Leadership

President

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Francesca ("Rudy") Scarito
Founder & President
RS Finance & Consulting, LLC

Ms. Scarito has been an investment banker for over 20 years, working in both global, full-service firms as well as smaller, regional firms focused on middle-market companies. She founded RS Finance & Consulting, LLC in April 2009, and specializes in advising corporate clients on mergers, acquisitions, capital raising and corporate and financial strategy.

Ms. Scarito began her career at Lehman Brothers in New York in the firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions department. At Lehman Brothers and at subsequent firms Ms. Scarito represented a variety of corporate clients in the sale of their companies. She also assisted corporate buyers in identifying, evaluating and pursuing acquisition targets. Later in her tenure at Lehman Brothers, Ms. Scarito worked in Equity Capital Markets and Syndicate, where she completed over $9 billion of initial public offerings of equity and convertible securities. Following her experience at Lehman Brothers, Ms. Scarito moved to Goldman Sachs Asset Management where she gained additional public equity capital markets experience. In her position as Portfolio Analyst, Ms. Scarito identified, analyzed and recommended public company investment opportunities for GSAM’s equity portfolios.

After gaining experience on Wall Street, Ms. Scarito transitioned to the middle market to work with smaller, owner-operated companies. During her tenure in the middle market, Ms. Scarito managed the Private Capital groups of Tucker Anthony, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and Legacy Partners Group. Ms. Scarito has extensive experience originating, structuring and negotiating private placements of equity and debt.

Ms. Scarito is a past member of the Board of Directors of Industrial Services of America, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDSA), a publicly traded scrap metal recycler and processor, and a past member of the Board of Directors of Fresh Truck, Inc., a non-profit, mobile green grocer that increases access to healthy foods within low-income Boston neighborhoods. Ms. Scarito previously served on the Board of Directors of Ambient Corporation (NASDAQ: AMBT), a publicly traded networking communications and technology company, and Material Sampling Technologies, LLC, a private recycler of precious metals.

Ms. Scarito has served as an expert witness on business valuations and on capital markets matters.

Ms. Scarito holds her Series 7, 24, 63 and 79 securities licenses. She is a registered principal with M&A Securities Group, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC. M&A Securities Group, Inc. and RS Finance & Consulting, LLC are not affiliated.

Ms. Scarito graduated from Dartmouth College, cum laude, and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

 

Vice President

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Gus Phelps
Principal
Summit Partners

Gus is a Principal at Summit Partners in Boston where he focuses on origination activities and handles business development for financial sponsors and investment banks. He was recently named to the “Private Equity BD Professionals to Watch” list by Middle Market Growth Magazine. Prior to joining Summit, Gus was a founding partner at Seacoast Partners, and he worked for Wachovia Securities and Tucker Anthony. Gus holds a BA from Trinity College and an MBA from Cornell University.

 

Past President

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John E. Surrette, Jr., CPA, CFE, MBA, CM&AA
Partner, Chair, Private Equity and Venture Capital Services Group
KLR

Mr. Surrette chairs KLR’s Private Equity and Venture Capital Services Group and is also Chair of the firm’s Renewable Energy Services Group.  He has a wide range of audit and consulting experience in a variety of industries including healthcare, renewable energy, technology and technology-enabled service companies, manufacturing and distribution. He works closely with private equity and venture capital firms in meeting both back office and Portfolio Company needs.  He is experienced in evaluating investment opportunities and providing hands on experience during the pre and post transaction process.  He has also spent a significant amount of time in the evaluation of internal controls and on forensic accounting engagements. 

Mr. Surrette is President of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Board of Directors and is also a board member of the Northeast Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA) and is chair of Rhode Island Chapter of TMA.  John was previously on the board of the New England Chapter of the Alliance of Mergers and Acquisition Advisors (AM&AA). 

John graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting in 1999 and obtained his Master’s in Business Administration in 2003, earning both degrees from the University of Rhode Island.  

