Ms. Sweta Chanda is a Managing Director, Head of Business Strategy of Monroe Capital. She is responsible for firmwide strategy, product and corporate development, and new initiatives to expand Monroe’s global footprint. Ms. Chanda has over 15 years of experience in asset management and has achieved business growth through strategic stewardship, new product development and sourcing of M&A opportunities. Prior to Monroe, Ms. Chanda was a Director at New York Life Investment Management (NYLIM) within the Strategy and M&A team responsible for heading alternative investment strategy, where she helped launch a European Opportunistic Credit Fund, European CLO platform, GP Stakes Fund, and a Social Impact Fund amongst other strategic business development and growth opportunities for NYLIM. Prior to NYLIM, she was a Vice President at Blackstone, where she led initiatives related to cross platform mandates, relationship management, and operations across the firm’s Hedge Fund Solutions platform. Prior to Blackstone, she was an Assistant Vice President at Lehman Brothers in the Business Process Alignment Group working on strategy and process alignment for the investment banking division, and a Client Relations Associate, Management Consultant at Starpoint Solutions. Ms. Chanda earned her B.S. in TXA Management and Foundations in Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin.

Ellis is a Managing Director based in Washington DC and a senior leader of the firm’s Aerospace, Defense & Government Services (ADG) group. Ellis has significant investment banking and M&A advisory experience having worked with leading public and private defense technology and government services businesses. Prior to joining DC Advisory, Ellis was a lead within the Defense and Government Services team at Raymond James. Ellis earned his MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Kevin Cunningham is a Partner at LNC Partners, a private equity firm that provides middle-market companies with flexible capital in the form of equity (control or minority) and debt. Kevin is focused on B2B tech-enabled service and software businesses and during his tenure at LNC, has been actively involved with Cantey Tech, i9 Sports, OutSolve, Sunstar, Terra Dotta, and West Physics. Mr. Cunningham received his MBA from Columbia Business School, and a BS in Finance from the University of Virginia.

Scott serves as the founder and CEO of middle market private equity group SJ Partners, LLC (“SJP”). For over 20 years, SJP has advised and invested in the consumer and services industries. He currently serves on the board of portfolio companies Native Maine and Central BDC.

Scott has been awarded M&A Atlas Award Dealmaker of the Year and SJP won the ACG NY Champions firm of the year award. SJP uses an operating partner focus to grow middle market consumer and services companies. SJP has also been successful at growth by acquisition strategies. Its portfolio company Spectrio grew more than twelvefold under SJP’s ownership, driven by fourteen add-on acquisitions, before being successfully exited to the Riverside Company. This transaction won the M&A Atlas North American Deal of the Year. SJ Partners has been named a Top 50 Private Equity firm.

Scott previously was a securities analyst at Salomon Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch (Merrill team rated #2 on Wall Street, according to Institutional Investor). Scott complements his financial orientation with operating experience, having served as CFO of an in store advertising company.

Scott has taught as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School. He also teaches an introduction to business course to non business professionals entitled “One Day MBA.”

He received his BA, MBA, and MIA (Masters of International Affairs) from Columbia University.

Scott has served as a board member of the Association for Corporate Growth’s New York chapter and previously chaired its education committee. Scott is also a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), Wings Club, Business Executives for National Security, and Economic Club of New York. Scott lives in Las Vegas, is an active pilot, and is trying to learn to skate so he can keep up with us son on the ice.

As a Senior Vice President, Tristan supports several Managing Directors in the marketing and sale of private companies across the East Coast region.

Tristan is responsible for transitioning clients from evaluation to in-market through the preparation of marketing materials, buyer lists, and offering memorandums. Before joining the Generational Equity M&A Team, Tristan worked in lower-middle-market M&A in the Greater New York region with a focus on hospitality, education and construction.

Tristan has also worked across managerial consulting, real estate development, banking, and the startup space in various capacities. Most recently, Tristan built and operated a boutique fitness concept in Manhattan and a private real estate development company where served as CEO and CFO, respectively.

Tristan holds a degree in Property Economics and a Master of Applied Finance from Queensland University of Technology’s Business School.

Suzanne Koenig is president and founder of SAK Management Services LLC, a nationally recognized healthcare management and consulting services firm, with specific expertise in senior living, skilled nursing, and long-term care facilities. As owner and operator of SAK Management Services for over 30 years, Ms. Koenig provides a highly specialized combination of skills in the areas of operations improvement, staff development and quality assurance. As a senior living facility owner herself, Ms. Koenig understands the challenges and opportunities confronting senior living and long term care providers in managing the industry’s changing dynamics. Ms. Koenig’s meticulous precision in marketing and census development within the healthcare industry results in unparalleled operational enhancements.

