Plotting Your Company’s Future Through a Strategic Sale: A Family Business Case Study

Frank Ciatto (B’88, L’94) is a corporate partner in the D.C. and New York offices of Venable LLP. Frank is a business attorney who assists entrepreneurs with existing and new business ventures. His legal knowledge and practical experience are important in helping owners and investors realize the full value of their ideas and investments. Frank focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate and partnership structuring, limited liability companies, private equity investments, tax and accounting issues and succession planning. He has closed over 200 deals in his career in various industries, including professional services, technology, manufacturing, insurance, food services, automobile dealerships and financial services. Frank majored in accounting at Georgetown, earned his CPA and worked for three years at Coopers & Lybrand before returning to Georgetown for law school.

Frank was the President of the Georgetown Alumni Association (“GUAA”) and member of the Board of Directors of Georgetown University from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2022. He has served in various capacities on the GUAA Board of Governors, including Treasurer from 2014 to 2018.

Frank met his wife Deanne Collins Ciatto at Georgetown and they have three daughters, Sophia (Georgetown College Class of 2021), Francesca (College of the Holy Cross Class of 2024) and Julianna (Georgetown School of Nursing Class of 2026).

Stephen Krooth was the CEO of Dominion Electric Supply Company, a third-generation electrical supply business located in the DMV for the last 84 years. Stephen led the recent sale of the Company to Border States Electric, a 100% employee-owned company. At the time of the sale, Dominion was listed as one of the largest private companies in the DMV (51) and one of the largest electrical supply companies in the nation (40). At the time of the sale, Dominion had approximately $370,000,000 in revenue and about 325 employees.

Prior to joining Dominion, Stephen spent over a decade working in the Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities business in NYC, most recently as a Managing Director at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Stephen led billions of dollars' worth of transactions, including many individual transactions worth billions. Prior to joining Wall Street, Stephen practiced commercial real estate law at some of the most prestigious law firms in NYC.

Currently Chairman & Partner at ArkMalibu, Rene previously served as president and CEO at Layne Christensen and NS Group, Managing Director at Salomon Smith Barney, and a Principal in Corporate Finance at Morgan Stanley based in New York. Rene has helped hundreds of companies with capital raising and strategic transactions involving many industrial and natural resource companies around the world.

Liz Stieff focuses her practice on tax advisory and planning matters for domestic entities and individuals. Liz regularly provides transactional tax advice on a range of matters, including mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, private equity transactions, and fund formation. She also works with clients on business formation and operational issues, including choice of entity, capital raises, equity incentive planning, and the like. In addition, she has experience working with clients to structure investments and transactions involving real estate investment trusts and qualified opportunity zone funds.