TEAM

Paul Thomson

Paul Thomson is the Principal of Scottish American Capital. He was the Head of Finance and Strategy at Box UK a UK software development company prior to joining Scottish American Capital.

Paul has completed more than 20 transactions with business owners, working for The Royal Bank of Scotland and Pricewaterhousecoopers. Paul will join the management team of Scottish American Capital’s Investment and take over the day to day running of the company.

Paul graduated from Harvard Business School where he was awarded an Arthur Rock Fellowship for Entrepreneurship. He currently teaches The Business of Healthcare at NYU School of Medicine.

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Cristian Joe
Cristian Joe is an associate at Scottish American Capital. Prior to joining Scottish American Cristian worked for the City of New York Investigations Department. He is currently a partner at B.A.D Media Group, a local web development firm with over 25 clients, and will join Scottish American with a focus on analyzing and originating deals in the digital marketing sector. Cristian graduated magna cum laude with a B.S in Computer Science from St. Johns University.

Neil Rackham

Neil Rackham is the professor of professional selling. He is a speaker, writer and seminal thinker on sales and marketing issues. Three of his books have been on the New York Times best seller list. and SPIN® Selling is McGraw Hill’s best selling business book ever. He is author of over 50 influential articles on marketing, selling and channel strategy. Neil has been an advisor on sales performance to several of the Fortune 100 largest companies and more than half the Fortune 500 train their salespeople using sales models derived from his research. He is committed to ensuring that the sales of Scottish American Capital’s acquisition grow organically through his proven methods, close partnerships and the extensive contacts base of the Scottish American team.

Peter T. Francisb

Peter Francis is board chair, president and CEO of J. M. Huber Corporation, a diversified, multinational supplier of engineered materials, natural resources, and technology-based services. Mr. Francis joined the company in 1992 as vice chairman. In 1993, he became board chair of Huber and president of its largest division, AVEX Electronics, which he led in a major turnaround to profitability. He became CEO and president of the parent corporation in 1994, which he has since grown to over $2.5 billion in revenues. In 2004, the company completed the largest acquisition in its history when it acquired CP Kelco, a global leader in the hydrocolloids industry.
Before joining Huber, Mr. Francis was CEO of a leveraged buyout in the wood products industry. He also designed and managed the development of a high-technology oceanographic instrument for the oil and gas industry. He and his wife circumnavigated the world by sailboat, visiting 38 countries, covering 55,000 miles, and spending 558 days at sea. Mr. Francis served on the Board of Overseers of the New Jersey Institute of Technology for five years, where he chaired its strategic planning committee. He is a trustee of the Rumson Country Day School and chair of its long-range planning committee. Mr. Francis graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with his BA from Middlebury College and received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Ralph James

Ralph James is the Executive Director of Executive Education at Harvard Business School. Prior to this he was the president and COO of The First Marblehead Corporation, a Boston firm specializing in student loan services which he grew from start up to over 200 employees and which is now listed on the NYSE with a value over $200m. Prior to this, James was associate dean and held various positions at HBS from 1982. He is currently an Independent Director of Simple Tuition and is involved with growing a number of small and innovative companies. Ralph received a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an M.B.A. from HBS.

Jim Southern

Mr. Southern manages a personal portfolio of private equity investments in small to medium sized companies and has or has had investments in 47 search funds. Prior to search fund investing, Mr. Southern was himself a beneficiary of search fund investors early in his career. His first search resulted in the acquisition of Uniform Printing, a $43 million printer of specialty insurance forms and documents, where he served as its chairman and CEO for 10 years. He sold the company, yielding a 60% IRR to its investors. Mr. Southern also served as Chairman and CEO of Continental Fire & Safety Services, a privately held company providing fire safety services to commercial and industrial customers in the mid-Atlantic market. He serves or has served on the boards of eleven privately held companies and several not-for-profit foundations. Mr. Southern received a BA from Southwestern University and MBA from Harvard Business School.

Steve Hollis

Steve Hollis is the European Head of Markets for KPMG, the international accounting firm. Steve has served as a Partner since 1992 and held various senior roles in KPMG since originally joining in 1983. Steve is a specialist in tax and corporate finance but has spent the last decade focusing on heading up marketing for KPMG and mentoring a number of successful executives and entrepreneurs a role he performs with Paul Thomson at Scottish American. He is a qualified chartered accountant. Steve is also a successful property developer and owner in both the UK and US.

