Riker “Rick” Stearns
Rick Stearns is the Founder and Managing Partner of Riker Capital. Rick has over 20 years of transaction experience working with both large and middle market companies.
Prior to founding Riker Capital, Rick was a Managing Director at Lazard Frères & Co. LLC where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions and debt restructurings. During his ten year tenure at Lazard, Mr. Stearns advised clients in a number of merger assignments totaling over $20 billion in value and several debt restructurings involving over $15 billion in debt. Rick has advised a number of well-known clients such as 3M, Cargill, Corn Products, Lufthansa, R.H. Donnelly, Sara Lee, SuperValu, Wrigley, and Wendy’s.
Prior to joining Lazard, Rick worked with William Blair & Company as well as Anthony Riker Ltd. Mr. Stearns advised start-up companies in strategy and financing during his time with Anthony Riker. While at William Blair, Rick focused on mergers and acquisitions as well as private and public equity offerings for middle-market companies.
Rick is a board member of the Children’s Memorial Foundation and The Make A Wish Foundation of Illinois. Rick is also a member of The Economic Club of Chicago.
Rick received his MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, where he graduated with distinction, and received his BA from Amherst College.
Gerald (Jerry) Grinstein
Jerry is a partner of Riker Capital and Co-Founder of Inveris Partners and Strategic Director of Madrona Venture Group.
Jerry served for nearly four years as the CEO of Delta Air Lines beginning in 2004. He is the former non-executive chair of Agilent Technologies, former CEO of Western Airlines and former chairman and CEO of Burlington Northern Inc. (BNI), where he oversaw the company's acquisition of Santa Fe Pacific Corporation, creating the nation's largest railroad. He was also chief counsel to the United States Senate Commerce Committee and, prior to that, counsel to the Merchant Marine & Transportation Subcommittee.
Jerry is a trustee of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation and a board member of Long Live the Kings, University of Washington Foundation, Foster School of Business and the William D. Ruckelshaus Center.
Jerry is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.
Tom Luce
Tom is a partner of Riker Capital and Co-Founder and Managing Principal of Inveris Partners.
From 2000 to 2007, Tom worked for Congressman Norm Dicks, where he advised the Congressman on a variety of issues of importance to the 6th Congressional District.
Following his work for Rep. Dicks, Tom worked on public and government affairs issues, serving a variety of business and public sector interests throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Tom currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, the Board of Directors of Forterra, and on the Board of Governors for the Henry M Jackson Foundation.
Tom is a graduate of Whitman College. He and his wife, Megan, have two young daughters.
Operating Council Robert Buchsbaum |
Advisory Council |
Peter Anthony
Peter Anthony is the President and Chief Executive Officer of UGN, Inc., a company that designs and manufactures high quality acoustic, interior trim, and thermal management products for the North American operations of Japanese carmakers. A skilled leader in the automotive industry, Peter has years of experience in strategic alignment, automotive technologies, the Toyota Production System (TPS), vertical integration, automotive sales and marketing, and product line expansion. Prior to several other executive roles within UGN, Inc., Peter served in a management sales position with Nissan North America. Peter is a chairman of the board Make-A-Wish Foundation of Illinois. He received his BA from John Carroll University.
Robert Buchsbaum
Robert Buchsbaum serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Blick Art Materials, a multichannel supplier of fine art supplies to K-12 educators, professional artists, designers and hobbyists of all ages. During his tenure, he successfully restructured the business and helped turn Blick into the leader in its specialty market. Prior to Blick, Mr. Buchsbaum was a consultant with McKinsey & Co. where he held the role of post-merger management specialist in the firm’s Washington, DC Office. He received his MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Financial Engineering and his BA from Amherst College.
Mitchell Marcus
Mitchell Marcus is the Senior Vice President, Corporate Development of Sara Lee Corporation. Mitch is part of the executive management team that reviews and develops corporate strategy and potential asset acquisition and divestiture candidates. Mr. Marcus is the senior executive responsible for leading the Corporation’s merger and acquisition activity. He led the negotiations and managed the team responsible for the execution of the divestiture Sara Lee’s €2 billion International Household and Body Care business and the sale of the Corporation’s $1 billion Fresh Bakery business.
Prior to Sara Lee, Mr. Marcus was a Managing Director with the investment banking division of Merrill Lynch. Mitch worked with Goldman Sachs and William Blair prior to Merrill Lynch. Prior to his investment banking experience, Mr. Marcus worked as a corporate attorney for Dewey Ballantine. Mitch, a non-active CPA, has also worked with Arthur Andersen as a staff accountant in the audit division.
Mr. Marcus received his BA from Emory University where he graduated with distinction, his JD from George Washington University graduating with Highest Honors and his MBA from University of Chicago graduating with High Honors.
Samuel C. Scott, III
Samuel C. Scott III is the retired Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Corn Products International, Inc.
Scott serves on the board of Motorola, Inc., where he is Chairman of the Compensation and Leadership Committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and the Chicago Urban League. He also serves as Chairman of the Chicago Sister Cities International Program.
Scott received both a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree in business administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J. He is a native of Jersey City, New Jersey, and presently resides in Chicago, Illinois.
