Steps Business Owners Can Take to Create Resilience in a Slowing Economy

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's, Wharton School, with an MBA in Finance, Catherine has spent over 25 years working with leading global corporations, asset managers, and private clients, to provide counsel in investment management, investment banking, and private wealth management.  Emerging from long nights and deep analytics in the investment banking realm of Salomon Smith Barney, she found her true passion on the trading floors of Morgan Stanley, where she advised some of the world's largest asset managers in U.S. equity investment strategy.  She has experienced firsthand the empowerment of innovators and investors alike through capital markets financing and disciplined investment strategy. 

A passionate entrepreneur, Catherine co-founded Pando Partners using her unique financial skills to help business owners and partners successfully navigate work and life transitions.  She and her team at Pando challenge the industry’s common practice of separating business growth and succession strategies from personal wealth planning.  The most effective transition planning aligns business, wealth, and family goals with the best outcomes realized at the intersection of all three.  

Since her Wharton days, Catherine and her writings have been featured in national and regional publications, such as On Wall Street and the Jacksonville Business Journal.  Catherine earned her BBA, Summa Cum Laude, from Emory University, coupled with International Business and Management at Schiller International University in Paris, France. She is an advisory board member for the University of North Florida's financial services program and a board member for Northeast Florida's Association of Corporate Growth.

Blair is a Managing Director at Lafayette Square. Prior to joining Lafayette, Blair served as Managing Director, Mergers and Acquisitions at Butler Snow Advisory. During his time at Butler Snow Advisory, he led sell side, buyside and capital raise transactions for privately owned and closely held businesses. Prior to joining Butler Snow, Blair managed the market launch and business development activities of EBSCO Capital, the investment division of EBSCO Industries. Headquartered in Birmingham, EBSCO Industries is a privately held conglomerate comprised of over 20 businesses and more than $2.5 billion in annual revenue. Before his role at EBSCO Capital, Blair served in multiple capacities for Jemison Metals, a Birmingham-based steel service center, including strategic planning, cultivating new territories, implementing software-based supply chain management tools, and developing and managing relationships with Fortune 500 industrial conglomerates. Blair began his career in commercial banking, and spent five years with First Commercial Bank’s commercial and industrial lending team, where he managed numerous middle market relationships for the bank.

Blair earned a B.S. from the University of Alabama in 2003 and an M.B.A., with honors, from Samford University’s Brock School of Business in 2009. He is an active member of the Rotary Club of Birmingham and serves as treasurer for his church.

Matt joined Dubin Clark in 2016 and focuses on business development, deal execution, and portfolio company monitoring and support. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of InProduction, CastleWorks, Euro Motorparts Group, and Super Home Services.

Prior to Dubin Clark, Matt worked at KPMG, where he was a senior associate in the firm’s audit practice. While at KPMG, Matt was the Chairman of the Jacksonville Senior Council, a national instructor, and local lead for data and analytics initiatives.

Matt received a BBA in accounting from the University of Georgia, an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and is a CPA (inactive). Outside of the office, Matt enjoys traveling, college football, and reading.

Mr. Patz is a Founding Partner and Managing Director at DeepWork Capital, an early-stage investment firm focused on finding and supporting technology and life science startups.  The firm has been in operation since October 2015.  Prior to starting DeepWork Capital, Mr. Patz was Chief Operating Officer for Presidio Networked Solutions, a multi-billion-dollar Information Technology solutions provider.  He joined Presidio through the acquisition of Coleman Technologies, Inc. in 2009, the firm he co-founded and ran as CEO.  At CTI, he grew sales to $250M while staying active in technical pursuits such as leading the UCF/CTI team to the finals of the DARPA Urban Challenge, an autonomous vehicle competition.  Mr. Patz has also been principal investigator on several SBIR grants relating to the application of Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks to control systems.  He has a BSEE from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and MSEE degree from the University of Central Florida.  He was Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award for Florida in 2002 and received UCF’s Professional Achievement Award in 2006 and 2016.

Trish Skoglund is a corporate director of mergers and acquisitions for Crowley, guiding strategic investments that create sustainable growth and accelerate the company’s competitive advantages. She has previously led sales and fuel sourcing for Crowley Fuels, the company’s Alaska-based business unit. Before joining Crowley, Skoglund worked for 12 years in the energy industry in Alaska and Texas.

Skoglund earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from Portland State University, and an MBA in global business from the University of Portland.

She currently serves on the board of Junior Achievement of NE Florida.

Bill's primary focus is merger & acquisitions and strategic consulting assignments for clients. Bill leads both sell-side and buy-side assignments for clients seeking to sell or grow their businesses. He also leads Heritage Capital Group’s strategic consulting practice. In this capacity, he provides exit planning consulting to clients to ensure both their personal and business goals are met through long-term strategic planning. Bill is a certified expert in lean management and has facilitated over 125 lean-based value enhancement projects resulting in improvements for his clients’ processes for marketing and sales, operations, manufacturing, project management, cash flow management, and internal support. In addition, Bill is experienced in providing valuation services. His valuation experience includes hundreds of valuations for clients in multiple industries to support transactions, buy/sell agreements, financial reporting, tax filing, and estate planning.

Prior to joining Heritage Capital Group, Bill served as a director of management consulting services for an engineering and management services contractor. He also served as a manager for the Supply Chain Optimization team for the consulting division of Deloitte & Touche, LLP, leading consulting projects and serving as manufacturing lead for Enterprise Resource Planning system implementations. Bill began his career in defense contracting and progressed to assistant program manager for a technical service contractor, providing logistics support for multiple U.S. Navy weapon system programs.

Bill is the past president of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville, serving 2021-2022, and is a graduate of the Leadership Jacksonville class of 2015. In 2016, he was appointed to the National Advisory Council for the National Association of Women Business Owners. He’s served as a panelist for the Jacksonville Women’s Business Center’s  ATHENAPowerLink® program since 2018. Bill has served as a judge for the annual Manufacturers Association of Florida's Manufacturers of the Year Award since 2011. He received his B.B.A. from Virginia Tech and his M.B.A., with a concentration in operations and management information systems, from Purdue University. He also has Series 79 and Series 63 securities licenses.