Frisco Capital represents the capital and experience of a team of seasoned business operators, entrepreneurs, investors and leaders. In addition to providing access to substantial capital, these investors bring years of experience in assessing investment opportunities, managing acquisitions and ownership transitions, and growing businesses in a variety of industries. They are investing their personal assets in Frisco Capital and will serve as advisors and directors in any Frisco Capital acquisition. As a result, any company in which Frisco Capital invests stands to benefit from the advice and guidance of some of the nation's most successful business leaders.
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Dwight Wardlaw - Managing Partner |
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Dwight Wardlaw is the founder and Managing Partner of Frisco Capital and is responsible for origination, transaction structuring, and management of acquired companies. He brings more than 15 years of professional experience and a deep background in general management, sales, marketing, operations, and growing businesses. Prior to founding Frisco Capital, Dwight was responsible for the field sales operations of York International/Johnson Control's Houston business unit where he helped the company achieve triple-digit revenue and double digit market share growth. Prior to his promotion to management, Dwight was a sales representative for the company where he consistently earned national recognition for his top and bottom-line revenue performance. In addition to his operations and sales experience, Dwight completed an internship in corporate finance at Sanders Morris Harris and co-founded a small record label. Dwight holds an MS in management from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, an MS in engineering from Tulane University, and a BS in engineering from Texas A&M University.
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Ramon Rick - Associate |
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Ramon Rick has contributed to Frisco Capital since its initial formation and supports the managing partner in fund raising, lead generation, business due diligence, assessment of potential value creation and acquisition execution. He served as Associate in the Strategic Investments Group of Deutsche Bank Securities, evaluating investments in real estate and consumer credit, while prior to Deutsche Bank, Ramon developed interest rate trading strategies at asset manager Barclays Global Investors. Ramon currently pursues a PhD in applied physics at Stanford University, and he also enjoys instructing student pilots at Stanford Flying Club. Ramon holds a MS in applied physics from Stanford and a BS in electrical engineering from Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University. Ramon is from Stuttgart, Germany.
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Steve Lucchese - Associate |
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Steve joined Frisco Capital in the fall of 2009 as an associate. His responsibilities include industry research and actively sourcing deals. Previously, Steve worked in institutional asset management at Wells Fargo and as an initial public offering analyst. He earned a MBA and MS in Financial Analysis and Investment Management, and enjoys an active lifestyle.
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Morgan Martindell - Analyst |
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Morgan Martindell joined Frisco Capital in Spring 2009 as a research analyst. In addition to his research activities, he supports the development of Frisco's proprietary search technology. Prior to joining Frisco Capital, Morgan marketed the launch of social networking startup Zandigo.com from the company's founding to its acquisition by Zinch, LLC. Morgan is from Princeton, New Jersey.
Fraser Black - Limited Partner
Fraser Black is a Managing Partner at Pioneer Square Properties, a real estate property management and development company. In addition, he is an active angel investor and advisor to numerous startups in the Northwest. Between 1995 and 1998, he served as CFO and Vice President Operations at ONYX Software, a CRM enterprise software firm. Prior to that, he was a Partner of Black and Pollnow, a private equity investment company specializing in the security alarm and technology sectors. From 1988 to 1990, Mr.Black served as Assistant to the President at Ashton-Tate, a software publisher of dBase, where he also served as Group Manager of Customer Service and Sales Support. Mr. Black was a Financial Analyst at Salomon Brothers in the Investment Banking Division from 1983 to 1986. Fraser serves on the boards of Lumera Corporation (LMRA), Plexera Inc., Ballard Mill Properties, and Planner Systems. He is an active philanthropist in the education field either as a board member or working with the following organizations: Social Venture Partners, IslandWood, Powerful Schools and the Business Partnership for Early Learning. Fraser has an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and an AB, Cum Laude from Harvard College.
Bradford Brown - Limited Partner
Brad is a Director for McKinsey & Company and leads the Business Technology Office (BTO) in New York, as well as the North American Financial Services Operations & Technology Practice. He has worked with banks, insurance carriers, asset managers, and transaction services companies on issues of strategy, organization, operations, and technology. He has functional expertise in operations transformation, IT transformation, infrastructure, and outsourcing.
