ACG New York: PE/IB Quarterly Forum - Investing in Family and Founder Led Businesses

Mr. Thomas is a Partner at Aterian Investment Partners and serves on the Investment Committee. Mr. Thomas has over 20 years of transaction and operation experience from growth specific opportunities to complex situations. Prior to Aterian, Mr. Thomas was a Principal at Sun Capital Partners focused primarily on chemical, industrial and consumer products in the public and private markets. Mr. Thomas began his career in the Investment Banking group at Oppenheimer in New York, where he executed various corporate transactions and financings. Mr. Thomas graduated cum laude from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Compo is Managing Partner at Carriage Hill, a boutique investment bank specializing in privately negotiated transactions with family and founder owned companies in the middle market. He has over thirty years of diverse business experience and has acted as both a principal and advisor on many transactions involving debt and equity financings, acquisitions, and corporate restructurings across various industries, including healthcare, industrial services, logistics, and software. Prior to forming Carriage Hill, he was a partner at Iridium Partners, and earlier in his career he was employed with Loeb, Rhodes, Hornblower & Company in various operational capacities on the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the American Stock Exchange.

Andru is the CEO of Eaglestone, an Aterian portfolio company. Eaglestone acts as an umbrella company, providing back office support for a diverse group of construction related companies including, but not limited to, PJ Mechanical, The Pace Companies, Delta Sheet Metal, and Lotus Biosecurity.  

Prior to Aterian’s acquisition of The Pace Companies and the founding of Eaglestone, Andru was the owner CEO/President of the Pace Companies for over 30 years. The Pace Companies is a multi-generational company operating in the New York area for over 50 years. While at the helm of The Pace Companies, Andru and his handpicked team completed the plumbing, mechanical, and fire protection portion of some of New York’s most iconic buildings, including Tower 4 of the WTC, Jacob Javits Center, UN Secretariat Building, Thurgood Marshall Courthouse, among many others.

As a Partner at Ampersand Leadership Group, Kim engages directly with executives, boards, and investors in confronting their most important leadership challenges to maximize value creation. With a specialty in family-owned and founder-led business acquisitions, her sweet spot is serving private-equity clients as a trusted advisor during diligence and critical transitions. Kim’s consulting expertise is bolstered by almost two decades of hands-on operational experience leading LPK International, a fourth-generation firm specializing in the design and production of home furnishings and housewares. Her focus on individual and team development demonstrated time and again that an unwavering emphasis on human capital not only produces sustainable value, but also significantly increases competitive advantage. Kim graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology.