institute/First National Bank Pro Am golf tournament committee.

Dave Eichenlaub

Managing Director
Confluence Advisors

John Erkert

CFO
IPEG Industrial Group | Piovan North America LLC

John Erkert is responsible for IPEG’s global shared service finance function, including financial planning and analysis, accounting and reporting, tax, treasury, and risk management. He also has accountability for brand finance along with the group’s brand presidents for Conair, Thermal Care, Pelletron, and Republic Machine.

Jeff Ford

Partner - A&A Services Group
Grossman Yanak & Ford LLP

Jeff has focused his career on providing accounting, auditing and consulting services to privately held companies and not-for-profit organizations. His experience includes furnishing compliance services such as audits; providing due diligence and investigation services related to business acquisitions; performing fraud investigations; developing and compiling projected and forecasted financial statements; and evaluating, selecting and implementing information systems for companies.

Sreekar Gadde

Executive Director
BTVC

BTVC is an active investor in early-stage, high-growth companies in the Pittsburgh region and around the country. We invest in companies where we can provide both capital and expertise to help accelerate their growth. As the Executive Director for BTVC, Sree focuses on identifying and evaluating investment opportunities, working with other investors as well as other parts of the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Specifically, we focus on leveraging our groups unique skills and experience, specifically in sales, marketing, and operations, to help companies to avoid or overcome early obstacles. Sree leverages his experience and training as an engineer and IP attorney to help portfolio companies develop and implement an IP strategy. For high-growth companies, he helps them focus the allocation of resources (both capital and time) on assets that will drive business value.

Stephen Gurgovits

Managing Partner
Tecum Capital

Stephen J. Gurgovits, Jr. is the Managing Partner and co-founder of Tecum Capital, a $500+ million private investment firm based in Pittsburgh, PA, which oversees pools of committed capital focused on mezzanine debt, subordinated notes, and private equity, along with a separate strategy via a multi-family office platform for control equity investments. In his current role, Mr. Gurgovits, Jr. is responsible for providing strategic, operational and investment management leadership to the funds, including its overall planning, fund raising, growth and execution of strategy. Mr. Gurgovits, Jr. previously served on the board of directors of Auburn Gear, Uncle Charley’s Sausage, Oberg Industries, Gibraltar Cable Barriers, Western Allegheny Capital and is currently on the board of directors for Primetac and the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Association of Corporate Growth (ACG).

James Gillespie

CEO
GrayMatter

Lisa Haley Huff

Managing Director, WPA Market Executive
JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Gabriela Isturiz

General Partner
The Fund XX

Gabriela (Gaby) is a serial entrepreneur, innovator, experienced CEO, and founder of two high-growth successful SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) technology companies that were ultimately sold to Fortune 500 companies. Gaby possesses a unique combination of passion, curiosity, and discipline, making her one of the few women in STEM who has led bootstrapped companies to successful exits. A native of Caracas, Venezuela, Gaby earned her MS in Information Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh and her BS in Computer Systems Engineering from the Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas.

Lee M. Koury

Managing Partner
Smart Business Network Inc.

Lee is managing partner of Smart Business Network Inc., a national events, media and marketing company founded in 1989, primarily responsible for expanding the company’s Aspire deal-making conference 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. 

Toby Kreidler

Director, Head of Pittsburgh Office
Stellex Capital Management LLC

Toby heads the Pittsburgh office. Prior to joining Stellex in 2021, Mr. Kreidler was a Principal at Calibre Group LLC, a merchant bank which provides advice and capital to manufacturing companies. Before Calibre, Mr. Kreidler was a Managing Director in the Industrial Investment Banking Group of Seaport Global. Mr. Kreidler also served as a financial advisor and negotiator at the United Steelworkers Union.

Michael Matesic

President & CEO
Idea Foundry, Inc.

