Committee

Amber is the Business and Client Development Director for BDO's Upper Midwest practice. With a focus on serving companies in the Upper Midwest Market, she helps clients navigate the ever-changing business and regulatory landscape. Amber ensures that clients have seamless access to BDO's network of technical and industry specialists. Her expertise and dedication empower clients to thrive in the rapidly evolving business environment.

Leah Berend serves as the Chief Financial and Chief Administrative Officer at Oxbow Industries, where she evaluates businesses across various industries, manages firm operations, and supports the company’s portfolio.

Leah’s qualifications include certification as a public accountant, as well as holding a Master of Science in Accountancy and a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership. She was recognized as a Top Women in Finance Honoree by Finance & Commerce in 2022 and is a member of various professional organizations, such as the Association for Corporate Growth, Team Women, Financial Executives International, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Minnesota Society of CPAs.

Chris Bixby is Managing Director of Venture Capital Strategies for Rice Park and is responsible for sourcing, underwriting, structuring and managing investments in early to mid-stage technology companies operating in the real estate-based finance, equity, services and payments sectors.

Chris has a diverse background having served both in investment and entrepreneurial roles. Prior to Rice Park, Chris was Vice President of Growth at Sezzle, a rapidly growing fintech, where he was focused on building strategic partnerships with enterprise retailers. He joined pre-IPO as Vice President of Marketing and led the successful rebranding efforts. Before Sezzle, Chris joined General Mills in brand management and later founded Collaborate Brands where he advised early-stage businesses in strategy, growth, and fundraising. Chris began his career on Wall Street, working as an investment banking analyst in mergers and acquisitions at Jefferies, LLC, and later as a private equity associate at Castle Harlan, a $1 billion fund, where he spent three years investing in middle-market private equity transactions.

Chris received his A.B from Bowdoin College, majoring in Economics and Government & Legal Studies. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 2014.

Prior to founding GrowthFire, Tim served as Board Member, CEO and senior Sales and Marketing executive for multiple companies across the technology industry. He’s passionate about transforming emerging stage companies into more successful companies. Tim earned his Finance undergraduate from The University of Missouri and MBA in Marketing from the Carlson School of Management. He’s earned industry credentials in Healthcare, Insurance, Manufacturing, and other industries.

Chris is a leading corporate finance attorney with a focus on mergers and acquisitions and emerging company/venture finance. He offers legal guidance to a diverse range of clients, including founders, entrepreneurs, venture capitalist and private equity funds, spanning from startups to established publicly held enterprises. These clients represent various industries, such as consumer products, software (including among other segments, fintech, insurtech and enterprise software), health care technology, professional and IT services, franchise, agriculture, branded products and industrials.

Brian Cronin is a Principal at Brightstar. Brian leads Brightstar’s business development strategy and is a Brightstar Sourcing Steering Committee Member. He serves on the Board of Oasis Technology & Engineering, a Brightstar portfolio company.

Prior to joining Brightstar, Brian was a managing member of BPC Capital and led direct investments by family offices in operating companies. He was primarily responsible for business development and execution of value-creation plans for portfolio companies, including operational improvements and revenue growth strategies.

Previously, Brian co-founded Prosperity Construction, LLC, a civil site work construction company, in 2009. In 2018, Brian merged the company into a premier general construction company headquartered in the Southeast, active in 13 states. Brian began his career as an analyst at SPB Partners in Las Vegas, a multi-family office, where he assisted with growth capital, restructuring, and management reorganization.

Brian has been a Young Presidents Organization (YPO) member since 2020. Brian received his MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University and his B.A. in History from Brigham Young University. He won a gold medal in the 2009 Summer Deaflympics in Taiwan as a member of Team USA basketball team.

Grant Goris is a third-generation entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Boon Logic. His career began in sales analytics upon earning a degree in finance from Bethel University. After working with and for several Fortune 500 organizations, including The Clorox Company, Target Corp, Best Buy, and WalMart, he pivoted to pursue being a part of something greater by building a software business in the machine-learning space. Today, servicing some of the largest organizations in the country and around the World with cutting edge AI solutions, Boon Logic is now home to 20+ of the most talent people in the AI industry and delivers unmatched industry solutions in predictive maintenance and quality assurance.

Insperity provides an array of human resources and business solutions designed to help improve business performance. We provide a wide range of business performance solutions, enabling business owners to be more systematic and strategic about the role people play in the success of a company.