Ms. Koenig is a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator and a Licensed Social Worker in multiple states, and her professional experience includes:

Executive positions in marketing, development and operations management for both regional and national health care providers representing property portfolios throughout the country

Numerous appointments as the Patient Care Ombudsman in several health care bankruptcy filings in Delaware and throughout the United States. Ms. Koenig is the most frequent court-appointed Patient Care Ombudsman to medical facilities, advocating for patient care, in the country.

Management roles with over 500 facilities nationwide, providing in-house management to restore care and fiscal responsibility while establishing administrative teams to lead each facility in the future

Ms. Koenig holds a Master of Science Degree from Spertus College, Illinois, and a Bachelor of Social Work Degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. She is a frequent speaker for various healthcare industry associations and business affiliates where she conducts continuing education and training programs.

Robert Koven is the Managing Director of Leonis Partners, one of New York City’s top financial firms with a focus on Mergers & Acquisitions and equity capital transactions. After working for investment banks like JPMorgan and Lazard Freres, Robert Koven and his team at Leonis took techniques they learned at those large financial institutions and applied them to growing technology businesses. They found much interest in the middle market where, historically, access to premier M&A and capital advice was limited. From its founding, Leonis has grown quickly and emerged as a leader in technology M&A and capital raising.

Robert Koven continues to grow Leonis Partners, preparing a West Coast expansion to complement the company’s New York, Washington, DC, and Atlanta locations.

Amy Lissauer is a Managing Director and Global Head of Activism and Raid Defense at Bank of America. In her role, she advises companies across all industries on activism and raid defense, contested shareholder situations, proxy solicitations, investor relations and corporate governance matters. Ms. Lissauer has advised over 200 companies facing activism or strategic raids. Prior to joining Bank of America, Ms. Lissauer was a Managing Director at Evercore where she helped to cofound the activism and raid defense team.

Prior to Evercore, she was the COO of Executive Finance at Bridgewater Associates (Dalio Family Office). Prior to Bridgewater Associates, she was a Vice President in Goldman Sachs’ Mergers and Acquisitions Group and an Associate in Goldman Sachs’ Global Investment Research Division in the Global Markets Institute, where she authored economic and policy research.

Ms. Lissauer has a B.S. from Cornell University. She has published articles and speaks frequently on mergers & acquisitions, hostile activity, and board/shareholder interaction.

Transaction Advisory Services Private Equity Services Industry Practice Leader. As the Leader of the Firm’s Private Equity Industry group, Scott has spent over 25 years working closely with clients in private equity, venture capital, investment banking and financing industries. In this role, he coordinates the delivery of transaction advisory, IT & cybersecurity due diligence, transaction tax due diligence and structuring, valuation and specialty tax services to private equity clients and their portfolio companies. Additionally, Scott provides assistance with post-acquisition strategy, implementation and execution services.

Byron Nelson is a Managing Director and head of the U.S. Technology, Media, and Telecommunications group of Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC. Byron has over sixteen years of experience working in the full range of investment banking services, including providing advisory services to assist small-cap and large-cap companies with their corporate development needs; and closing both buy and sell-side global mandates, leverage buyouts, and financial restructurings in the technology, media, telecom, financial institutions, consumer, manufacturing, and energy industries.

Byron is also a participant in the Deloitte CFO Leadership Program in which he is placed in the largest TMT accounts of Deloitte for select M&A advisory, Strategy and Operations Advisory and Financial Advisory Services. Byron has significant knowledge of cross-border-related mergers and acquisitions and the general corporate finance activities of U.S. and international businesses. Prior to joining DCF, Byron was an analyst and associate in Mergers and Acquisitions at an international investment bank.

Gen Oraa is a partner who specializes in providing clients with transaction advisory services. Gen has led and executed due diligence for over 120 merger and acquisition transactions for strategic and private equity buyers and sellers. She has advised middle market clients on M&A transactions with purchase price ranging from $10 million to over $700 million.

She has worked on transactions in various industries, including professional services, industrial/manufacturing, government contractors, aerospace and defense, distribution/logistics, corporate housing, media/online advertising, education, textile, retail, life science and health services, and business/staffing services.

In addition to financial due diligence, she advised clients on transactions involving letter of interest, net working capital peg, purchase agreements, purchase price adjustments, debt and debt-like items, closing statements and other related assistance.

Prior to joining CohnReznick, Gen served in the transaction advisory services teams of BDO, KPMG, and Grant Thornton in the US. Her professional career began at Arthur Andersen, Philippines (now Ernst and Young), as an auditor and later worked on finance, accounting, and internal audit at a small conglomerate.

Eric has over 16 years of experience in M&A, corporate development, private equity, industry consolidations, and investment banking. He has a unique lens into transaction dynamics from the perspective of buyers and sellers, and his deep knowledge base enables him to create strategic and value-add opportunities for clients.