 

Directors

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Drew Collina
Managing Director
Stifel

Drew joined Stifel in 2018 to lead middle- and lower-middle market sponsor coverage.  Drew brings a unique perspective and skill-set to Stifel’s private equity clients, having approx. 25 years experience within sell-side M&A, corporate buy-side, and private equity investing. Prior to Stifel, Drew was Head of N. America Sponsor Coverage for Alantra, a cross-border, internationally focused Spanish investment bank headquartered in Madrid, Spain. Previously, he was a Managing Director at BB&T Capital Markets. His experience also includes Principal at Castanea Partners, as well as Director of Corporate Development and M&A at EMC Corporation (now Dell EMC). Prior, Drew held various investment banking positions at RBC Capital Markets and BancBoston Robertson Stephens.

 

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John Dvor
Executive Vice President, Corporate Development
miR Scientific

John Dvor is an investment professional and operating executive with a focus on life-saving innovation. Mr. Dvor serves as Managing Director at Miraki Innovation; the Miraki Method is a unique and efficient approach to medtech investing that has led to the successful exits of breakthrough technologies, including Auris Health, acquired in 2019 by Johnson & Johnson for $5.75B.

Mr. Dvor has 20+ years of executive leadership experience at global family offices, corporations, and NGOs; he has executed 100+ VC, PE and LP transactions. Past executive roles include 3BL Holdings (SFO), Helge Capital (SFO), ReMed Life Sciences (OTC:ADRNF), Tufts Health Plan / Tufts Health Ventures (NGO), iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ:IRBT), Aga Khan Foundation (NGO), and Millhouse Capital (SFO).

Mr. Dvor earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Harvard University, and served in the USMC at the White House 1998-2003, and was awarded Presidential Service Badge #17996.

 

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Alan Fullerton
Partner
Mirus Capital Advisors

Alan Fullerton has been an investment banker to large corporations, middle-market firms and family-owned firms since 1997. Before joining Mirus, he was Managing Director in the investment banking group of Newbury Piret, a regional firm, where he led and managed dozens of M&A and financing transactions in a variety of industries.

Alan is senior advisor to management teams and business owners with significant experience in arranging equity financings ($5 million to $100 million) and executing buy-side and sell-side M&A mandates. Alan has been a sector finalist for several national M&A Advisor Awards for his transactions in industrial services, healthcare, consumer products, business services, travel services, and highly engineered industrial products, including for deals closed with Fortune 500 and Global 500 corporations, private equity-backed companies, closely-held businesses, and middle-market publicly traded companies.

In addition, his advisory experience includes fairness opinions for venture-backed and publicly traded companies; he is a member of the Mirus fairness opinion committee, a position he also held at his previous firm.

Before his investment banking career, he was a member of technical staff and project leader with the 2500-person engineering consulting firm TASC. During his tenure with TASC, he was a project leader on strategic planning, engineering, operations and policy engagements.

Alan holds a BS from M.I.T. in Mechanical Engineering, an MS from Brown University in Electrical Engineering, and an MBA from the Ecole des Ponts of Paris, France. He holds Series 7, 24, 63 and 79 certifications from FINRA.

Alan lives in Lexington, Massachusetts with his wife, son and two daughters. In his spare time, Alan enjoys reading, traveling and playing games with his kids.

 

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Thaddeus “Todj” Gozdeck
Partner - Transaction Advisory Services
Citrin Cooperman

With 20 years as a financial and advisory professional, he has experience assisting both financial sponsors and strategic buyers and sellers in complex cross-border merger, acquisition and divestiture transactions.

Todj has led assignments involving target companies across the Americas, Asia and EMEA including leveraged buyouts, growth acquisitions, strategic mergers and complex carve-out transactions. Todj’s transaction experience includes leading buy-side and sell-side due diligence projects focused on financial quality of earnings analyses (QofE), tax, IT and human capital issues impacting the transaction.

Todj lives in Sudbury, Massachusetts with his wife and two sons. In his spare time, Todj enjoys reading, attending his sons’ football / lacrosse games and volunteering with Sudbury for Wounded Warriors.

Todj holds a BS from the University of Connecticut. Go Huskies!

