State of M&A: Look Back at 2019, Forecast of 2020

Stanley "Stash" Jacobs, Jr. is a corporate and securities lawyer based in Greenberg Traurig’s Fort Lauderdale office who focuses his practice on a broad range of transactional matters.  Stash regularly counsels domestic and foreign private equity funds, family offices, venture capital funds and other investors in a range of M&A transactions, investment transactions and other transactions.  Stash regularly counsels private and public companies, entrepreneurs and family owned businesses in all aspects of transactional work from formation and capitalization through sale.  Stash is a frequent speaker and contributor on mergers and acquisitions and other corporate and securities matters.

James Cassel, chairman and co-founder of Cassel Salpeter & Co., is an investment banker who uses his unique experience as a dealmaker and attorney to guide clients and help them achieve their goals.

Focused on representing middle-market companies, Jim has successfully negotiated, structured, and executed a broad spectrum of transactions including mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, corporate and transactional financings, and public offerings for clients nationwide and worldwide. 

Nationally recognized for his investment banking expertise, Jim frequently lectures on timely issues related to middle-market investment banking.

Mr. Mirheydar joined Trivest in 2014.  He is responsible for the analysis of investment opportunities, identification of strategic acquisition targets and monitoring of existing portfolio companies.  Mr. Mirheydar was a Senior Associate at Sun Capital Partners where he spent nearly five years screening and executing middle market transactions across a wide range of industries as well as handling portfolio company responsibilities.  Prior to Sun Capital, he was a Senior Analyst at Brown Gibbons Lang & Co., where he focused on mergers & acquisitions, refinancings and restructuring transactions.  Mr. Mirheydar received a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences from Northwestern University. He is a CFA charterholder.

Erik Toth is a founding partner of Larx Advisors. He has more than 17 years of experience working in, advising and supporting businesses across aerospace & defense, government contracting, entertainment, gaming, manufacturing, consumer products, retail, restaurants, healthcare, and technology industry sectors.  Prior to starting Larx Advisors, Mr. Toth was the divisional CFO for a reporting segment of DynCorp International where he was responsible for the financial oversight of the $1.2B DynAviation portfolio of 30+ contracts with 7,000+ employees and subcontractors in 18 countries.  Mr. Toth is also the owner of Fall River Ventures, a private investment firm which owns businesses in Texas, California, and Hawaii where he is responsible for portfolio company operational oversight and strategy.  Before starting Fall River Ventures, Mr. Toth was a Director of Corporate Finance with FTI Consulting, Inc., a global financial consulting company, where he helped lead successful turnarounds, supported private equity-backed transactions, and advised financial institutions. Prior to FTI, Mr. Toth worked in the aerospace and defense industry as a mechanical systems engineer for the NASA space shuttle program, and he also worked in the Middle Market Business Strategy group at Dell Inc.  Mr. Toth holds an M.B.A. and a B.S. in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M University. He is a certified insolvency and restructuring advisor (CIRA) and holds a certification in distressed business valuation (CDBV).