Tamara joined USI as a Property & Casualty risk management consultant in 2017. She has 20 years of insurance industry experience. Tamara is responsible for the largest private equity practice within USI and leads efforts in creating and managing the strategy for placement, service and diligence for her Private Equity clients and their portfolio companies. Her clients have served various industries such as technology, manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality and financial institutions, among others.

Joe Helms is a Partner at Pathfinder, a private investment firm focused on investments in privately held, lower middle market businesses. Joe is actively involved with both direct investing as well as leading the firm's private equity fund investment strategy. Joe brings considerable investment experience, previously working for 10+ years at Goldner Hawn, a lower middle market private equity firm. Joe also previously worked for Prospect Partners and Lincoln International.

Jordan Iverson is an audit partner at Baker Tilly who also leads the Minneapolis private equity practice. He works closely with privately held and publicly traded clients to provide a variety of accounting, assurance and consulting services. He specializes in working with commercial, manufacturing and distribution companies, including SEC reporting entities and private equity owned companies.

Dennis is a partner and the Chair of the Minneapolis Business Law Practice at Taft. He delivers sophisticated legal counsel on complex transactions, placing a premium on client service and efficiency. Dennis represents public and private companies, as well as private equity funds, with their M&A needs, assembling transactional teams to leverage deep practice and industry knowledge and provide effective results.

Lee is managing partner of Smart Business Network Inc., a national events, media and marketing company founded in 1989, primarily responsible for expanding the company’s Aspire deal-making conference throughout the U.S. He plays a key role in establishing corporate policies and developing long-term strategy and growth plans. Previously, he founded and chaired the Growth Group at national law firm Arter & Hadden LLP (now Tucker, Ellis & West), which focused on working with middle-market and high-growth technology companies. 

Steve is a partner and the Chair of the Private Equity Practice Group at Taft. He has over 25 years of corporate law experience, having handled hundreds of M&A and financing transactions representing billions of dollars in transaction value. He was previously a partner in the corporate group of another leading law firm, then associate general counsel for St. Jude Medical, then General Counsel of Secure Computing, a publicly held software company, through its sale to McAfee, and has been with Taft since 2009.

Mike is a Minnesota-based business attorney and focuses his practice primarily on mergers and acquisitions, as well as other strategic investment, capital raising, and financing transactions. Mr. Kuhn represents private equity funds, middle-market companies, owner-managed businesses and large companies undertaking mergers and acquisitions with middle-market targets.

Brett Larson is a Shareholder and Chair of the Minneapolis Division at Messerli Kramer. He focuses his practice in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, corporate organization and reorganization, international transactions, and succession planning for businesses and business owners. Brett also serves as outside general counsel to many U.S. based businesses in the lower-middle and middle markets.

Dan Mallin is a force in technology-based entrepreneurship, creating transformative tools that serve the needs of Fortune 1000. Working with business partner Scott Litman, he’s repeatedly broken new ground in digital transformation. Together, the two have grown and sold four businesses and built forward-thinking tech platforms that are still in use day-to-day by some of the world’s largest brands.

Dan has been focusing on healthcare middle market M&A since starting at BMO in 2017. He previosly worked at Alvarez and Marsal, where he started in 2014 and was involved in a number of merger integration, due diligence and performance improvement engagements. Prior to joining A&M, Dan worked as an Equity Research Associate at Robert W. Baird, where he covered small- & mid-cap technology stocks. Dan also held several management roles at GE Healthcare while working in the company’s diagnostic imaging and life sciences businesses. In his early career, Dan worked in operational and financial roles at GE Plastics, General Mills, and Cargill.

Mr. Missling has an extensive background in formulation, preclinical, and clinical development of polymeric, sustained release drug products including biodegradable microspheres, ophthalmic implants, drug coated medical devices, and biodegradable implants. He has raised over $30M in start-up capital at SpineThera and built a world class team.

In 1987, Ozzie entered his father’s 15-person interior design firm. Over the following years, he expanded the firm’s core design business with emerging technologies and consulting capabilities to create a compelling service delivery platform for large corporate clients. Under his direction, the firm expanded from a single discipline to its current 10 fully integrated service lines. Since becoming CEO in 2003, the firm has executed more than 40 mergers/acquisitions, taking NELSON from #37 in the industry to “Top 10” with growth of more than 500 percent.