 

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Danielle Lussier
Senior VP - Relationship Manager
Wells Fargo Technology Banking Group

Danielle Lussier, an experienced commercial banker, has been named Senior Vice President – Relationship Manager with Wells Fargo’s Technology Banking Group. Ms. Lussier, joins Wells Fargo’s specialized industry banking team dedicated to building relationships through delivering sound, strategic and balanced advice, operational and capital support to early stage, growth stage and mature/public technology companies.  She is based in Boston.

Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Ms. Lussier was Vice President – Sr. Business Development Officer with KeyBank. Her prior experience includes First Niagara Commercial Finance where she was First Vice President - Senior Portfolio Manager, managing portfolio relationships, Salus Capital, where she was a Vice President - Portfolio Manager overseeing diverse asset based loans, Wells Fargo Capital Finance, where she was an Assistant Vice President - Credit Analyst, and as a Senior Treasury Analyst and Supervisor of Banking Relationships at the office of the Massachusetts State Treasury.

She received a B.A. in Political Science and a M.B.A. degree from Simmons College. She is a board member for the Turnaround Management Association (TMA) of New England, serves as co-chair for the TMA’s Network of Women (NOW), is a board member for the Association of Corporate Growth Boston (ACG), and co-chair of ACG’s Women in Leadership (WOL) Committee. 

 

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Daniela Messina
Portside Capital Solutions

Daniela Messina is the Founder and Managing Member of Portside Capital Solutions, working with dealmakers at the intersection of deploying and raising capital. She is an accomplished attorney and executive with a varied background in private equity and family offices, government, politics, investor relations, business development and corporate and crisis communications. She combines her wide-ranging experiences across many industries with a professional network of national leaders in the public and private sector to produce effective results for clients to help them achieve their goals.

She is a proven strategist and master deal connector with an extensive professional network to source deals, raise capital and provide value to dealmakers across various industries. Daniela provides counsel to private equity funds, single and multi-family offices, emerging funds, independent sponsors and corporate clients. She is committed to recognizing meaningful synergies and connecting dealmaking stakeholders with a purpose.

Daniela currently serves as a board member of the Association for Corporate Growth, Boston Chapter. Daniela is active in the ACG Boston Family Office Committee and Co-Chair of the Women’s Connection Committee. She also serves on the Corporate Board Committee of The Boston Club, one of the largest organizations for women executive and professional leaders committed to elevating women into leadership positions.

 

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Brigid Morrissey
Senior Manager
CohnReznick

Brigid Morrissey, CPA, MBA, MST, is a senior manager in CohnReznick’s Financial Sponsors and Financial Services Industry Practice.  Based in the Boston office, Brigid works with investment management firms throughout all stages of their lifecycle from formation to wind-down, providing strategic tax planning, compliance, and structuring for both debt and equity strategies.  Brigid assists investment firms and their principals in navigating the complexities of carried interest and tax allocations, with an understanding of their unique investor needs, as well as addressing multi-state and international tax issues.  She is active in CohnReznick’s Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) niche practice.  Brigid’s responsibilities include client and engagement management, as well as business development throughout the New England market.

Throughout her career, Brigid has worked with companies across multiple industry segments, including manufacturing and distribution, real estate, retail, international shipping, and technology, many of which are held by private equity and venture capital sponsors.  She has provided closely-held corporations, partnerships, and high-net-worth individuals with a wide range of tax-related services, including selection of and changes in accounting methods, tax credit advisory services, cost segregation studies, representation before the IRS and other taxing authorities, choice of entity analysis, and tax advisory services to businesses and their owners for various M&A transactions.

Brigid currently serves as a board member of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), Boston Chapter and is the Co-Chair of the Women’s Connection Committee. Brigid is a proud Double Eagle, earning both her BS in Management with a concentration in Accounting and Marketing as well as her MBA from Boston College’s Carroll School of Management.  Brigid earned her MS in Taxation from Bentley University.  Brigid is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Massachusetts.

 

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Kyle Murphy
Managing Director
Hilco Global

Kyle Murphy currently serves as a managing director at Hilco Global, a special situations merchant bank headquartered in Chicago. He leads their business development & private equity sponsor coverage efforts for New England.