Before joining McKinsey in January 2000, Brad spent almost 3 years as a partner in the Stenbeck Group of companies, a global conglomerate owned and controlled by the Swedish billionaire Jan Stenbeck. Prior to that, he spent 11 years at Arthur D. Little, Inc., where he became managing director of the company's North American information technology practice.
Brad received his B.A. cum laude from Dartmouth College, an M.S.E.E. in computer sciences from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A. with distinction from the Wharton School.
Jim Franke - Limited Partner
Jim Franke is an investor and operator, specializing in search fund, start-up and early stage investment opportunities.
In 2000 Jim founded eTelecare Global Solutions where, serving as President, he grew the company from inception to over $200M in revenues in seven years, culminating with an IPO in 2007. Under Jim's leadership eTelecare became a leading partner for companies such as American Express, AT&T, and Dell. eTelecare was one of the most respected and awarded companies in the BPO industry, including being on the Inc, 500 list of fastest growing companies in 2006 and 2007, being on the Business Week Top 50 List of International BPO companies in 2007, and being named Best Outsourcer by the International Call Center Management group for five years running from 2002-2007.
In 2008 Jim Co-Founded Professional Staffing Group Global, a recruiting BPO company which leverages offshore human capital in the Philippines to serve U.S. companies. After its first full year of operations, PSG Global has twenty clients and a $1 million revenue run-rate.
Prior to his entrepreneurial activities, Jim was a consultant at McKinsey and Company's Los Angeles office. Jim holds a BS from Duke University and an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business.
Glenn Healey - Limited Partner
Glenn has been a successful entrepreneur, manager and investor for the last 22 years. During that time he was a principal in six different operating companies. He has also participated in several subordinated debt and equity investments as an investor, and he has provided management turnaround and consulting services to several private equity firms. Mr. Healey was the CFO of a division of a large, public company, and he has worked in both the investment banking and public accounting industries.
Mr. Healey earned a Master in Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Bachelor of Journalism degrees from the University of Missouri. He was certified in the state of Missouri as a Certified Public Accountant.
Karen E. Moriarty - Limited Partner
Karen is the founder and CEO of Carillon Assisted Living, a North Carolina-based developer and operator of quality, moderate-income assisted living communities providing residential living services to seniors. Ms. Moriarty has raised nearly $30 million in equity funding, secured $80 million in construction and permanent mortgage loans, and negotiated a $105 million sale leaseback of Carillon's original properties. Ms. Moriarty is a graduate of Stanford University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is a Director of Liberty Towers.
Paul Rogers - Limited Partner
Paul was the Chairman and CEO of CIBC World Markets Corp. in New York where he had direct responsibility for equity origination, M&A, Loan, High Yield and Structured Finance products with a focus on middle market companies. He had a 22 year career with CIBC and Wood Gundy (which was acquired by CIBC), and he worked in New York, Toronto and Tokyo during that time. Mr. Rogers has direct experience in a wide variety of investment banking disciplines including corporate finance, global currency and interest rate derivatives, M&A and loan origination and administration.
Mr. Rogers earned a Master in Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School with High Distinction where he was also a Baker Scholar and Knox Fellow. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Physics from Royal Military College of Canada where he was the winner of Governor's General of Canada Bronze and Silver Medals for academic excellence. Mr. Rogers recently earned a Master of Science in Applied Physics from the New Jersey Institute of Technology as a first step to achieving his PhD in Applied Physics.
Don A. Sanders - Limited Partner
Don is Vice Chairman of the Board, a director and Chairman of the executive committee of Sanders Morris Harris. He co-founded Sanders Morris Mundy, one of the predecessor firms of Sanders Morris Harris.
Mr. Sanders joined E.F. Hutton in 1959 as an Account Executive. As one of its leading brokers, he became an Executive Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors of E.F. Hutton. In 1987, after 28 years with E.F. Hutton, he resigned to form Sanders Morris Mundy.
Mr. Sanders is a director of the Board of Trustees, Houston Police Officers Pension System, the Nolan Ryan Foundation, the Childress Foundation and the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau. He is Chairman of Community Partners and a past member of the Board of Regents of the University of Houston System, as well as a former owner of the Houston Sports Association and the Houston Astros. He received his Bachelor of Business Administration from Sam Houston State University and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Texas.