Kyle is a Partner leading Eide Bailly's Quality of Earnings segment of Transaction Advisory. He has 14 years of professional experience with three years living and working in Germany where he advised on international transactions. Kyle specializes in advising private equity and strategic buyers in buy side financial due diligence and helping founder owner businesses with sell-side quality of earnings.

Ashlee Proulx is an accomplished Business Development Manager known for her unwavering dedication to fostering enduring partnerships. With a distinctive knack for recognizing synergistic opportunities, she masterfully crafts win-win scenarios that lay the foundation for mutually beneficial collaborations. Ashlee's unwavering commitment to continuous growth and innovation propels her mission to redefine the landscape of business development. Her dedication is at the heart of her endeavors.

David Rudolph is an Executive Director and Region Manager for Chase’s Commercial banking business in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

David began his career in 1999 with American National Bank of Chicago (a predecessor bank of JPMorgan Chase) as a member of the bank’s credit analyst training program. In David’s 19 years of banking experience, he has been responsible for managing and growing client relationships in a variety of sectors, including manufacturing, distribution, service and retail. He is dedicated to serving mid-size companies as a relationship manager, meeting the domestic and international needs of the bank’s clients by providing comprehensive lending, investment banking, treasury and asset management solutions.

David holds a Master of Business Administration from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Iowa.

A partner in Taft's Minneapolis office, Steve was the president and managing partner of Briggs and Morgan, P.A. until its combination with Taft on Jan. 1, 2020, and partner-in-charge through January of 2021. He currently serves as a member of Taft's Executive Committee. Throughout his nearly 30 years with the firm, Steve has served in a number of other leadership roles including firm chair, practice group leader and as a member of the board of directors and executive committee. A noted practitioner in the areas of banking and finance, capital markets and real estate, Steve’s strong business acumen informs his approach to building a sustainable firm that responds nimbly and meets the needs of clients today and long into the future.

David Sartorio focuses his practice on corporate transactions including mergers and acquisitions, control and non-control investments, joint ventures and strategic partnerships. David has experience advising companies ranging from private start-up and growth companies to large public companies across diverse industry sectors, including energy and renewable energy, agricultural technology, video gaming and life sciences, as well as private equity and venture capital firms. David also handles general corporate and start-up legal issues.

Beyond his legal practice, David has been a lecturer on "Life Cycle of an M&A Deal" at the University of North Carolina School of Law and a lecturing fellow on "Early-Stage Financing: The Emergence of Crowdfunding" at Duke University School of Law. 

Alec Sherod has extensive experience successfully representing both public and privately held companies across many industries. In his practice, Alec assists buyers, sellers, and financial advisors in a wide variety of domestic and international M&A transactions. He also represents clients in financing transactions, including advising issuers and investors in securities law compliance, handling acquisition financing for lenders, borrowers and investors and representing clients in private placements of equity and debt.

Shane Slominski is a Partner at Tonka Bay Equity Partners, a private equity firm in Minneapolis, MN that invests in entrepreneur-owned businesses in industries such as highly-engineered manufacturing, value-added distribution and business services. He is responsible for sourcing and closing new investments, as well as working closely with the teams at our partner companies to execute strategic growth plans.

Sean Stevens is a partner responsible for leading investment activities for the fund. Prior to joining NMP in 2015, Sean was a member of KKR’s middle market financing group in New York where he focused on third-party sponsor coverage, structuring and portfolio monitoring. Prior to KKR, he was a managing director in the financial sponsors groups at Bank of America and KeyBanc.

John is a Client Development Executive at Aon, where he helps Fortune 500 corporations to middle-market companies with their Risk Mitigation, Insurance, and Transaction Liability strategies. Previously, John led the Professional Services vertical for a middle-market Insurance firm.

Josh Susser founded Cascadily Partners and leads its sector focused private equity investments in education and training businesses. Prior to Cascadily, Josh led education investments at ECMC Group, an education finance agency. Josh began his career serving consumer middle market M&A clients at Piper Jaffray, an investment bank.

Jen Sweeney brings over 20 years of marketing and business development with Executive Peer groups. As a Regional VP and Business Development Partner for Vistage Worldwide, Inc, she coaches and strategizes with seasoned executives to build private advisory board groups of CEOs, Presidents, and business owners. Jen's passion is in Building relationships and connecting leader to uncover the challenges and issues facing small to medium-sized businesses. Vistage is committed to helping business leaders grow professionally and personally through peer to peer development, one to one executive coaching and education.

