Lunch and Learn: Driving Business Value Series - August

Mark is CEO and Managing Partner at Plymouth Growth Partners. He joined Plymouth as an investor and advisor in 2005 as an outgrowth of his long term friendship with Ian Bund, Plymouth’s founder, and took over primary leadership of the firm in 2007. Over the past 10 years, Mark has built the firm, driven investment strategy and attracted a strong team of professionals who know how to work collaboratively with entrepreneurs to successfully grow equity value and harvest strong returns.

Mark sourced, closed and exited several successful deals in Funds I & II, including Guidepoint Systems, American Broadband & Telephone, Pump Engineering and Lynx Network Group. He currently serves on the board of several Plymouth portfolio companies, as well as the Michigan Venture Capital Association.

Having begun his career with Price Waterhouse in Toronto, Mark worked for 20 years as the Chief Financial Officer of several privately-held growth stage businesses, ranging in size from $10 to $150 million. He is a former NJ licensed CPA.

Mark holds an M.B.A. from Widener University and a B.B.A in Business Administration from Cedarville University.

Julie Langdon is a Director in Corporate Finance for Prudential Capital Group, located in Chicago. She is part of a team responsible for marketing, originating and managing private placement and mezzanine investments in Michigan and Wisconsin. She joined Prudential in 2013. Julie received a BS from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

Mr. Lewis brings 20 years of private equity investing, investment banking and operational experience to the firm, including involvement in approximately $8 billion in transaction and advisory assignments.  He has an extensive background in mergers & acquisitions and capital raising, including asset-based, senior cash flow, mezzanine and unitranche debt, and public and private equity offerings.

Mr. Lewis began his career in investment banking with Banc of America Securities in New York City.   While working in the firm’s Global Industrials and Services Group, Mr. Lewis assisted middle market and Fortune 500 clients with mergers, acquisitions and divestitures and capital-raising transactions. At Banc of America Securities, Mr. Lewis’ clients operated in a wide array of industries such as aerospace and defense, automotive, business services, chemicals, general manufacturing, metals and mining, paper/packaging, and transportation and logistics.  

After Banc of America Securities, Mr. Lewis served as a private equity investor and/or advisor with Michigan-based Bainbridge Ventures and Chicago-based Winona Capital Management, specializing in working with and investing in growth-oriented lower and middle market companies.  During his tenure with both firms, he focused on a variety of industries, including healthcare, business and consumer services, niche manufacturing, and consumer products and retail. 
  
Following his time at Winona Capital and Bainbridge Ventures, Mr. Lewis was a vice president with Goense & Company, a Chicago-based private equity firm that invests exclusively in labor-based service businesses.  In addition, Mr. Lewis previously held an operating role as a vice president of acquisitions and business development with a healthcare services company providing care for patients along the post-acute care continuum. 

Over the course of his career, Mr. Lewis’ responsibilities have included sourcing and evaluating potential investments and acquisitions and divestitures, structuring and executing transactions, leading due diligence activities, negotiating transaction agreements, and managing portfolio company investments, including actively working with company leadership on numerous financings and acquisitions/divestitures.  Mr. Lewis has also played a significant role in assisting companies in operational enhancement initiatives, including managing operations on an interim basis and working with executives on general corporate strategy, marketing, labor and cost optimization, inventory and working capital management, as well as the implementation of operational and financial controls. 

Mr. Lewis graduated from Kalamazoo College with a B.A. in economics. He also holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and has studied at L’Ecole Superieure de Commerce in France.

Role: Doug is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, executing and managing investments made under the firm’s less-than-majority Flex Equity strategy.

Experience: Doug has extensive experience in the financial industry. Prior to Huron, Doug was the Managing Director of BMO Private Equity (U.S.), Inc. where he founded the junior capital, direct investing strategy in 2003. He was responsible for leading and managing a $300 million capital commitment focused on investing in middle-market businesses across a variety of industries. Doug started his banking career at American National Bank of Chicago (now part of J.P. Morgan Chase) where he had successive leadership positions in middle market commercial banking, investment banking and mezzanine finance. He started his career with Coopers and Lybrand in Chicago.

Education: A.B. degree in Management Science from Duke University; Masters of Management degree from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University