Jim Southern - Limited Partner
Jim is a founding director of Pacific Lake Partners, a private equity fund investing in small-cap buyouts using the search fund model. Pacific Lake backs promising entrepreneurs searching for established, profitable service companies in high growth industries.
In addition, Mr. Southern manages a portfolio of private equity investments in small to medium sized companies. His portfolio includes 47 search funds. Search fund investing consists of providing search and acquisition capital to promising entrepreneurs whose intent is to acquire a small, established company with revenues of $10 million to $30 million.
Previously, Mr. Southern was himself a beneficiary of search fund investors early in his career. His first search resulted in the acquisition of Uniform Printing, a $43 million printer of specialty insurance documents, where he served as its CEO and chairman for 10 years. Investor returns from distributions and exit exceeded 30x the acquisition capital.
Mr. Southern holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and resides in Wolfeboro, NH and Boston, MA.
Steven C. Wheelwright - Limited Partner
Steve has been the president of Brigham Young University Hawaii since June 2007. Prior to his current appointment, he was a Baker Foundation Professor, Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School as well as Director of HBS Publication Activities where he oversaw the HBS Publishing Company. His most recent book, developed with HBS colleague Clayton Christensen and Stanford colleague, Robert Burgelman, is Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation, 4th ed. (Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2004). Along with Harvard colleagues Bob Hayes, Gary Pisano and Dave Upton, President Wheelwright published Operations, Strategy and Technology - Pursing the Competitive Edge (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2004), a complementary volume to the highly regarded books, Dynamic Manufacturing: Creating the Learning Organization (New York: Free Press, 1988) and Restoring Our Competitive Advantage-Competing Through Manufacturing (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1980).
President Wheelwright has a B.S. degree in Mathematics from the University of Utah and an M.B.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. In addition to his Harvard and Stanford positions, Professor Wheelwright served on the faculty of INSEAD (European Institute of Management) in Fontainebleau, France. He was Vice President of Sales in a family-owned printing company and has consulted in the areas of business/operations strategy and improving product development capabilities.
The Cambria Group - Limited Partner
The Cambria Group is a private investment company that acquires and invests in small and mid-sized businesses with established operating histories. Since its founding, Cambria has made twelve investments in businesses spanning the manufacturing, distribution and service sectors. Core to the firm's philosophy, each of the firm's principals has both operating and financial experience, a combination which is employed in all stages of the private equity business - from evaluating opportunities to structuring transactions and helping to manage the companies in which it invests. Moreover, the principals provide the majority of the equity for each transaction personally, an approach that allows the firm to make decisions quickly and without uncertainty as to their source of capital - and accommodates a long-term perspective with respect to building shareholder value and seeking liquidity.
HV Capital Investors - Limited Partner
HV Capital Investors is a private investment company that provides debt financing to lower middle market companies. HVCI was formed in 2003 and has completed a dozen transactions in which it invested $80 million. The firm provides both senior and subordinated debt. HVCI targets companies that have the capacity to generate predictable cash flow from operations. The transaction size range is $5 million to $20 million.
Choate Hall & Stewart - Legal
Choate, Hall & Stewart has been one of the nation's leading law firms for over a century. Choate has organized over 60 search funds and has closed on over 35 acquisitions for its search fund clients. Choate is considered the leading law firm for search fund representation and, David Brown, a partner in the firm's Business and Technology Group, is a regular presenter and panelist on search fund topics at Harvard Business School, The MIT Sloan School, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and the Yale School of Management. In addition to search funds, Choate's clients include leading private equity and venture capital firms, technology startups, Fortune 100 companies and prominent financial institutions. Our practice areas are focused on the legal areas that matter most to our clients, including fund formation, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, labor, litigation and tax, and our lawyers are internationally recognized by Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America, The Legal 500, Superlawyers and Expert Guides, among others. A transaction powerhouse, we have organized thousands of emerging companies and completed M&A transactions with proceeds over $39 billion, public company securities offerings with proceeds over $16 billion (since 2000), as well as over $30 billion in buyout and investment transactions in the last 5 years.