Michael O’Connell

Michael O’Connell is currently the managing director of M2O Investments, a family investment fund. He was formerly the managing director and president of Anhalt, O’Connell & Steffanci, Inc., an investment management firm specializing in debt securities with $1 billion under management. Prior to his time in investment management, Mr. O’Connell owned and operated the National Lines Bureau, the ship mooring company for the Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbors. He is currently an investor in over 20 private companies. Mr. O’Connell received a BA, with high honors, from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Sandro Mina

Mr. Mina is a co-founding Managing Director of Sverica International and is based in the Boston office. He currently serves on several portfolio company boards including Creative Catalog Concepts, I-Coat Company, Ackerman Security Systems and Magellan’s. Mr. Mina also serves on the board of the Swedish School of Boston. He was previously President and CEO of Cameraworld.com, one of Sverica’s pre-fund portfolio companies.

In earlier careers, Mr. Mina worked in the public and private sectors in a number of industries, including technology (United Nations Computing Centre and Storage Technology), banking (Citibank, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and VISA) and telecommunications (consultant for a large European company).

A native of Italy and Sweden, Mr. Mina earned his BSc degree in Computer Engineering from Imperial College at the University of London and his MBA degree at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He lives in Boston with his wife and two children.

Steve Wheelwright

Steve Wheelwright is the President of BYU Hawaii. Previously, he was a Harvard Business School professor and Senior Associate Dean responsible for HBS publications. He also served as the Senior Associate Dean responsible for the MBA program at HBS. He has authored numerous books and publications with particular emphasis on strategy and operations.

David Lazier

Mr. Lazier is the Co-President of Nelson Nameplate, a rapid prototyping and engineering support company based in Los Angeles, California. Prior to joining Nelson, Mr. Lazier functioned as an Engineer with IBM Corporation from 1982-1984. He is currently on the board of American Security Products, Columbia Sanitary Products, Glendale Memorial Hospital Foundation and the San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity. Mr. Lazier received his Bachelors degree in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University.

Tom Cassutt

Mr. Cassutt is the Co-President of Nelson Nameplate, a rapid prototyping and engineering support company based in Los Angeles, California. Prior to joining Nelson, Mr. Cassutt functioned as the Controller of Bristol Corporation from 1978-1984. He currently sits on the board of American Security Products and Columbia Sanitary Products. Mr. Cassutt received his Bachelors degree in Physics from the University of California, Irvine and his M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

Paul D. Rogers – HV Capital

Paul Rogers is currently a Partner at HV Capital Investors, LLC and RHV Capital, LLC, which focus on debt and equity investments in private companies. Prior to that, Paul worked for 22 years in the financial services industry with CIBC and its predecessor company, Wood Gundy Inc. From 1999 to 2004, Paul was President of CIBC World Markets Corp., the US investment banking subsidiary of CIBC. In this capacity, Paul was responsible for all of the US businesses of CIBC World Markets. Paul earned a B.Sc. Honours degree in Mathematics and Physics from the Royal Military College of Canada and also received an MBA with high distinction from Harvard Business School. Paul is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program for Applied Physics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and recently received an M.Sc. degree in Applied Physics from NJIT.

Glenn Healey – HV Capital

Glenn has managed nine different companies over the last 22 years ranging in size from $2 million to $90 million in revenue. He completed 45 transactions at those companies, including acquisitions, financings and divestitures. Glenn is a Director of Continental Fire & Safety Services, LLC and Wind River Environmental, LLC. Glenn is a Certified Public Accountant and a graduate of the Harvard Business School and the University of Missouri.

Cambria Group

The Cambria Group is a private investment company, which acquires and invests in small and mid-sized businesses – generally, quality businesses with established operating histories, and typically with revenues of under $50 million. Cambria has completed over 25 investments since its founding in 1996, investing across a wide range of industries, including the low-tech manufacturing, distribution and service sectors. The firm differentiates itself in two ways – first, in that each of the firm’s three principals has both operating and financial experience, and, second, in that principals provide the majority of the equity for each transaction personally. These distinctions allow the firm to add value both in the acquisition effort and in building value in the companies in which it invests; to make decisions quickly and without uncertainty as to its source of capital; and to accommodate a long-term perspective with respect to building shareholder value and seeking liquidity.

JCP Capital

Based in Salt Lake City, UT, Peterson Ventures is an investment firm that seeks to partner with outstanding entrepreneurs and founders of great companies. They make investments across all stages of a company’s growth. Specifically, they invest in search funds, seed- and early-stage companies, and small, later-stage companies that have revenues less than $10 million and positive EBITDA. They have invested in some of the world’s leading companies like Asurion and JetBlue.