Corporate Executive Series Breakfast - M&A Transactions: Learnings and Lessons from the C-level

Sam Kazdal is a Managing Director in the Emerging Growth and Regional Coverage Investment Banking group at Bank of America Securities. Sam has multi-industry experience with primary responsibilities including the execution of mergers and acquisitions, SPACs, IPOs, debt financings and private capital raises.  Sam has been with Bank of America since 2013. Prior to joining the bank, he held positions at Nomura Securities and J.P. Morgan. Sam holds a B.S. from The University of Washington, a M.A in International Economics and Politics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia Business School.  Sam currently lives in Denver, CO with his wife and three children.

Heidi is a nationally recognized thought leader and executive in dentistry, specifically dental service organizations (DSO).  As a founder/owner and a CEO, she led two companies through successful transactions and equity sales in the past two years.  Heidi has spent over 20 years working in a dental group/DSO setting and is passionate about supporting clinicians, owners, and investors to match clinical and business success.

John Givens is Founder & former CEO of Source Office & Technology, one of Colorado’s top independent office products dealers. As Founder, he led Source to sales of $40+ million in 2019 and working toward a full recovery post pandemic. 

Source has been recognized as one of Colorado’s top 50 privately held companies, nationally ranked as an INC. 500 Company and a member of Colorado’s “Top 50 Companies to Watch- 2010”.  Mr. Givens is a frequent speaker and panelist at various industry events and has been quoted in many trade publications regarding the trends and future of the office products industry.

Prior to starting Source, John spent 9 years with Lanier Business Products. His professional career began as an account Manager in Lakeland, Florida, a National Sales Trainer in Atlanta, Georgia and Sales Manager in Denver, Colorado.

John holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA.  John is a member of Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church in Golden and Rolling Hills Country Club.  He is an avid golfer and skier who enjoys exercising at the local Rec center.  He has been married to Maria for 40 years and has one son, Coleman a CU Leeds Business School graduate, who is a Senior Account Executive at Source. 

Peter Melby is the CEO of Denver-based IT and cybersecurity provider, Greystone Technology. Greystone is a six-time Inc. 5000 honoree and a seven-time Top Workplace winner with over 100 team members.  Peter has been named one of Colorado's Top 25 CEOs, DBJ 40 Under 40, Titan 100, and a ChannelPro 20/20 visionary. His leadership at Greystone has led to 18 consecutive years of growth and a recent private-equity investment from Oval Partners in Palo Alto, CA. Peter speaks globally on topics related to scaling successful culture, disrupting traditional IT ineffectiveness, and common-sense cyber security. He is a board member of Bayaud Enterprises and an equity shareholder in New Charter Technologies, an investment group focusing on building the caliber of IT company the industry has not yet seen.

Kathleen Neuheardt is a CFO who, throughout her career, has worked with CEOs to strategize, execute, and optimize organizations for smart expansion and efficient valuation creation through M&A. Kathleen believes the full scope of M&A (target, diligence, structure, integration, cutover) offers an efficient means of accelerating scaling with embedded quick wins for shorter horizon optimization. Kathleen is currently CFO with QuickBox, a Denver based logistics company that recently closed on an acquisition that will add >50% to existing operations. Previously, she served as CFO for (now) BKV Corp and helped lead the organization’s growth from managing a singular passive natural gas investment to directly operating the majority of the company’s assets (achieving >10 times growth within 4 years), obtained primarily through extensive M&A activity. Kathleen’s earlier career was as an auditor and leader with KPMG-Houston, successfully serving and advising the office’s most transactional clients (>$1 billion in transactions) for more than a decade. In her spare time, Kathleen enjoys spending time with her children, supporting their sports activities, and biking neighborhood trails. Kathleen graduated with a BS – Accounting from Montana State University and passed the CPA exam upon graduation.