ACG Boston Announces John E. Surrette, Jr., KLR, as Chapter President, and Rudy Scarito, RS Finance & Consulting, LLC, as Chapter Vice President

BOSTON, MA – September 18, 2020 – ACG Boston, the Boston Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), has announced John E. Surrette, Jr., Partner, Chair, Private Equity and Venture Capital Services Group, KLR, as chapter President, beginning in September 2020. John takes over the presidency from David Clark, Managing Director, Raymond James & Associates. The ACG Boston board also announced Rudy Scarito, Founder & President, RS Finance & Consulting, LLC, as chapter Vice President. In this position, Rudy will work closely with John to help drive the mission and initiatives of the chapter.

“ACG has been instrumental in helping me grow both personally and professionally since first getting involved approximately 10 years ago,” said John Surrette, Jr., President, ACG Boston. “The partnerships and friendships I have developed over that time, with both the general membership and my fellow Board members, have been a key factor to my professional success. I couldn’t be happier to have the opportunity to continue to work with such a great group as we continue to evolve and develop new offerings to deliver value to our membership. The Boston chapter has flourished under David’s leadership, and we were fortunate to have his steady vision for innovation and growth, especially during the last several months of the pandemic. We thank him for his commitment to ACG Boston.”

ACG Boston board has also elected two new members to its Board of Directors, further strengthening the chapter’s leadership in supporting important strategic initiatives for the organization. The new board members are: Christina Pai, Partner, Fort Point Capital, and Lewis N. Segall, Partner, Sullivan & Worcester.

ACG Boston serves over 500 New England members who are directly involved in M&A transactions – including private equity investors, intermediaries, corporate development professionals, family offices, lenders and M&A service providers – and is dedicated to helping middle-market M&A professionals build and maintain trusted and productive relationships through membership and event opportunities.

Background – ACG Boston’s New Board Members

John E. Surrette, Jr., CPA, CFE, CM&AA – Partner, Chair, Private Equity and Venture Capital Services Group, KLR
Mr. Surrette chairs KLR’s Private Equity and Venture Capital Services Group and is also Chair of the firm’s Renewable Energy Services Group.  He has a wide range of audit and consulting experience in a variety of industries including healthcare, renewable energy, technology and technology-enabled service companies, manufacturing and distribution. He works closely with private equity and venture capital firms in meeting both back office and Portfolio Company needs.  He is experienced in evaluating investment opportunities and providing hands on experience during the pre and post transaction process.  He has also spent a significant amount of time in the evaluation of internal controls and on forensic accounting engagements. 

Mr. Surrette is President of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Board of Directors and is also a board member of the Northeast Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA) and is chair of Rhode Island Chapter of TMA.  John was previously on the board of the New England Chapter of the Alliance of Mergers and Acquisition Advisors (AM&AA). 

John graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting in 1999 and obtained his Master’s in Business Administration in 2003, earning both degrees from the University of Rhode Island.  

Rudy Scarito – Founder & President, RS Finance & Consulting, LLC
Ms. Scarito has been an investment banker for over 20 years, working in both global, full-service firms as well as smaller, regional firms focused on middle-market companies. She founded RS Finance & Consulting, LLC in April 2009, and specializes in advising corporate clients on mergers, acquisitions, capital raising and corporate and financial strategy.

Ms. Scarito began her career at Lehman Brothers in New York in the firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions department. At Lehman Brothers and at subsequent firms Ms. Scarito represented a variety of corporate clients in the sale of their companies. She also assisted corporate buyers in identifying, evaluating and pursuing acquisition targets. Later in her tenure at Lehman Brothers, Ms. Scarito worked in Equity Capital Markets and Syndicate, where she completed over $9 billion of initial public offerings of equity and convertible securities. Following her experience at Lehman Brothers, Ms. Scarito moved to Goldman Sachs Asset Management where she gained additional public equity capital markets experience. In her position as Portfolio Analyst, Ms. Scarito identified, analyzed and recommended public company investment opportunities for GSAM’s equity portfolios.

After gaining experience on Wall Street, Ms. Scarito transitioned to the middle market to work with smaller, owner-operated companies. During her tenure in the middle market, Ms. Scarito managed the Private Capital groups of Tucker Anthony, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and Legacy Partners Group. Ms. Scarito has extensive experience originating, structuring and negotiating private placements of equity and debt.

Ms. Scarito is a member of the Board of Directors of Industrial Services of America, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDSA), a publicly traded scrap metal recycler and processor, and Fresh Truck, Inc., a non-profit, mobile green grocer that increases access to healthy foods within low-income Boston neighborhoods. Ms. Scarito previously served on the Board of Directors of Ambient Corporation (NASDAQ: AMBT), a publicly traded networking communications and technology company, and Material Sampling Technologies, LLC, a private recycler of precious metals.

Ms. Scarito has served as an expert witness on business valuations and on capital markets matters.

Ms. Scarito holds her Series 7, 24, 63 and 79 securities licenses. She is a registered principal with M&A Securities Group, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC. M&A Securities Group, Inc. and RS Finance & Consulting, LLC are not affiliated.

Ms. Scarito graduated from Dartmouth College, cum laude, and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Christina Pai – Partner, Fort Point Capital
Christina is a Partner at Fort Point Capital, a private equity firm focused on investing in promising, business services companies in the lower middle market. Since joining Fort Point in 2011, she has been responsible for sourcing, evaluating and executing investments, as well as driving value creation initiatives for her portfolio companies in the tech-enabled business services, software and transportation/logistics industries. Christina currently serves as the Chair of the Board for AMS Fulfillment and Barrington Media Group and was the former Chair of WolfePak Software and Van Pool Transportation; she also currently serves on the boards of Eventlink and Sullivans.

Prior to joining Fort Point, Christina was a principal at Swift River Investments in Boston and an associate at FdG Associates. She started her career at JPMorgan, focusing on mergers and acquisitions as well as debt and equity capital raises. Christina has a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College. She is an avid Boston and fantasy sports enthusiast and enjoys traveling, fishing for bass and eating at interesting restaurants.

Lewis N. Segall – Partner, Sullivan & Worcester
Lew is the director of Sullivan's Corporate Department. His practice is focused on a number of transactional areas. He regularly represents public and private companies in equity and debt financings, joint ventures, domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate matters. Lew also represents financial institutions in secured and unsecured credit facilities. His clients consist of major financial institutions, private equity groups, family-owned businesses, family offices and other investors, as well as emerging and established companies engaged in a variety of industries, including renewable energy, advertising, health care, communications, manufacturing and software.

Lew is the author of Mergers & Acquisitions: A Step-by-Step Legal and Practical Guide (2nd edition) (Wiley), which he co-authored with Edwin L. Miller, Jr.