Michael M. Matesic, President & CEO of Idea Foundry, Inc., is a seasoned business executive experienced in working with businesses at a variety of stages. Over the last 17 years at Idea Foundry he has invested in and participated in the development of over 200 innovation based start-ups, creating jobs in the region. Previously, Mr. Matesic was Chief Executive Officer for two start-up companies and Chief Financial Officer for MetalSite, Inc., participating in the rapid growth of the company and public registration process. While at MetalSite, Mr. Matesic led the startup of the company’s subsidiary, ScrapSite.Before that he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Anker Coal Group and its subsidiaries where he was responsible for Human Resources, Information Technology, Tax and Finance functions. During his ten years with Anker Coal, Mr. Matesic led a successful registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission, managed the company’s substantial growth, established and invested in various start-up companies and completed many acquisitions.A 1987 graduate of Duquesne University with a B.S. in Business Administration, he spent two years on the audit staff of Ernst & Young, LLP in Pittsburgh.

Al Melchiorre

President
MelCap Partners, LLC

Al Melchiorre is President and founder of MelCap Partners, a middle market investment banking firm that he founded over 22 years ago, Over the past few years, MelCap has been recognized as boutique investment banking firm of the year multiple times by The M&A Advisor. MelCap's clients are predominately privately-held, family owned businesses going through a once in a life-time transaction.

Ray Milhem

Founder & CEO
MILHEM DTL

Ray Milhem is a Global Technology Executive with over 30 + years of experience. Ray grows revenue and contains costs by leveraging his vast experience, scaling solutions, and integrating technology for startups, mid size and Fortune 500 companies in the technology and telecom sectors.

His expertise includes strategic planning, engineering, product management, technology operations, P&L, M&A, and staff leadership in the US , Canada, Kuwait & Dubai (UAE). He has spoken and presented at many US & Global conferences.

Kit Needham

Director, Project Olympus
Carnegie Mellon University

Kit is Director and Executive-in-Residence at Project Olympus where she provides start-up advice, business strategy planning, connections to industry experts, advisors and the business community to student, faculty and staff startups. She is a Program Leader for the National Science Foundation’s iCorps programs and an Amazon Alexa Innovation Fellow.She is a member of BlueTree Allied Angels and serves on the Screening Committee. Kit is an Advisory Board member of Chatham University's Center for Women's Entrepreneurship, and a Board member of the Pittsburgh Entrepreneurs Forum.She was a Senior Vice President at the Allegheny Conference on Community Development working on education and economic development initiatives. Prior to that, she was Chief Operating Officer of Mellon Lab which was responsible for creating revenue-producing businesses for Mellon Bank. She also provides consulting services to promote economic growth to Chambers of Commerce, individual entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations.Kit is a Board member of the Women's Center & Shelter for Domestic Violence, and an Advisory Board member for Standing Firm. She is a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh XIX.

Jim Nickel

Pennsylvania Region Head, Regional Commercial Banking
CIBC Bank USA

Jim is a native of western Pennsylvania and is Managing Director and Pennsylvania Region Head CIBC Bank USA. Over his 30-year banking career, Jim has focused on providing relationship-driven commercial banking services to middle market companies. He joined The PrivateBank & Trust Company (acquired by CIBC June 2017) in September 2014 to spearhead the founding of a Pittsburgh office. Prior to that, he was with TriState Capital Bank and Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania. He began his career with PNC in Pittsburgh. Jim has a finance degree from Bucknell University and a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh. He serves as Treasurer of the Board of Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania, is a member of the board of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth and is President of the school board of directors at Seneca Valley School District. Jim has been married for 29 years and has two sons, ages 25 and 21.

Nadyli Nuñez

Executive Director
Ascender

A native New Yorker, Nadyli is the executive director of Ascender, an incubator and a hub that helps founders start and build their companies. She also serves on the advisory boards for SXSW Pitch and Canada’s Inventures Startup Pitch, identifying promising startups worldwide. Additionally, Nadyli is on the Community Forge advisory board, building an equitable economy for underrepresented residents through entrepreneurship.

