Dealmaking During COVID-19: How the Pandemic Has Changed Transactions Today and into the Future

Brian is a member of BKD’s Transaction Services division based in the Denver office.  With more than 10 years of experience with mergers and acquisitions, he provides buy-side and sell-side financial due diligence services to private equity and strategic investors.  He has experience across a wide range of industries. He has led or participated in more than 150 transactions and focuses on determining acquisition targets' quality of earnings and working capital requirements through analysis of financial statements and discussions with key management.  He reviews the acquisition and financing agreements to identify if they reflect the proper deal structure and coincide with financial due diligence findings.  He also has completed various carve-out and stand-alone engagements on behalf of strategic sellers and portfolio companies in their divestiture of discrete operating segments.

Melissa recently joined BKD as a tax partner.  She specializes in partnership taxation and spends a portion of her time dedicated to serving as a national technical specialist in Sub-chapter K taxation.  She also works extensively with private equity funds and is involved with tax compliance, due diligence and planning.  She began her career in 1997 with a large international accounting firm where she spent more than 18 years working with private equity funds, real estate entities and privately held companies and their owners.

Ms. Leonard joined Bow River Capital’s Private Equity investment team in 2016. She is responsible for originating, executing, and monitoring investments in private businesses. As a senior associate, she leads industry analysis, operational due diligence, financial valuation, and investment structuring efforts for buyout and recapitalization transactions. Ms. Leonard has worked on business services, healthcare, and infrastructure services private equity transactions at Bow River.

Ms. Leonard graduated from the Daniel’s College of Business at the University of Denver with a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration in Finance with minors in Economics, Leadership, and Biology.

Sarah Gaul is a senior banker in Baird’s Global Financial Sponsor Coverage Group. Sarah re-joined Baird in 2018 bringing many years of private equity and operational experience. Prior to re-joining Baird, Sarah spent over five years at Adams Street Partners specializing in secondary and co-investment transactions where she invested alongside many of Baird’s financial sponsor relationships. Sarah has also worked as the Director of Operations at LEARN Charter School Network in Chicago.  Sarah began her career as an analyst in Baird’s Technology & Services group. Sarah received her B.S. in Finance and International Business from Marquette University

Randy White co-founded Wheel Pros in 1994 with his business partner Jody Groce to distribute aftermarket wheels.  Under his leadership as CEO, Wheel Pros has grown organically and via acquisition to 37 distribution facilities in North America and 3 internationally in the UK and Australia. across the US.  They have taken on financial partners at various stages including their current ownership controlled by Clearlake Capital.

Chris Krajacic joined Wheel Pros in 2016 and has served as CFO since 2017.  He and his team have navigated numerous acquisitions over the years and helped in the diligence process and capital raises during his tenure as CFO.  Prior to Wheel Pros he served in multiple corporate finance and accounting roles at both private and public companies and started his career in public accounting.