During Kyle’s 16 + year career in banking, he has served roles at J.P. Morgan’s Middle Market Banking Group and Wells Fargo Capital Finance.  Mr. Murphy began his career at New Stream Capital a multi strategy credit opportunity fund. He has been involved in ACG and attending events around the Northeast for over 14 years. He recently chaired the Deal Hunters committee for ACG Boston. In 2019, he was the recipient of the ACG Emerging Leader Award. Kyle’s also an active member of the Secured Finance Network and Turnaround Management Association.

Kyle graduated from Western Connecticut State University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a minor in economics. He’s a licensed investment banker holding his Series 79 and 63 with Hilco Corporate Finance, LLC member FINRA and SIPC. Additionally, Mr. Murphy is an active committee member of the Cape Cod YMCA. He’s also an avid power boater and saltwater angler.

 

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Christina Pai
Partner
Fort Point Capital

Christina is a Partner at Fort Point Capital, a private equity firm focused on investing in promising, business services companies in the lower middle market. Since joining Fort Point in 2011, she has been responsible for sourcing, evaluating and executing investments, as well as driving value creation initiatives for her portfolio companies in the tech-enabled business services, software and transportation/logistics industries. Christina currently serves as the Chair of the Board for AMS Fulfillment and Barrington Media Group and was the former Chair of WolfePak Software and Van Pool Transportation; she also currently serves on the boards of Eventlink and Sullivans.

Prior to joining Fort Point, Christina was a principal at Swift River Investments in Boston and an associate at FdG Associates. She started her career at JPMorgan, focusing on mergers and acquisitions as well as debt and equity capital raises. Christina has a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College. She is an avid Boston and fantasy sports enthusiast and enjoys traveling, fishing for bass and eating at interesting restaurants.

 

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Lewis N. Segall
Partner
Sullivan & Worcester

Lew is the director of Sullivan's Corporate Department. His practice is focused on a number of transactional areas. He regularly represents public and private companies in equity and debt financings, joint ventures, domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate matters. Lew also represents financial institutions in secured and unsecured credit facilities. His clients consist of major financial institutions, private equity groups, family-owned businesses, family offices and other investors, as well as emerging and established companies engaged in a variety of industries, including renewable energy, advertising, health care, communications, manufacturing and software.

Lew is the author of Mergers & Acquisitions: A Step-by-Step Legal and Practical Guide (2nd edition) (Wiley), which he co-authored with Edwin L. Miller, Jr.

Bar & Court Admissions

• Massachusetts

Education

• J.D., Northeastern University School of Law
• B.S., Syracuse University

Community Engagement

• American and Boston Bar Associations
• Board of Directors, Association for Corporate Growth (ACG)
• Alternative Energy Committee Chair, Town of Duxbury, Massachusetts
• Former Board of Directors, College Bound Dorchester

 

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Anabelle Skalleberg
Principal
Watermill Group

Anabelle Skalleberg is a Principal at Watermill Group responsible for business development efforts and executing transactions. Prior to joining Watermill, Ms. Skalleberg worked for Flight Centre Travel Group (ASX: FLT) as part of the mergers and acquisitions team. Before joining FLT she worked for Pine Street Capital Partners from 2012 – 2018 and was primarily involved with deal sourcing, portfolio management and investment evaluation and execution. Before her role with the Wellesley based mezzanine investment firm, she was an Assistant Vice President at Meketa Investment Group. While at Meketa, she was part of the Private Markets team responsible for researching private equity funds, leading diligence efforts on Latin American focused funds, and implementing the firm’s business development efforts in the southeast U.S. and Latin America regions. Prior to Meketa, Anabelle was the Head of Finance and MIS for the Cards Business at Sovereign Bank / Santander. Early in her career Anabelle interned at Consilium Partners as a Financial Analyst and also worked at Grant Thornton in its Corporate Finance advisory practice as a Consultant.

Anabelle is on the Board of Directors of United South End Settlements, a Boston-based non-profit that offers programs that support the whole family in achieving economic mobility.

Anabelle is a graduate of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra (BA) and the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College (MBA).