Board Leadership in the Midst of Chaos and Turbulence

Overview

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Speakers

Edward R Waters Seasoned Financial Executive

Ed Waters is a seasoned financial executive with a career spanning more than three decades.

Over the years Ed has held key leadership positions in several prominent organizations in Cleveland, Ohio, including the Chief Financial Officer of Merit Brass Company and Director of Strategic Initiatives for Brennan Industries.

Ed has extensive experience in establishing strategic partnerships to drive company revenue, decrease costs, improve operations, manage risk, and maximize profitability. He is now a partner in B2B CFO, an award-winning partnership with over 180 offices across the country.   Ed also has tax practice and is a member of the University Hospitals Diamond Advisory Group. 

Harold O. ("Hal") Maxfield, Jr. Shareholder & Member of the Board of Directors

Hal has 35 years of experience in all aspects of corporate and real estate business practices. Hal’s corporate experience includes contract negotiation and preparation, tax planning, mergers, acquisitions, and related transactions. He represents public and privately-held companies, individuals, and numerous non-profit organizations on a wide variety of legal issues, which include choice of entity, financing, venture capital equity investment, management buy-outs, executive compensation, and corporate succession planning.

Hal’s real estate experience includes purchases, sales, financing, zoning, construction, environmental, development, joint ventures, and like-kind exchanges. He also represents banks and borrowers in financing transactions, landlords and tenants in office, industrial, and retail transactions, and owners in all aspects of real estate law.

He is an active member in the Ohio Bar Association and the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and has been named an Ohio Super Lawyer by Law & Politics. He is also included in the 2021 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America©. For over twenty-five years, Hal has been co-editor of the Ohio Transaction Guide, published by Mathew Bender & Co. and Rabkin and Johnson Current Legal Forms.

Hal joined Cavitch in 1986 after he attained his Juris Doctor degree (cum laude) from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1986 and his Bachelor of Arts degree from Baldwin-Wallace in 1983 with a concentration in accounting. While he was attending law school, Hal was a member of the Cleveland-Marshall College Law Review.

Cheryl Strom Partner, Originiation The Riverside Company

Cheryl is a highly experienced private equity professional who brings depth of capital choices to advisors, business owners and management teams. Her experience spans growth capital, non-control capital, majority-stake equity investments, and full acquisitions, as well as debt for companies ranging in size from small businesses to the middle-market. With 22 years of private equity and capital raising experience, today Cheryl leads the firm’s Origination initiatives with deal source firms and referral sources based throughout the Midwestern United States. Cheryl works with a team of 18 Origination professionals across North America to establish new stand-alone companies, or platform companies, for Riverside. In addition, she originates add-on acquisitions for Riverside’s many portfolio companies in order to help these companies expand and grow by adding new product lines or service offerings, or expanding their geographies.

Prior to arriving at Riverside in 2006, she worked in Debt Capital Markets at National City (now PNC), structuring and originating senior debt facilities for companies requiring more than $50 million. Cheryl earned her MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, and BA from John Carroll University.

Jim Marra Blue Point Capital Partners

Jim joined Blue Point Capital Partners in 1991. Before joining the group, Jim held various positions with Citicorp in the Leveraged Capital, Investment Banking and Venture Capital Groups. Jim earned a B.S. in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh.

Jonathan Dominy Bernstein

Jonathan Dominy is a Vice President in the Cleveland office of Bernstein. He advises high-net-worth families and institutions, as well as their respective trusts, estates, foundations, endowments and pension plans, and works closely with his clients’ trusted tax and legal advisors on a wide range of matters, including tax and estate planning, concentrated stock positions and the sale of privately held businesses. 

Prior to joining Bernstein, Jon worked with nonprofit and other institutional clients as part of PNC Institutional Asset Management and with asset management firm Invesco. Jon attended Miami University where he majored in finance and received his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with a concentration in finance and strategic management. Jon is a CFA Charterholder. He currently serves as Board President of CFA Society Cleveland, Board Chair at BRITE Cleveland, on the Investment Committee for the Western Reserve Historical Society, and on the Women of Distinction Selection Committee for Girl Scouts of North East Ohio.

Mike Ryan Managing Partner The M. Ryan Group

Mike is the founder, and Managing Partner of The M. Ryan Group, a supply chain consultancy for middle market manufacturers and distributors. He is known for his ability to quickly break down complex supply chain problems and identify actions to generate cash, improve EBIDTA, and create repeatable and consistent results. 

Mike’s experience includes roles where he has driven organizational change, working closely with private equity operating partners and portfolio company leadership. Prior to founding his consulting firm in 2016, he held global supply chain and operations leadership roles based on collaboration between Sales, Finance, Supply Chain and Manufacturing with General Electric and Goodyear. 

William Hartley Parker, CT Executive in Residence Ubiz Venture Capital &  Urban League's Business Growth Institute

Current Roles

• In January 2023, Parker was appointed as the Executive in Residence for Ubiz Venture Capital and the Urban League’s Business Growth Institute. His role is to develop business health assessments and operating plans that lead to revenue and profit growth, investment opportunities and value creation.
• Chief Revenue and Restructuring Officer for Parker Revenue Growth Strategies. The firm develops and executes revenue growth plans, turnaround, and restructuring strategies along with intelligent business exit strategies for privately owned companies with revenues up to $100.0M that are in an undermanaged or underperforming state.

Private Equity Portfolio Companies

• Recruited by Oracle Partners, a large healthcare private equity firm to serve as the Chief Operating Officer for Pharmaca, Integrative Pharmacy, an alternative healthcare retailer based in Boulder, Colorado
• Created Jeanomix, a new and innovative premium brand denim and contemporary sportswear for men and women. William’s business plan, private placement memorandum and valuation plan enabled him to raise $10.0M in growth capital to open five stores with a unique and award-winning store design.
• Served as the ‘CEO in Residence’ for Charterhouse Capital; presented a non-binding letter of intent to a business owner for the acquisition of a highly profitable and growth beauty company for $19.0M. 

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