ACG St. Louis 2023 Private Equity Perspectives Breakfast

Graeme is the President of Private Capital Research LLC (“PCR”), a buy-side M&A and consulting firm he founded twenty-one years ago that sources, originates, and co-invests in buyout and recapitalization transactions with middle-market private equity firms and corporate clients (www.pcrllc.com); and he is also a Founder of GF Data® an ACG Company, a subscription-based database company that publishes quarterly reports and hosts a searchable online utility that features proprietary transaction (valuation, leverage and key deal terms) data on private equity-sponsored M&A transactions with $10 to $500 million in total enterprise value (www.gfdata.com), that was recently sold to ACG.

Prior to PCR, Graeme was Director of Research for the Private Capital Group of Berwind Financial Group LP, (a subsidiary of the Berwind Corporation).  Prior to Berwind, he was a founding shareholder in an investment company that specialized in acquiring underperforming middle market manufacturing companies and turnaround situations.  Graeme started his career in finance at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corporation. 

Graeme has a B.A. in Economics from Trinity College in Hartford, CT, and an M.B.A. from Temple University (Executive Program), where he received the Dean’s Certificate of Excellence and was elected to the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society.

Brooke Ansel is a Vice President in Corporate Finance for Prudential Private Capital, located in Dallas. She leads a team responsible for marketing, originating, and managing private placement and mezzanine investments in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Northern Texas. Prior to this role, Brooke’s work experience includes five years at Neiman Marcus, principally in the buying organization, as well as seven years of M&A and valuation experience at HBK Capital Management and Deloitte. She joined Prudential in 2014.  Brooke received a BBA from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business.

Kevin Prunty is Senior Managing Director and Head of RGA’s Private Debt & Equity team, which manages $4B in assets. He is responsible for both direct debt, equity and fund investments and has over 23 years of experience in all facets of corporate and leveraged finance, including origination, underwriting, structuring, and portfolio management across a wide range of industry sectors, as well as workout situations and has directly managed more than $2.5B of private investment exposure in his career. Kevin serves on multiple fund advisory boards and is a board observer for many portfolio companies.

He received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis, where he also played four years of basketball. He is a current board member and past president of the Association for Corporate Growth’s (ACG) St. Louis chapter as well as a global ACG board member.  Kevin also serves on the board of Addiction is Real (AIR), a nonprofit organization focused on parent-based drug addiction prevention for young people, founded by his wife Kelly.

Mandy Fritz is currently a Vice President of Corporate Banking at PNC Bank.  In this role, she is responsible for providing strategic ideas and insights related to lending, capital markets, treasury and  asset management and corporate advisory services.  In addition, she currently manages banking relationships in the middle market and large corporate space across a wide variety of industries.  Mandy, who has been with PNC for 10 years, has more than 16 years of banking experience.  In her prior roles, she focused on helping clients with capital structures in the lower middle market.

Active in the St. Louis community, Mandy serves on the board of the Association for Corporate Growth as the membership chair.  She is a member of the finance committee for St. Clement of Rome parish, and she is a grant committee member for the Women’s Foundation of St. Louis.

Mandy earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Miami University of Ohio and holds a Master of Business Administration degree.