Max DeZara founded Akoya Capital Partners in 2005. He serves as Managing Partner of the company and is involved in overseeing all aspects of the operation.

Mr. DeZara has sourced, evaluated, valued, and structured numerous investment opportunities across a variety of industries including manufacturing, professional information services, consumer foods and specialty chemicals. Mr. DeZara is uniquely expert at partnering with industry-leading executives to develop proprietary investment opportunities for family office and private equity co-sponsorship. The strategies he has developed and teams he has partnered with have created substantial shareholder value. Since its inception, Akoya has completed 20 platform investments and numerous add-on acquisitions across the portfolio.

Prior to forming Akoya Capital, Mr. DeZara spent over 20 years in talent acquisition, assessment and human capital consulting, most as the founder and leader of the Carlyle Group, a leading Midwest boutique retained executive search and consulting firm. In 1998, Mr. DeZara sold Carlyle Group to The Whitney Group, creating a top-ten global executive search firm with eight offices worldwide. During his tenure with The Whitney Group, he was elected vice chairman and served on Whitney’s board of directors and lead their global private equity practice.

Mr. DeZara is an active member of the Family Office Club, Association for Corporate Growth, and Vistage, a peer mentoring group for CEO’s and Tiger 21.

Mr. DeZara is also the former Chairman of the Century Foundation, a non-profit board focused on the development of Lane Tech College Prep High School and remains actively involved on the board.

Mr. DeZara works closely with our portfolio companies Edge Adhesives, NSA Industries, TTG and NutriScience.

(312) 546-8322
[email protected]

Ben Levin is a founder, partner, and Co-CEO at Level. He has been an investor in growing media, software and services companies since 1997. Prior to Level he was Managing Director at Insight Venture Partners and previously held positions with Mentmore Holdings Corporation, the private investment arm of a New York City based family office, and in the mergers and acquisitions division of Salomon Brothers. Ben graduated from Harvard College.

[email protected]
+1 (212) 660 2475

Brett Hickey has been structuring, analyzing and managing private equity, mezzanine and U.S. Government sponsored investment funds for over a decade. Prior to launching Star Mountain Capital, Mr. Hickey was the Co-Founder and President of a multi-manager platform including 4 U.S. state sponsored small business investment funds. Mr. Hickey has extensive experience performing due diligence on, selecting and building small business fund managers and has helped structure over a dozen larger funds representing a few billion dollars in assets.

Mr. Hickey formerly worked as an Investment Banker at Citigroup Global Markets in New York City (fka Salomon Smith Barney) where he covered global Asset Managers and Financial Institutions. In that role he worked on over $8 billion in completed debt and equity capital raising and restructuring transactions for leading financial institutions including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Neuberger-Berman, Nuveen Investments and Eaton Vance. He also served as Senior Analyst on the $16.1 billion public merger of the St. Paul Companies, Inc. and Travelers Property Casualty Corp.

Mr. Hickey attended Mount Royal College in Calgary, Canada, where he studied business and entrepreneurship while training on the national speed skating team. He graduated with Distinction from McGill University in Montreal, Canada with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School’s Owner, President / Manager CEO training and management program for distinguished business owners with a proven track record of successfully building and managing companies. Mr. Hickey is a former Canadian national gold medalist and North American medalist in speed skating. He has completed numerous other business programs including Building Your Business Through Transformational Leadership & Innovation at the Innovatrium on the University of Michigan’s campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is a frequent guest lecturer on industry panels and at academic institutions. A selection of interviews can be found on The Lead Left and PE Hub.

Craig Jones is a veteran of the venture capital and private equity industries and currently runs the private equity firm TPE Boulder. He has invested extensively in in software, healthcare and business services companies, leading investments in over 60 companies.

Mr. Jones is Chairman of technology companies Blue Sky Network and CloudXPartners and healthcare companies National Research Institute and eStudySite. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of RRS Medical, Voxco, and RedCAT Systems.

Mr. Jones’ extensive private equity career includes Managing Partner of TPE Boulder since 2010. He was previously Managing Partner of Ticonderoga Capital and Managing Director at Dillon, Read & Co and head of its venture capital partnerships, Vice President at Advent International, Associate at Centennial Ventures and a consultant with Bain & Co. He is a graduate Magna Cum Laude of Harvard Law School.

Mr. Jones has participated as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association, and has founded a charter elementary school. He lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and kids.

TPE Boulder
tpeboulder.com
[email protected]
(650) 384-5811

Mike de Windt was a Founder & CEO of Gates Group Capital Partners (GGCP) a Cleveland-based private equity firm. Mr. de Windt brings considerable background in M&A, finance, strategy development and operational improvement. Founded in 2002 with over $300 million of capital under management, GGCP made investments in middle market businesses within the transportation industry in North America. Prior to co-founding GGCP, Mike was the Founder and President of Grand River Industries, a private investment firm with a focus on industrial middle market investments. Prior to Grand River, Mike was on the corporate development staff at NACCO Industries (NYSE:NC) a diversified holding company with interests in materials handling, consumer products and coal mining.

Gates Group Advisors
gatesgroupadvisors.com
[email protected]
(216) 533-7637