C. Park Shaper
C. Park Shaper is President of Kinder Morgan, Inc., Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: KMP) and Kinder Morgan Management, LLC (NYSE: KMR). He is a member of the three-person Office of the Chairman and on the Board of Directors for all three entities. He joined the company in January 2000.
Prior to joining the staff of Kinder Morgan, Mr. Shaper was president and director of Altair Corporation, an enterprise focused on the distribution of web-based investment research for the financial services industry. In addition, he previously held the position of vice president and CFO of First Data Analytics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Data Corporation. Mr. Shaper has also been a consultant for The Boston Consulting Group.
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: KMP) is a leading pipeline transportation and energy storage company in North America. KMP owns an interest in or operates more than 28,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals. Its pipelines transport natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, CO2 and other products, and its terminals store petroleum products and chemicals and handle bulk materials like coal and petroleum coke. KMP is also the leading provider of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery projects in North America. One of the largest publicly traded pipeline limited partnerships in America, KMP has an enterprise value of over $29 billion. The general partner of KMP is owned by Kinder Morgan, Inc., a private company.
Mr. Shaper holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Quantitative Economics from Stanford University. He also earned a MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. An active member of the community, Mr. Shaper sits on the board of directors of the Alley Theatre and the Children’s Museum of Houston.
John Curtin
John Curtin is Founder and Managing Director of Sima Capital, LLC, a manager of alternative and private investments for a high net worth family in Houston, Texas. Sima Capital manages investments in buyout and venture funds, start-up and early stage technology companies, oil and gas opportunities, and real estate.
Prior to founding Sima Capital, Mr. Curtin was a founder and principal at TraceStone LLC, an origination, due diligence, and transaction execution service provider to venture capital firms and venture-backed companies. Focused on the oilfield technology sector, TraceStone’s clients included firms from Texas, California, Connecticut, England, Norway, and Saudi Arabia. Mr. Curtin’s transactional and investment experience also includes time at Enron as a principal on an investment team that originated over $300 million of debt and equity investments.
Mr. Curtin’s operational experience includes roles as the CFO of two startup companies, where, in addition to the raising of over $25 million in venture capital, he served as the lead operational executive. Early in his career, he was a member of a high growth, venture-backed start-up software company that was sold to an affiliate of Halliburton. While at Enron, Mr. Curtin served as the president and sole executive of an offshore Louisiana oil and gas operator: the assets of which were eventually sold to ATP Oil and Gas (NASDAQ: ATPG). Mr. Curtin has operated internationally in France, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, China, Singapore, and Brunei.
Mr. Curtin has served as a director of Basic Energy Services (NYSE: BAS), several private companies, and charitable organizations.
Mr. Curtin received a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Alexander Friedman
Alexander S. Friedman is the Chief Investment Officer of UBS Wealth Management.
Formerly, Friedman was Chief Financial Officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a member of the foundation’s management committee. His duties included overseeing all financial matters, strategic planning, measurement and evaluation and a number of special projects and administrative functions.
After leaving the Gates Foundation in March 2010, Friedman managed a private investment vehicle, Asymmetry LLC. He has also been a senior advisor to Lazard, the international investment bank, and a senior advisor to the board of directors of Actis, the global emerging markets private equity firm. Friedman is a member of the board of trustees of the Seattle Art Museum, where he is chairman of its investment committee and also served on the investment committee of the Gates-Cambridge Trust. Friedman was a judge of the Financial Times-Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year award and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Prior to the Gates Foundation, from 2002 until 2007, Friedman worked as an investment banker with Lazard. He also served as a White House Fellow and an assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Defense for special projects in the Clinton Administration.
In 1998, Friedman received a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He received a BA degree from Princeton University in 1993.
David Magdol
David Magdol is a Senior Vice President and member of the Investment Committee at Main Street Capital (NYSE: MAIN). Main Street Capital makes debt and equity investments in lower middle market companies and has approximately $500 million of capital under management. Mr. Magdol joined Main Street in 2002. Prior to joining Main Street, Mr. Magdol worked in the investment banking group of Lazard Freres & Co where he was responsible for executing and originating merger and acquisition transactions. Mr. Magdol joined Lazard from McMullen Group, a private equity investment firm/family office capitalized by Dr. John J. McMullen, where Mr. Magdol was responsible for managing a portfolio of private equity investments. Prior to joining the McMullen Group, Mr. Magdol worked in the structured finance services group of JP Morgan Chase (formerly Chemical Bank) after completing the bank’s management training program.
Mr. Magdol serves as the President of the Board of KIPP Houston, a charter school serving approximately 6,000 students in Houston, TX. He has also been a frequent guest lecturer at Columbia Law School discussing management buyouts.
Mr. Magdol received his BA from Skidmore College.
James Matthews
James Matthews is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Eden Rock Capital Management LLP. Eden Rock Capital Management is an independent alternative advisory firm which has approximately $700M under management. Prior to founding Eden Rock Capital Management, James established Eden Rock Securities in 2000 having left Nordic Options Ltd, where he had been a senior derivatives trader. James began his career at Nordic in 1995 and is a qualified trader on Eurex, OMLX and the International Securities Exchange (ISE) of New York.
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