Middle Market Musings

Federico Baradello stops by the MMM laundromat for a wash, fluff and fold.  Fed is Founder & CEO of Finalis, a compliance/technology platform now serving more than 900 deal professionals choosing to operate independent of larger firms.  Much discussion about the competitive forces and technology advances leading talented investment bankers, advisors and placement agents to embrace a more entrepreneurial model.  Before we get there, though, an animated discussion about Fed’s path to founding Finalis in 2017.  A family origin story that spans Italy and Argentina and the United States.  Academic degrees from Princeton, the London School of Economics, Berkeley and Harvard.  Five years as an associate at Kirkland & Ellis that introduced Fed to the deal world – and led him to think about alternatives to scale, as well as its benefits.  A great discussion with a young forward thinker in our field. 

Chuck Thompson is Managing Director and head of the Aerospace & Defense Group at BlackArch Partners, the Charlotte-based investment bank owned by Regions Financial Corporation.  Chuck’s practice reflects a well-traveled and well-spent path – boyhood in Cambridge, MA; college at Colby College, business school at Columbia along with career postings in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Kenya, and Hong Kong.  After receiving his MBA, Chuck worked at Edgeview Partners from 2002-10.  In 2017, following a handful of operational/offshore stops, Chuck joined BlackArch,  which Region had acquired two years earlier.  Today, Region’s investment banking platform comprises BlackArch, with its broad industry coverage, and Clearsight Advisors, which focuses more on tech-enabled service firms.  Great perspective from Chuck, who is now co-managing BlackArch while maintain his own busy practice. 

Mike Alberts is the principal responsible for business development at Cohere Capital, a Boston-based PE firm devoted to growth-oriented tech and service businesses.  Mike has become well known as a literal “road warrior,” using his passion for endurance sports to connect with other deal professionals around the country.  Discussion begins with Mike’s childhood in the sports Sahara of Tampa, Florida, then college at SMU.  After early career stops in investment banking and private equity, Mike spent a couple of years getting operational experience at a specialty pharma services firm.  Lively exploration of how all of this translates into deal sourcing and assessment at Cohere.  The hosts compare notes on their own experience in Iron Man competitions  🙄

For our Season Five finale, we turn the microphones on ourselves. With no guest to keep us in line, Denver-based marketing guru Kim Kelty steps in as moderator, referee, and occasional peacekeeper.

We reflect on nearly 90 episodes, the lessons we've learned from exceptional founders and investors, and where we think private equity and the M&A market are headed. We also discuss the two forces reshaping the industry: technology and a more demanding investment landscape.

If you're expecting a sentimental moment between the hosts, you'll have to keep waiting. Instead, expect spirited banter, an unnecessary debate over music, and the familiar competitive dynamic that has somehow kept both our relationship and the podcast alive and humming over the past five years.

John Connaughton is chair of Bain Capital, the Boston-based private equity firm with roughly $225 billion in assets under management.  Discussion begins with John’s childhood in Baltimore and the pace set by his Irish emigre parents.  College at UVA and business school at Harvard followed.  John joined Bain in 1989, an early employee in the private equity effort that spun out of the Bain & Co. management consulting firm.   He and the hosts take a fast-paced tour through early days at Bain Capital, the mindset of Mitt Romney and other leaders, his ascent in the practice, John’s own tenure in leadership, and Bain’s determination to remain private even as its peers entered the public market. One constant theme:  the pursuit of extraordinary returns on every deal.  

Morgan Witham, a stellar product of the Harris Williams “coaching tree,” stops by Middle Market Musings – akin to starting your career with the New York Yankees and ending up in the dugout with Ricky Vaughn and Willie Mays Hayes.  Morgan recently launched Ficus Advisors, a new firm that helps private equity clients guide management teams dealing with first-time institutional capital, post-deal integration issues, and PE growth imperatives.  Before that, Morgan takes us on a tour of showpiece Southern cities – childhood in Lexington, college in Nashville, then a first job in Richmond at Harris Williams, the market-leading investment bank. She rose through deal execution and business development roles to become the youngest member of HW’s executive team as Director of Strategy.  The episode begins and ends with Morgan reflecting on a life-changing event – the fire that destroyed her family’s home earlier this year, and what the experience has taught her about leadership, resilience and human kindness.  

Emily is a Managing Director at Permanent Equity, a St. Louis-based private equity firm that his made its reputation as its name suggests – by investing out of 30-year funds that enable longer term holds and relationships with founding entrepreneurs.  Emily and the hosts sail through her childhood in Indianapolis, college as a journalism major at the University of Missouri and a first job in marketing in Los Angeles.  There, she connected with Permanent Equity founder Brent Beshore, returning to the Midwest and joining the firm in 2009.  Much discussion ensues on how the Permanent Equity model differentiates the firm in a market largely defined by investor liquidity requirements. Emily also has the misfortune of dealing with the hosts after a spring layover.  Rusty?  No.  Bristling with sports rivalries and other resentments ?  Always. 

This one is as action-packed and varied in scene as a James Bond movie.  John Ferrara is founder and CEO of Capstone Partners, the middle market investment bank.  John’s story rolls through his upbringing in hardscrabble Brockton, MA to college at liberal arts enclave Wesleyan to an early career stop with Lehman Brothers on Wall Street, to two years of professional baseball in Australia.  Then business school at UCLA, partnership at Arthur Andersen and, in 2002, the founding of Capstone.  John discusses his ambitious early plans for a new investment bank, the buildup of Capstone through a series of acquisitions, and the decision to sell to Huntington Bank in 2022.  John and the hosts wrap up discussing some personal challenges and life philosophy that applies to but transcends the world of finance.   

Rocky is Senior Manager Director and Co-Head of Investment Banking at Mesirow, the Chicago-based employee-owned, diversified financial services firm.  A Chicagoland native who survived Eastern stops for college at Penn and a first job at Merrill Lynch, Rocky has been at Mesirow since 2001. He has charted and contributed to the firm’s emergence as a significant force in middle market M&A.  On the personal side, Rocky talks about his youthful athletic prowess, something he shares with one or none of the MMM hosts, depending on who you ask.  Interesting discussion about the near extinction of publicly traded middle market companies outside of growth sectors like health care and tech.  Also of note – the correct plural form of Pontikes, which is apparently “Pontiki.” 

Rick Horowitz misses the off ramp and ends up on a podcast in the bad part of town.  Rick is chairman and CEO of RAF Equity, a Philadelphia-based private equity fund formed as a family office in 1979.  Rick has three singular stories to tell:  (1) the legacy of Robert A. Fox, the firm’s founder and a towering figure in Delaware Valley business circles; (2) RAF’s successful leadership transition from Bob Fox to Rick; and (3) the firm’s ability to maintain a long-term investment horizon even after extending the capital base to outside investors.  The storied history of Boston/Philly sports rivalries gets a workout, but Rick and the hosts unite eventually over an embarrassingly detailed assessment of The Boston Globe sports page circa 1985.  Talk about click bait!