Strategic Growth Through M&A: Insights for Mid Market Leaders

Event Details

When:

February 12, 2026 4 PM - 7 PM CST

Where:

Location Address

Carlucci Rosemont
6111 N. River Road
Rosemont, IL 60018
United States

Add to Calendar

Overview

Body

As a leader of a middle market organization, you're part of an exclusive group with unique challenges and opportunities. Whether you're considering growth through acquisition or contemplating selling your business, our upcoming event, tailored for leaders like you, is a rare opportunity to gain valuable insights and network with industry professionals. Mergers and acquisitions are powerful tools for growth and transformation. Understanding the nuances of these strategic moves can make the difference between a good decision and a great one. This event is not just about the theory, but about providing you with actionable insights from seasoned experts who have successfully navigated the M&A landscape and led organizations through the process.

Speakers

John Waller

Prairie Capital Advisors

Managing Director

John Waller joined Prairie Capital Advisors in 2021, bringing over 30 years of investment banking experience and 25 years of advising middle-market companies on the sale and acquisition of entire businesses and business units. At Prairie, John leads and co-leads transaction teams and helps develop new business for the firm. As a trusted advisor to privately held companies and large corporations, John focuses on understanding a client’s business, exploring various transaction options, and presenting multiple choices to the client. He then guides clients through ownership transitions, corporate divestitures, and special situations. John is actively involved in all aspects of transactions, including managing the preparation process, reaching out to and meeting with potential acquirers or targets, and structuring, negotiating, and closing deals.

Nicole Lev Ross

Literal North

Founder, Managing Director

Nicole Lev Ross is a strategic leader in commercial diligence and the founder of Literal North. For over 30 years, she has driven transformation by reconnecting investors and executives with their most vital assets: their customers and channel partners. Nicole specializes in building customer-centric value creation strategies that mitigate risk and restart growth.

Having evaluated over 300 businesses throughout her career, Nicole and her team complement the standard Quality of Earnings analysis with a "Quality of Customer" engagement and analysis. The Literal North methodology validates investment theses, uncovers operational risks, and identifies channels to uncap stagnant sales in anticipation of post-acquisition integration planning. Nicole’s background includes diverse roles in business valuation, consumer product distribution, and corporate development. Nicole and her team cover a host of industrial sectors across construction, electronics, maintenance and repair, manufacturing and SaaS. Having lived and worked in major financial hubs including London, São Paulo, and New York, Nicole brings deep cross-functional and cross-cultural expertise to every engagement and has a global team of native language speakers ready to speak with your target market.

Nicole is an executive board member of CJE Senior Living and past board member of Rainbows for All Children.

Jeff Taylor

Crafts Technology I Div. of Hyperion Materials & Technology

President

Jeffrey Taylor is past President of Crafts Technology, which is part of the Precision Solutions group of the Hyperion Materials & Technology (HMT) company. While HMT is a leader in advanced materials with decades of experience developing and manufacturing tungsten carbide powder, cemented carbide, industrial diamond, and cubic boron nitride, Crafts Technology and the Precision Solutions group specializes in the conversion of the powdered metallurgy products into finished high precision and high-performance engineered tooling and wear solutions.

Jeff’s 40-year professional career includes having worked in a variety of roles, including toolmaker and then manufacturing manager at New England Carbide, sales and sales management at A.W. Chesterton, and then ultimately as President & CEO of Crafts Technology, one of the world’s oldest continuously operated companies of its’ kind in the world. Each of these respective companies all specialize in the design and production of engineered wear solutions, cutting tools, and/or fluid handling & control products where powdered metallurgy, in the form of tungsten carbide, advanced ceramics or diamond matrices, is a core competency.

Jeff’s tenure as CEO at Crafts technology included forming an ESOP to purchase Crafts Technology from private ownership. Following 7 years of exceptional growth, equipment modernization, IP development and staff development, the company was sold to private equity (KKR) owned Hyperion Materials & Technology business. Jeff continues on with Hyperion being part of the leadership team managing and expanding the newly established Precision Solutions business unit as we continue with M&A activity….growing the new business to 300+ employees.

Jeffrey’s education includes an AS in Manufacturing Engineering Technology as well as a Bachelor of Manufacturing Management obtained from the University of Minnesota.

Ron Brogle

Hyperion Materials & Technologies

Vice President, Corporate Development

Ron Brogle is Vice President of Corporate Development at Hyperion Materials and Technologies, a KKR portfolio company focused on hard and super-hard materials serving industrial manufacturing applications. As a member of the executive leadership team, he spearheads the company’s growth and profitability strategies through global mergers and acquisitions, leading the end-to-end M&A process. He also focuses on competitive intelligence, market trend analysis, and strategic planning support to Hyperion’s business units.

Prior to joining Hyperion, Ron was Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development at Elkay Manufacturing, an Illinois-based global manufacturer of sinks, bottle fillers, and other solutions for residential and commercial interiors. During his tenure, Ron implemented Elkay’s strategic planning process, led transformative acquisitions and divestitures as well as the industry changing merger with the public company Zurn Water Solutions (now Zurn Elkay Water Solutions). His earlier experience includes a variety of engineering, marketing, strategy and corporate development roles at The Chamberlain Group, a manufacturer of access control related products. Ron holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Valparaiso University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Hosted by: ACG

Chapter

Chicago