ACG NY VIP Corporate Development Officer Roundtable Series

Desiree Castillejos is the Chief Strategy officer and VP of Corporate Development at Kimball Electronics, a publicly traded diversified manufacturer that serves the Medical, Automotive, Industrial and Public Safety markets. She works with her peers to define the long-term strategy of the company and is responsible for its inorganic growth. She has over 15 years of experience working in corporate development and strategy in the technology industry and served most recently as Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Development, at Nokia.

Desiree received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a MSc and a BSc in Computer Engineering from the Université de Technologie de Compiègne in France.

Kim Clark Pakstys advises boards and executives through complex transactions - mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and restructures driving value and return on investment. She has led and overseen over 100 complex transactions and integration for the largest publicly traded corporations, VC/PE backed firms, mid-cap leaders, NGOs, and research institutes. She works across the deal lifecycle to frame vision, shape portfolios, align resources, mitigate risk, plan transitions, integrate businesses, and build platforms.  She founded, grew, and exited a strategy and operations advisory firm that served the upper middle-market and leading nonprofit, higher education, and public sector clients.

Ms. Clark Pakstys served as the Managing Director of Strategy and Transformation at BDO shaping and leading the advisory practice delivering transition planning, merger, restructure, post-merger integration services. She held executive leadership and corporate development roles at Kaplan, HCL Technologies, WANG / Getronics, and PRC, Inc.  At PwC, she created the Center for Performance Improvement and led global strategy and M&A engagements.

Ms. Clark Pakstys is a graduate of The Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University with a bachelor’s in business administration and holds a master’s degree from the School of Business at Marymount University.  She is an active board member and community leader.

Jonathan Parnell serves as Atlas’ Chief Strategy Officer. Mr. Parnell has been part of Atlas’ leadership team since 2019, primarily responsible for Atlas’ M&A and integration strategy and execution. Prior to joining Atlas, Mr. Parnell served as the Director of M&A and Integration at ATC. He has a broad background in M&A, integration, finance, operations management, and sales with large engineering and consulting firms. Mr. Parnell is a graduate of LSU with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration and holds an MBA from the University of Texas, McCombs School of Business.

Gen Oraa is a managing director with CohnReznick Transactions and Turnaround Advisory, who specializes in providing clients with transactional advisory services. Gen has led and executed due diligence for over 120 merger and acquisition transactions for strategic and private equity buyers and sellers. She has advised middle market clients on M&A transactions with purchase price ranging from $10 million to over $700 million. 

She has worked on transactions in various industries, including professional services, industrial/manufacturing, government contractors, aerospace and defense, distribution/logistics, corporate housing, media/online advertising, education, textile, retail, life science and health services, and business/staffing services. 
In addition to financial due diligence, she advised clients on transactions involving letter of interest, net working capital peg, purchase agreements, purchase price adjustments, debt and debt-like items, closing statements and other related assistance.

Prior to joining CohnReznick, Gen served in the transaction advisory services teams of BDO, KPMG, and Grant Thornton in the US. Her professional career began at Arthur Andersen, Philippines (now Ernst and Young), as an auditor and later worked on finance, accounting, and internal audit at a small conglomerate.