Mastering the Art of M&A

Jeff Hawkins is partner and director of CRI's Transaction Advisory Services. Jeff is CPA and focuses all of his time on assisting clients with sell-side or buy-side diligence and consulting needs. He focuses exclusively on middle to lower-middle market buyers and sellers and takes a white glove approach of helping client solve some of their most complex problems will seamlessly integrating into the overall deal team.

Sara specializes in owner representation in the small to middle market with light manufacturing, distribution and select service companies primarily in the southeast. She is heavily involved in the firm’s valuation services. Sara’s M&A expertise has led her to be a guest speaker for talk radio shows, M&A Source and IBBA Conference as both speaker and trainer.

As Managing Partner, Mike Lonergan works with Georgia Oak’s partner companies to help drive value creation through revenue growth and acquisition strategies, while also evaluating new investment opportunities.

Mike started Georgia Oak with a philosophy built for the business owner who is deeply passionate about their legacy and the success of the organizational family that helped propel their business to new levels.

Prior to founding Georgia Oak, Mike was Vice President of Private Equity for Strategic Value Partners (SVP), a global hedge fund. He was also with Sun European Partners in London and Sun Capital Partners in Boca Raton, Fla. Sun Capital is one of the world’s most active turnaround private equity investors. While at Sun Capital, he evaluated and facilitated control buyout investments.

Early in his career, Mike worked at the Atlanta offices of Houlihan Lokey and Wells Fargo’s asset-based lending group (legacy Wachovia Bank).

Mike received a B.B.A., cum laude, in Finance and Management from the Terry College of Business at The University of Georgia. In 2018, he was selected by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as a 40 Under Forty Honoree and by The M&A Advisor as an Emerging Leaders Award Winner.

Peter Mangal began his illustrious career in finance, working his way quickly up the corporate ladder with several billion-dollar companies in the 80s’ and 90s’. Peter’s experience includes several years of senior financial, sales, operations and IT management roles with manufacturing, distribution, and logistics companies. He has held CFO and COO positions in major international companies.

Most recently Peter worked as a Management Consultant specializing in turnaround situations of small to medium size companies, assisting his clients with their exit strategies or reorganization of their businesses. He has assumed C level positions in his client companies where he has taken over management control to achieve the goal of the consulting assignment. Peter holds a BSc degree from City University of New York majoring in Accounting, and an MBA from Long Island University. Peter has been involved in several successful business acquisitions in his career.

Six years ago, after three failed attempts at retiring, he acquired The Flag Company, an Atlanta based distributor of flags, beacons, poles and flag accessories. He transformed the business from a distribution-only model to a highly profitable manufacturing and distribution company, selling it in late 2023.

Peter is now fully retired and looks forward to being a fulltime grandfather.

Drew Miller is the Director of Corporate Development for Applied Technical Services, a leading Testing, Inspection, and Certification (“TIC”) services provider based in Marietta, Georgia. Since joining the company, Drew has played a key role in sourcing and executing acquisitions, with the ATS team completing 14 transactions in 2023.

Prior to ATS, Drew served as a Manager at PwC as an M&A advisor to Private Equity firms and portfolio companies. Additionally, he has held engineering operational roles at Chevron and Axip Energy Services.

Drew is a proud graduate of both Vanderbilt University (MBA) and Texas A&M University (BS, Chemical Engineering). Currently, he resides in Dunwoody, GA, with his wife and three kids.