Castle Crow & Company - PROFESSIONALS

John Adams adams@castlecrow.com
Managing Partner

John is a Managing Partner of Castle Crow, where he is involved in sourcing and negotiating transactions and maintaining relations with Castle Crow’s investment groups. Over the last 15 years, John has been directly responsible for transactions across a myriad of industries including logistics, telecommunications, aerospace, building products, packaging, laboratory supply, equipment rental, and electronic controls.

Before founding Castle Crow, John was with the Arch Group, a private equity merchant banking firm. Previously, while with Citigroup’s middle market investment banking division, John initiated and closed numerous transactions with both domestic and international companies including Flextronics, The Toro Company, Parker-Hannifin, Saint-Gobain, Siebe PLC and TA Associates.

John has also served as General Counsel for Visitel, a publicly traded media company and worked with KPMG's Acquisition Advisory Group. John is a graduate of the University of Southern California Business School and Pepperdine University School of Law.

Keith R. O'Donnell odonnell@castlecrow.com
Managing Partner

As one of Castle Crow’s two founders, Keith serves as the firm’s Managing Partner and is responsible for all operational functions of the firm including transaction sourcing, structuring, negotiating, working with portfolio companies and maintaining relations with institutional investors. Keith has participated in direct investment transactions across a wide variety of industries including plastics, packaging, paint and coatings, engineering and machinery, precision components manufacturing, flavors and fragrances, telecommunications, and recreational services.

Keith has nearly 20 years of investment banking, private equity and venture capital experience. Prior to co-founding Castle Crow, Keith played an integral role in the growth and success of the Arch Group, a private equity merchant banking firm in Northern California.

Keith also spent over six years with Graham Partners (formerly Viking Graham), the Philadelphia based Private Equity, M&A and Corporate Finance arm of the privately held Graham Group, a global organization with annual revenues in excess of $3 billion. While at Graham, Keith worked extensively with the group's operating companies and was an integral member of the transaction teams for numerous domestic and international mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and financings whose combined values exceeded $2 billion. In addition, Keith was intimately involved in Graham's private equity and venture capital investment activities. Keith is a graduate of Villanova University.

Erik Stephansen stephansen@castlecrow.com
Principal

Erik has been actively involved in investment banking and strategic planning for over a decade. Prior to joining Castle Crow, Erik was Vice President of Corporate Development for Ready Router, a California based provider of network recovery applications. While at Ready Router, Erik was instrumental in securing private equity funding and establishing numerous strategic operating partnerships.

Erik previously headed the investment banking activity of Tokai Bank's San Francisco office where he was directly responsible for the origination and cultivation of Tokai's West Coast merger & acquisition activities. His responsibilities included spearheading acquisition strategies for Capcom USA, a $100 million manufacturer and distributor of electronic games and Panda Express, a $1 billion restaurant operator. Erik is a graduate of University of California at Santa Barbara.

Kyle R. Nichols nichols@castlecrow.com
Principal

As a Principal of Castle Crow, Kyle has been involved in initiating middle market private equity transactions with companies in a variety of industries, including business services, healthcare and niche manufacturing, whose combined values exceed $100 million. Kyle's responsibilities include identifying, evaluating and negotiating transactions directly with business owners and entrepreneurs.

Most recently, Kyle was involved in the management buyout of EMSEAL Corporation and recapitalization of Niagara Thermal Products. Kyle was also responsible for originating investments in CAPCO Stone & Tile and SciTech Plastics Group.

Prior to joining Castle Crow, Kyle was an Associate with Heidrick & Struggles International, a leading executive search consulting firm. Kyle was part of Heidrick's Global Health Care Practice and was responsible for Chief level recruiting assignments with premiere health care technology, medical device and biotech companies. Kyle is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley.

Samuel S. Petke petke@castlecrow.com
Principal

Since joining Castle Crow, Sam has been involved in initiating middle market private equity transactions with companies across a wide variety of industries. Most recently, Sam was directly responsible for originating the acquisition of Industrial Magnetics, a Michigan based industry leader in providing both permanent magnets and electromagnetic devices.

Prior to joining Castle Crow, Sam worked as a Consultant for World Savings, a leading Northern California consumer financial services company with over $90 billion in assets. Previously, Sam was responsible for the negotiation of multi-tier purchasing contracts at Maxim Integrated Products, a $1.4 billion global leader in design, development, and manufacture of linear and mixed-signal integrated circuits. Sam has also appeared as a guest lecturer for a real estate finance course at the University of California, Berkeley.

Sam is a Member of the Board of Directors for the University of California Regents endorsed financial endowment program for athletics. Sam is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.

Chris Kuhns kuhns@castlecrow.com
Vice President

Since joining Castle Crow, Chris has been responsible for identifying and structuring buyout and recapitalization transactions in middle market businesses, focusing on manufacturing and industrial services.

Prior to joining Castle Crow, from 2003 to 2006, Chris was a Director with Oppenheimer & Co., specializing in investment analysis and equity derivative strategies. Previously, Chris was an Associate at Credit Suisse's private bank, where he supported the management of over $1 billion in assets. Chris began his career in the banking industry as an analyst with Deutsche Bank.

Chris is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is currently pursuing his MBA at the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.

Jennifer Shaw shaw@castlecrow.com
Senior Researcher

Prior to joining Castle Crow as a Research Associate, Jennifer spent over eight years in the executive search industry. Most recently, she worked with TMP Worldwide in their Atlanta and Hong Kong offices as a Senior Associate executing senior executive level searches across multiple industry sectors. Jennifer was also a key driver of the Firm´s global training and proprietary database development initiatives.

Before joining TMP, Jennifer was an Associate with Spencer Stuart & Associates for more than six years in their Atlanta and Chicago offices, where she specialized in executive and senior level management searches within the technology and e-commerce sectors for Fortune 500 clients. Jennifer also served as the Global Technology Practice Advisor developing best practices in executive search strategies. Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is currently pursuing her MBA.