Prior to Ascend, Eric led the origination and execution of M&A transactions at Evergreen Advisors, and worked for Raymond James and Abshier, Webb, Donnelly, and Baker. He also worked in a principal capacity for a Sterling Partners portfolio company having executed 12 deals over a 12 month period.

Education: MBA from Loyola University Maryland

Masters in Theological Studies from Urshan Graduate School of Theology

BS in Economics from Texas A&M University

Managing Director Holly Smyth has more than 20 years of experience in the banking industry, providing financing solutions for independent, private equity, and family-owned middle market companies in the U.S. and Latin America.

Ms. Smyth has advised clients on various deal structures, including leveraged buy-outs, recapitalizations, and growth and acquisition financings. She has worked with clients in the industrial, transportation and logistics, business services, consumer products, and renewable energy sectors of the economy.

Prior to joining legacy FocalPoint, now B. Riley Securities, Ms. Smyth was a Senior Vice President in commercial lending at BBVA U.S.A. She previously served as Senior Vice President in commercial lending at the Royal Bank of Scotland and as a Vice President in project finance at ABN AMRO/LaSalle Bank. Ms. Smyth holds a Bachelor of Science in finance and marketing from Miami University (Ohio) and a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Ms. Smyth is currently on the Board of ACG Chicago’s M&A and Private Equity Committee and will serve as Co-Chair in 2024. She is a member of Chief, the only private membership network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders. Holly is very involved in her community and supporting local philanthropic organizations.

Cullen is chair of Cooley’s business restructuring & reorganization practice and partner in charge of its Washington, DC, office. Cullen is a top advocate in corporate restructuring and financial litigation, with a diverse practice spanning a range of industries, including private equity, healthcare, life sciences, technology, energy and retail. She regularly represents debtors, creditors’ committees, trustees and foreign representatives in significant bankruptcy matters throughout the US. Cullen also is recognized for her proactive, forward-focused approach to solvency strategy and for providing tactical guidance to Cooley business clients – including public, private and high-growth companies – in all aspects of contingency planning, risk mitigation and business portfolio improvement.

Having led some of the largest and most significant restructuring engagements in a multitude of jurisdictions, Cullen has deep experience in complex insolvency litigation. Her recent practice experience includes serving as lead restructuring counsel to official creditor constituencies in Mallinckrodt, LTL Management (Johnson & Johnson), Endo International, Le Tote, 24 Hour Fitness and White Stallion Energy.

Cullen also acts as lead restructuring counsel to companies seeking to reorganize in and out of court and provides business risk management and strategic advice to entities across such industries as technology, life sciences, cyber services and cryptocurrency. Cullen’s company-side practice involves representation of public and private debtors in Chapter 11 cases, and she often confronts complex emerging legal issues and matters of public importance. Her current work on behalf of companies in bankruptcy includes representing Ascena Retail Group (Ann Taylor, Loft, Lane Bryant), as well as serving as lead restructuring counsel to Enjoy Technology, NS8, PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, Quanergy Systems and Lucira Health in Chapter 11 proceedings.

Jacob is from a small dairy farm in Iowa, the son of hippie runaways, who both were the first in their families to go to college. By the age of five years old, he was waking up at 4 AM to milk and feed cows before school and again after school from 3-8 PM. Consequently, the values of a good education, independence, responsibility, work ethic, and the importance of family were repetitively taught from a very young age. Much to his parents’ chagrin, he enrolled at Cornell University to become a large animal veterinarian or a college professor but got sidetracked with finance classes resulting in an unpaid internship with Rabobank, a Dutch multinational bank in New York City. He worked on mergers and acquisitions in South and Latin America, specifically focusing on dairy and agriculture.

A couple of years later, in a moment of brilliance and foresight, he moved to Boston and accepted a job with Arthur Andersen in their M&A technology practice as the tech bubble was bursting and Andersen was being brought down by Enron. Realizing that corporate America wasn’t the best place for an individual with an independent streak, in 2003, he co-founded Capstone Partners. From the onset, he founded, led, and developed the Education and Training practice at Capstone.

Over the next 20 years, he was instrumental in growing the firm from two to over 200 people, successfully helping lead the Company through its sale to Huntington Bank in June 2022. During his tenure at Capstone, he was nominated for over 50 M&A deal of the year awards, winning 20 of them, and being named an Emerging Leader in his early 30s and Investment Banker of the Year in 2021 at age 44. However, the entrepreneurial bug bit again, and in early 2023, he and the rest of the Education and Training practice left Huntington to found Navagant Advisors, a boutique sell-side M&A firm dedicated to the Education and Training industry.

In his limited free time, he and his husband JJ love going on nature hikes, traveling the world, becoming “master” home improvement experts, and golfing poorly. He barely tolerates a massive inter-family Boston vs. Pittsburgh sports rivalry and tries to get to Cape Cod to visit his folks as much as possible.