Sam is the president and founder of Transitions In Business. He is a Certified Business Intermediary (CBI) and a Mergers and Acquisitions Master Intermediary (M&AMI) who has helped countless business owners successfully sell their company. Sam’s many years of experience help him seamlessly and confidentially guide business owners from the early stages of selling all the way through closing. Prior to becoming a business broker, Sam was the former owner and CEO of metroConnections, a $16 million conference and event management company with 150 employees.

Mike Traeger, Director, leads the Consulting Practice Team at Redpath and Company. He helps organizations make more informed and strategic decisions in the areas of transaction advisory, business transformation, and accounting advisory.

Mike has over 20 years of market leadership working with privately held and public companies, private equity firms, and lenders and has advised companies across a variety of industries including healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, technology, construction, and consumer products. He helps clients prepare for change by guiding them during times of high growth, distress, integrations, and separations.

As senior vice president and chief financial officer, John Uribe provides leadership for all financial controls and systems at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. He oversees a division of approximately 300 people, comprising teams across financial planning, tax, treasury, investments, corporate finance, actuarial, underwriting and health economics.

Uribe joined Blue Cross in 2012 as vice president of corporate development. In this role, he was responsible for leading the identification, development and implementation of new business opportunities that align with Blue Cross’ strategic plan to drive the organization’s future growth objectives. Immediately prior to joining Blue Cross, Uribe was CFO for the Home Service division of Schwan’s Company in Marshall, Minnesota.

Notable achievements highlighting Uribe’s career expertise in business development and financial stewardship include leading major transactions at General Electric’s commercial finance division and serving as chief financial officer at RedBrick Health, a private equity backed healthcare technology company. Additionally, Uribe held multiple leadership roles at General Mills, where he helped lead the company’s $10.5 billion acquisition of Pillsbury, led multiple international transactions, and oversaw the financial function of a high-profile joint venture with DuPont.

Uribe earned both a bachelor’s degree and MBA from Indiana University. He currently serves as a board member for the Bakken Museum, the Latino Economic Development Center, and Learn to Live.

Matt is a Senior Vice President with Brown & Brown. His responsibilities include all aspects of risk management and insurance program design, marketing, and administration including the coordination of ancillary services between the client and the insurance carrier. He is actively involved on a consulting basis for his clients with respect to their insurance and general business needs.

Ping Yeh is a serial entrepreneur and is currently CEO of Vocxi Health - a startup that detects the presence of disease from one minute of breathing. Ping serves on several health technology company boards including Oncodea, LifeBridge, Medical Alley, and the University of California-San Diego. Ping is a cancer survivor and his experiences have driven his focus on improving the patient experience.

Pamela York is an investor, serial entrepreneur, and inventor with extensive success from launch to exit in technology-based companies. Currently she is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Capita3, a venture capital group investing in early startups innovating in health.

Over her career Pam’s been involved in 100+ deals with over 15 startup company exits to date, and served on numerous boards, including EmpowerU, NAMUH, and Collider. She’s been a mentor or advisor for United Healthcare Techstars, Revolution, and Medical Alley and is currently a venture fellow for MATTER Health.

Previously Pam pioneered three technology platforms that went on to successful commercialization and co-founded two VC-backed startups that each had exits, one with a highly successful IPO. She also led the University of Iowa’s technology commercialization foundation, where she oversaw a portfolio of 1000 technologies concentrated in life sciences, built a startup pipeline from scratch, and oversaw the launch of 30+ companies that attracted hundreds of millions in venture capital financing and numerous exits to date. 

Additionally, Pam has 20 years of experience in transformational leadership development. She’s featured on TED talks for a novel leadership accelerator for founders and innovators, known as Capita3 Leader Launch. To date Pam has led 38 cohorts through Leader Launch with 400+ participants. The US SBA, Mayo Clinic Office of Entrepreneurship, MN-SBIR and others are sponsors of this work. Previously, Pam was adjunct faculty teaching the National Science Foundation I-Corps^TM lean startup programs to faculty and graduate students and taught lean startup principles to Saudi Arabian women leaders. She has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from University of Illinois and completed a private equity financing program at Wharton.