Middle Market Musings

Peter Fader is the Frances and Pei-Yuan Chia Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as co-founder of Theta Equity, a next-generation data analytics firm.  Much discussion about Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), the concept that has animated Pete’s academic career and business endeavors.  Pete’s fascination with numbers and data leads to an array of other subjects – baseball player performance, the sales trajectory of hit records, and even the serial numbers on dollar bills.  The hosts and Pete trade notes on what their “walk-on” music would be, a topic that exposes stadium rock as a rare gap in Andy’s range of expertise.  If you think Charlie responds to this discovery with grace and restraint, you must be new around here.

Rit Amin is Executive Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets at Regions Securities, the investment banking arm of Regions Bank.  Rit has overseen the firm’s entry into capital markets, as well as the acquisition of BlackArch Partners in 2016 and Clearsight Advisors in 2021.  His visit to Middle Market Musings begins with frequent childhood moves – experiences that helped develop the adaptability and room-reading skills at the heart of the investment banking trade. College at George Mason followed by big bank experience led Rit to Regions Bank in 2013.  Much discussion about where 300+ bankers adhere to a common culture and where they focus on specialized practice strength.  The discussion also features a rare point of agreement between Andy and Charlie – the general suckiness of Ted Lasso.

Mark Sullivan rips the bandaid off of decades of repressed memories about past dealings with Andy and Charlie to join the show   Mark is co-founder and partner at Lineage Capital, one of the leading private equity firms devoted to leaving growth-minded business owners with board control, even after selling a majority stake. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Lineage and Charlie’s firm New Heritage Capital (NHC) evolved out of a common predecessor. Discussions commence with Mark and Charlie’s apocalyptic meeting in 1998, then circles back to Mark’s Atlanta childhood, college at Washington & Lee and early career.  Superb discussion about non-control investing and some fancy footwork from Andy when Mark asks who he would show a deal to first -- Lineage or NHC. 

Are MMM listeners desirous to hear from the builder of a multi-billion-dollar investment complex, or from a guy who effuses about Dr. Dre’s iconic debut album?  If so, our conversation with Jack Glover checks both boxes….and then some.   

Jack is Founder and Managing Partner of Incline Equity Partners, a PE firm with over $6.5 billion in committed capital.   Today, Incline is investing out of three vehicles maintaining the firm’s historic focus on differentiated distribution and service firms of varying size.  Discussion begins with Jack’s Western Pennsylvania roots  – Pittsburgh childhood, college at Duquesne, first job at Westinghouse Credit.  The theme of Midwestern values returns as a core aspect of Incline’s evolution and culture.  Jack’s enthusiasm for Dr. Dre’s seminal first album “The Chronic” is one highlight of many diversions into music, gambling and other esoteric subjects. 

Nadim Malik drops by, and brings the receipts with him. Nadim is founder of Sutton Place Strategies, the preeminent provider of deal origination and business development data to private equity and M&A firms. The episode begins with Nadim’s recollections of early encounters with the MMM hosts, including contemporaneous notes on a 2011 meeting with a characteristically friendly but non-committal Charlie. After jumping back to Nadim’s origin story (emigre parents from Pakistan, childhood in New York ) and early career, Sutton Place Strategies gets its due. Nadim founded SPS in 2009, developed it into a key industry resource and then sold the business twice – first to Bain & Co. in 2020 and then to With Intelligence in late 2024. Discussion concludes with Nadim’s exit following the second sale – and thoughts to date on his much-anticipated next act. 

Michael Butler is Chairman and CEO of Cascadia Capital, the independent investment bank that has completed more than 550 deals since Michael co-founded it in 1999.  Discussion begins with early stops in Michael’s journey – childhood and college in Washington state, then moving cross country to try his luck in Manhattan, a first job at Morgan Stanley and then business school at Wharton.  This episode stands out, though, as a world-class case study on how a CEO thinks about building, capitalizing, and differentiating his firm.  Michael charts Cascadia’s evolution to highly particularized vertical specialization and to representing private equity as well as non-institutional sellers.  Atlas Capital’s strategic investment in late 2022 and the firm’s move from Seattle to Austin are more recent highlights of a large independent investment bank on the rise.

Tim is the CEO and Founder of BTP, an AI Strategy consulting firm devoted to helping private equity firms and other clients understand and develop a competitive advantage by leveraging artificial intelligence.  Tim is a clear thinker on what AI is, and what it isn’t.   Discussion begins with Tim’s well-traveled boyhood as the son of an oil executive, followed by college lat Texas Tech and a career helping sales forces optimize technology. Key takeaways:  (1) a surprising number of financial firms are only scratching the surface in their AI usage and (2) those who have embraced AI are using it in rapidly evolving ways. Once again, Middle Market Musings goes where the puck is headed!  

An urban whirlwind blows through the MMM studios when Justin Abelow drops by.   Justin is a long-tenured Managing Director in the financial sponsors group at Houlihan Lokey.  He manages to be both a resolute Manhattanite and a global student of business, history and culture.   Upper East Side boyhood steeped in the “Masters of the Universe” world of corporate finance in the ‘80s, undergraduate and law degree a short subway ride away at Columbia, and an early stint as a corporate lawyer all pointed toward a career in investment banking.  Justin shares the story of the firm’s evolution into a market leader and his own career path in sponsor coverage.  Concluding with Justin’s interest in history, the hosts and he each name their three ideal dinner companions (where Andy and Charlie were each surprised not to be on one another’s list).   

Jack Markell – elected five times (without a loss) to state-wide office in Delaware, veteran of more than 200 deals in the telecom industry, home from two ambassadorial postings in Europe – finds himself on the biggest stage yet.  Jack more than meets the moment in this MMM episode.  Discussion begins with a life-changing trip to India before Jack headed to Brown, McKinsey and the University of Chicago.  He and the hosts then trade notes on his early days as a deal guy at Nextel, a name that Jack came up with.  Much to cover from there – Jack’s career in public service, the differences between managing in business and in government, and the troublesome state of politics today.  Jack’s decades-long friendship with Andy – ooh, cut for time.

SRS Acquiom is known to many for shareholder representation, paying agent, escrow agent and other services that help the parties on both sides complete an M&A transaction.  They’re also known for the annual Deal Terms Study and other analysis extracted from their data and experience.  It turns out there’s a guy for that!  Kip Wallen is SRS Acquiom’s Senior Director for Thought Leadership.   Click on this one for a survey of Kip’s Minnesota boyhood and early legal background, how SRSA’s product and service offering is evolving in a changing information landscape, and a surprisingly honest exchange on how people with different life experiences find their place in the M&A community.