ACG St. Louis Women's Peer Group presents Corporate Growth through M&A

Karen Jordan is a partner in Dentons US LLP’s Corporate practice and also managing partner of the Firm’s St. Louis office.  She concentrates on advising corporate, municipal and financial institution clients in a wide range of corporate, finance and commercial transactions. Karen has been recognized as a Best Lawyer for Banking and Finance Law since 2020 and has completed transactions totaling in excess of US$5 billion.  Karen serves on the Board of Governors for the National Bar Association and is an active member of the Leadership Counsel for Legal Diversity, the Association for Corporate Growth, the National Association of Bond Lawyers and the National Association of Securities Professionals. 

Karen received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at the University of Missouri Trulaske College of Business.  Karen also received her Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri School of Law. 

Karen serves on the Board of Directors for the St. Louis Arc and the St. Louis County Library Foundation and is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

Jill Albitar is the Chief Financial Officer for Gillespie & Powers, a fifth-generation business that designs, installs, commissions, and repairs industrial incinerators, where she is improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. The company made its first acquisition in 2021. She previously served as the Chief Financial Officer of both The Phoenix Group and FoxPaw, Inc. where she directed a shared service team in the development of both organizations prior to selling the companies to new owners. Jill also oversaw the financial development of PBF Energy during its acquisitions of businesses and transition from a development stage entity to publicly held, Fortune 500 company.  Ms. Albitar previously served as Vice President of the private equity owned Armstrong Companies where she developed the financial organization from startup to active operations, Director of Premcor Refining where she created and improved financial operations while playing key roles in multiple acquisitions and key divestitures. Her initial professional experience includes 5 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Ms. Albitar is a fully licensed CPA in the State of Ohio.

Krishna Walker is a business partner, General Counsel, and facilitator of $10+ billion in commercial business transactions over 20 years. Today, she is the GC and part of the senior leadership team of CareVet, a rapidly growing veterinary practice management group with hospitals throughout the United States.

Throughout her career, Krishna has been relied on by corporate and functional leadership for long-term strategic advice on business operations, risk management, and compliance. Her focus is on helping businesses manage changing regulatory, economic, and market conditions, as well as shifts in corporate priorities.

Committed to the idea of the lawyer as a proactive, resourceful, and forward-looking adviser, Krishna is known for:

• Building corporate cultures of integrity and accountability,
• Understanding business and individual drivers, and
• Partnering across all functions and levels of seniority.

Although a corporate generalist, Krishna credits much of her success to her background in banking, financial services, corporate financing, and commercial lending—both as in-house counsel at Rabobank, a Tier 1 global bank with €590.437 billion in total assets, and as an associate at Bryan Cave, an AmLaw 100 law firm. Krishna has also been influenced by her pre-law school career as part of Bank of America’s Human Resources team. She remains committed to recruiting, retaining, and developing individuals so that the entire organization can grow and prosper.

An active community leader, Krishna has served on national and local nonprofit boards—including two years on the Board of Trustees of Ball State University. She is a proud alum of Notre Dame, Columbia, and Ball State. She has received numerous honors and awards, including a Zhi-Xing China Eisenhower Fellowship.

Kasey is the President and CEO at Quillt Media (formerly Gateway Blend). Quillt owns and operates a highly-curated portfolio of sites serving niche audiences: TravelAwaits, SeniorsMatter and GossipCop.

Prior to her role at Quillt, Kasey lead investment activity at Cultivation Capital, responsible for the fund's technology funds. Kasey was responsible for sourcing new investments, screening and evaluating them, and communicating them to Cultivation Capital's investors and general partners.

In June 2014, Cultivation Capital entered into a partnership with Prosper Women Entrepreneurs to launch a startup accelerator for women-led startups. Kasey Grelle was part of the founding team of this accelerator and will provide support via Cultivation Capital in the day-to-day operations.

Kasey graduated with her MBA from Olin School of Business, where she was the president of the entrepreneurship and venture capital association.

Kasey is active with YPO St. Louis. Prior to business school, she was a news anchor and reporter for the NBC stations in St. Louis and in Missoula, Montana. Kasey also started her own production company, Five Goblets Productions. Through the production company, she created a documentary on the Doolittle Tokyo Raid.