Fall M&D Symposium: Family Business & Investment Priorities in M&A

Jude Rake is the founding principal of JDR Growth Partners, a consulting 
firm that helps family-owned businesses, private Boards, chief executives, and their leadership teams achieve improved results and sustainable growth. Before founding JDR, Jude served in multiple C-level roles including CEO for eleven years in both private and public organizations. In each of these roles he built and led successful leadership teams that fueled significant improvements in workforce engagement, collaboration, accountability, and results. Jude is also the author of The Bridge to Growth: How Servant Leaders Achieve Better Results And Why It Matters Now More Than Ever.

Drew grew up in his family business (a systems integrator) went through a sale to Swisslog, stayed on as the head of sales for Swisslog for 7 years and then transitioned to Zone 4. He has had all 3 experiences (family owned, strategic, and PE).

Cathy Carroll learned about family business leadership the best way you can - by leading her family's business. After growing up around her grandfather's business, she pursued corporate career for twenty years before leaving United Airlines to lead her father's business. A leadership coach, coach trainer and author of "Hug of War: How to Lead a Family Business With both Love and Logic," she holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, a BA from Boston College, and she earned her Certificate in Leadership Coaching and her Certificate in Executive Facilitation at Georgetown University. She maintains a PCC (Professional Certified Coach) credential through the International Coaching Federation, serves as Vice-Chair of the board of the Purposeful Planning Institute, and Treasurer of A Leg to Stand On which provides prosthetic limbs to children in developing countries.

Helana Robbins Huddleston provides transaction and related advisory services to clients in a range of different industries. She has over 22 years of expertise in financial due diligence, restructuring, cash flow budgeting, financial auditing, internal control evaluation, and business process improvement. In addition to her role in transaction advisory, Helana is a member of the Firm's Private Equity and Venture Capital Industry Practice.

Omar Diaz has over 30 years of investment banking, management consulting and project engineering experience. Omar’s clients have included public, private equity-held and family owned businesses. His transaction experience includes M&A advisory, take-over defense advisory, fairness opinion mandates, capital raising and financial restructuring transactions on both the debtor and creditor sides. Previously, Omar was Head of Industrials and Chemicals at Seaport Global, Head of Industrials at Dresner Partners, a Managing Director focused on Industrials at Allegiance Capital and Head of Chemicals at Houlihan Lokey. Earlier in his investment banking career, he was a Vice President at Acquest Advisors, an Associate in J.P. Morgan's Mergers & Acquisitions group and an Associate in Bank of America’s Energy Corporate Finance Group. In addition, he was a Senior Consultant at Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group and a project engineer for Amoco. Omar is a member of the ACG Chicago Board of Directors, Chicago Latino Theater Association board and is active in several other organizations. Omar has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University. He graduated from the E.W. Kelley Graduate School of Business at Indiana University with an MBA in Finance

Charlie Denison, Managing Director of Shorehill Capital LLC, is a private equity investor with 13 years of investing experience. He is passionate about partnering with entrepreneurs and business owners to grow middle market industrial businesses. His investment efforts have been focused on industrial distribution and niche manufacturing. Charlie serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Flexpak, Vice Chairman of Board of Directors for Triad Technologies, Director for Functional Devices LLC, and previously served as Director of Power Grid Components. Prior to Shorehill Capital, Charlie was a Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group in their Corporate Development Practice. Charlie was a Principal at Adams Street Partners and a Senior Analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. He earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and holds a B.S. from the University of Colorado.

Justin Norman is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Alcrete LLC. (www.alctete.com). Alcrete is a manufacturer of precast concrete structures that operates from a corporate office in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois with manufacturing plants in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, and North Carolina. Alcrete’s products are primarily used for stormwater movement in new construction. Alcrete was started in 2021 when Justin purchased a precast concrete plant in Pell City, Alabama. This plant served as the initial platform to develop the Business Operating System by which future acquisition would operate. Add-on acquisitions have included Cape Fear Precast, LLC in Jacksonville, North Carolina (March 2023); American Concrete Industries, Inc. in Fort Pierce, Florida (March 2024); and Carter Concrete Products, LLC in Boaz, Kentucky (June 2024). Prior to Alcrete, Justin started JD Norman Industries, Inc. in November 2004 with the intention of acquiring and integrating metal component manufacturing companies. The Company’s manufacturing operations began after he completed the acquisition of John Amann Sons Company in Woodridge, Illinois in December 2004. Following the original transaction, JD Norman Industries acquired and integrated 11 additional companies including High Life Products, Inc.; the metal forming division of Minerallac Company; KL Industries, Inc.; the metal stamping division of Plastech Engineered Products, Inc.; HSM Industries de Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V.; Len Industries, Inc.; Federal-Mogul Windsor, Canada, Ltd.; Federal-Mogul Lydney, England, Ltd.; Eptec S.A. de C.V.; Henman Engineering & Machine, Inc.; and REGE Motorenteile GmbH. During his last year of ownership of JD Norman Industries, the company employed 2,000 team members amongst ten locations throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Romania. The Company sold products to major original equipment manufacturers of automotive, industrial and transportation products and recorded peak revenues of US $292M. Prior to JD Norman Industries, Justin worked in the Chicago office of Morgan Stanley & Co.’s Private Wealth Management division. The group focused on providing investment advice for ultra-high net worth individuals, families, and institutions. Justin completed his undergraduate studies with a BA in Business Administration from Taylor University in 1998. During his time at Taylor, Justin was a captain of the baseball team.