ACG TB - The Deal Behind the Growth: Inside the Rise–Cyndeo Partnership

Sam Anderson is the Co-Head of Dynasty Investment Bank at Dynasty Financial Partners LLC. Prior to joining Dynasty, Sam was Senior Managing Director and a member of the Management Committee at Medley Management Inc. Prior to joining Medley, Sam was Head of Commercial Finance M&A within the Financial Institutions Investment Banking Group at Goldman Sachs. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Sam was a member of the Investment Banking Financial Services Group at Bank of America. Prior to his time at Bank of America, Sam held various positions at Citi Smith Barney.

Sam is from New Portland Maine, a graduate of Bates College where he received his BA in Economics and was Captain of the Bates NCAA Division I alpine ski team. Sam currently lives in Vail Colorado with his wife Lisa and their three children. Sam and family are active in numerous local charities with a focus on youth sports.

Joe Duran is a wealth management visionary and a serial entrepreneur known for building and scaling some of the industry’s most influential firms. As Chief Investment Officer of Rise Growth Partners, Joe works closely with growth-oriented RIAs, partnering with them to grow into lighthouse brands and bring their visions to life.

He founded Rise to fill a critical gap in the market by delivering strategic expertise, capital, and support to a select group of RIA firms ready to scale with intention and retain control of their future. His passion for helping firms find a better path forward stems from the lessons he learned along his own journey of creating successful enterprises.

Prior to launching Rise, Joe was a Partner at Goldman Sachs as Co-Head of the Workplace and Personal Wealth business. Joe founded and was CEO of United Capital, one of the nation’s largest independent wealth management firms, which was acquired by Goldman Sachs. Prior to that he built and sold Centurion Capital—one of the first turnkey asset management platforms—to General Electric, where he served as President of GE Private Asset Management (now AssetMark).

Prior to launching Cyndeo Wealth Partners in 2020, Matt ran advisory teams at Merrill Lynch and UBS Financial for 29 years. Providing guidance, counsel, and strategy for families the firm serves is Matt’s passion. In addition to his role as an advisor, Matt works in a leadership capacity for Cyndeo while also helping with business development.

Matt has been recognized by Barron’s as a Top 1000 or Top 1200 Advisor consistently since 2009. In 2020 Forbes named him to their “Best-In-State Wealth Advisor” list. A graduate of Eckerd College, Matt has served on the Board of Trustees at his alma mater since 2012. His three children are his pride and joy. Daughter Carrington owns Sunstate Yoga studio in St. Petersburg, son Kent is a financial advisor with Cyndeo, and daughter Jillian recently graduated Florida State University. An athlete in college, Matt continues to enjoy staying in shape, playing basketball, and bike riding.

John Connery has a diverse transactional practice, with an emphasis on advising family offices, venture capital funds, companies, angel investors and private equity funds and their portfolio companies on structuring and negotiating complex business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, growth capital investments, joint ventures, fund formations and recapitalizations. John advises investors, developers and property managers on real estate joint ventures and regularly serves as outside general counsel to growing, middle market companies. He has substantial experience in structuring and tax planning for transactions. John served for many years as practice chair of the firm's Corporate & Tax Group. 

John acts as counsel to a number of institutional private equity and real estate investment and development clients, including KLH Capital, Mangrove Equity Partners, Keswick Partners, Clearwell Group, The Ferrante Group, Parkstone Growth Partners, Green Hills Partners, Landeavor, Fairbourne Properties, Third Lake Partners and Third Lake Capital. 

He is a Certified Public Accountant in Florida. Prior to joining the firm, John worked as an audit associate with Arthur Andersen in its Tampa office and practiced tax law in the Chicago office of the international law firm Mayer Brown.