Sean O'Connor

Group Leader, PA Middle Market
Huntington

Ven Raju

President & CEO, Innovation Works
Managing Director, Riverfront Ventures

Subba Rao Rama

Chief Financial Officer
Aquatech International LLC

Michael Snyder

Executive Vice President
Air Ground Xpress, Inc.

Michael Snyder is Executive Vice President and Co-owner of Air Ground Xpress, Inc. We were incorporated in 1981, providing ground transportation for the air freight industry. He has been with AGX since 1985. In that time he has been a driver, terminal manager, GM of Operations, and now EVP.

Through out his career he has worked to grow AGX's footprint in the industry. We are now one of the largest cartage companies in Pennsylvania. Along with our corporate offices in Clinton, PA, we opened terminals in Duncansville, Clarion, and Moon Twp. PA as well as Morgantown, WV and Cleveland OH. We also have a drayage operation based in Trafford, PA.

Michael is responsible for equipment acquisitions and overseeing all operational divisions.

Clark Stapelfeld

CEO & President
New Pendulum Corp.

Robert Stein

Executive Director
Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence, University of Pittsburgh

Robert “Bob” Stein is executive director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence. He leverages his contacts and experience to the benefit of IEE members. For 13 consecutive years, he’s earned the title of Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the Smeal College of Business and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business. He also holds a certificate in Executive Leadership from the Harvard Business School.

Kevin Wills

Attorney at Law
Babst Calland

Kevin is a shareholder in the Corporate and Commercial, Energy and Natural Resources, and Emerging Technologies groups of Babst Calland. Mr. Wills’ practice includes representing business clients in mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; drafting and negotiating a wide variety of contracts, real estate agreements, commercial leases and software development and licensing agreements; advising clients on business planning and structuring matters; advising clients seeking certification as disadvantaged business enterprises; and advising clients involved in contract disputes.

Bob Whalen

President & CEO
HB Global, LLC

Bob Whalen is the President and CEO of HB Global, LLC. Headquartered in Harrisburg, PA. HB Global is the ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) holding company that provides direction and support for nine leading mechanical, electrical, and plumbing contracting companies throughout the United States.

Bob’s personal mission is to change lives through employee ownership, which empowers employees and gives them a stake in the wealth that is created by the entire team through organic growth and acquisitions. His employee-centric vision has created a strong organizational culture propelling HB Global’s year-after-year success.

Bob earned his BS in Agricultural Economics and MBA from Cornell University and holds an MS in Finance from the University of Notre Dame. He serves on the board of directors at the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Hospital and Morefield Communications and encourages his employee owners to also serve and support the local communities in which they live.

Dror Yaron

Director of Strategic Partnerships
Pittsburgh Israel Innovation

Penny Zacharias

Partner
McGuireWoods LLP

Penny is an accomplished lawyer with over 15 years of experience representing financial institutions in a broad range of lending transactions.

Penny focuses her practice on debt financing and secured transactions, including origination of asset-based and acquisition financing, leveraged finance, mezzanine finance and other lending transactions. She also handles the structuring and documenting of large syndicated transactions. Secured lenders as well as companies in the security alarm, medical alert, and other industries with a recurring revenue model, rely on Penny’s vast experience.

Penny also advises domestic and international banking clients and investment firms in the areas of microfinance and impact investing. Notably, McGuireWoods was “Highly Commended” in Financial Times’ Accessing New Markets and Capital category for Penny’s representation of Developing World Markets in connection with the origination, placement and investment of proceeds from a first-of-its-kind off-grid, renewable and climate action note (ORCA).

Penny’s leadership roles at the firm include chairing the Pittsburgh Women’s Leadership Forum, co-chairing the firm’s Women in Private Equity & Finance initiative, and serving on the National Recruiting Committee.