Fine-Tuning Your Acquisition Engine

Matt is a Shareholder at Doeren Mayhew leading the firm’s business development and strategic initiatives. Drawing upon more than 20 years of business development experience, he collaborates with the firm’s professionals across all industry and technical disciplines to develop and nurture relationships with existing and potential clients, as well as the external professional community that serves them.

Leveraging his wealth management and growth initiatives experience, Matt is able to offer a unique perspective to business owners. Prior to joining the firm, he worked for Telemus Capital Partners, LLC as a Managing Director providing guidance to businesses and individuals to help them with their investment decisions. Previous to that, Matthew was an Investment Banker advising middle-market companies on divestitures, mergers and acquisitions and financing for Deloitte.

Patrick G. Fenton is the Managing Principal of the Fenton Development Group, a family office that controls assets focused on real estate development, construction, digital educational content distribution, composite molding, and marine products. Patrick was the Chief Executive Officer and President of Rainbow Child Care Center (Rainbow) until its sale to Kinder Care in 2018. Before founding Rainbow, Patrick worked at Price Water House where he utilized and enhanced his management and accounting skills.

Since 2011, Patrick has been a member of the Board of Directors for RedShelf, Inc., a cloud-based eReader technology company based in Chicago, IL. Patrick is a managing partner of 814 CRE, a real estate development and investment firm as well as National Composites, a composite plastics component solutions roll-up comprising companies in Owosso and Holt Michigan, Joplin Missouri, and Wyoming Minnesota. He held the position of Managing Partner of Crest Marine, a pontoon boat manufacturer, from 2010 until its sale in October 2018, and he is a partner in Covington Partners, a private equity investment firm. Patrick serves as a board member on two of Covington Partners’ portfolio companies: Grand Traverse Plastics Corp., a high precision plastic molding company; and, Onodi Tool & Engineering, Inc., a manufacturer of large metal assemblies to defense sector prime contractors.

Pat serves as a Board Member on The Michigan Thanksgiving Parade Foundation and has been an active member of The Distinguished Clown Corp. for the past 20 years.

Patrick earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from Western Michigan University.

Aaron Partridge is a Shareholder at Doeren Mayhew. Since joining the firm in 2000, he has worked closely with construction, manufacturing, service and retail clients to oversee their assurance engagements. Clients benefit from Aaron’s expertise, as he is able to quickly and effectively review financial statements, forecast financial progress and provide recommendations that clients can apply to their financial processes.

In addition to providing financial reporting guidance to clients, Aaron draws on his accounting knowledge to lead buy-side advisory engagements for clients going through the merger and acquisition process. Having advised on transactions ranging from $5 million to $300 million in size, Aaron has a keen knowledge of the common areas causing transactions to fall apart. His proactive approach helps to ensure transactions close quickly and efficiently.

Aaron also serves as a leader in the firm’s educational program and sits on the board of several firm committees.

Bill is a Member of Dickinson Wright PLLC and has been representing buyers and sellers of businesses for over 25 years. As a trusted advisor and experienced negotiator, Bill has successfully closed an extensive list of M&A transactions across a broad spectrum of industries including automotive, snack food, manufactured homes, healthcare and consulting, among others. Typical deal values range in size from a few million dollars to several hundred million dollars.

John Stewart is the Founder of the private equity firm, Middle Ground Capital. MiddleGround was formed in May 2018 by John and his two partners. John and his team have grown MiddleGround to over $2.7B of Assets Under Management and 43 employees in just 3 years. MiddleGround invests in mid-market industrial B2B and specialty distribution businesses headquartered in North America. MiddleGround Capital is headquartered in Lexington, Ky and has an office in New York City.