John Adams adams@castlecrow.com
Managing Director

John is a Managing Director 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 VNI, a publicly traded cable television 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 Director

As one of Castle Crow’s two founders, Keith 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 and packaging, paint and coatings, engineering and machinery, oil and gas, flavors and fragrances, precision components manufacturing, telecommunications, and recreational services.

Keith has nearly 20 years of investment banking, private equity and venture capital experience. Prior to co-founding Castle Crow in 2001, 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.

Chris Kuhns kuhns@castlecrow.com
Director

Chris is a Director of Castle Crow where his primary responsibilities include evaluating and negotiating investments, as well as maintaining relations with Castle Crow’s sponsor partners. He has participated in a number of direct investment transactions across a variety of companies in the manufacturing, value-added distribution and business services sectors.

Most recently, Chris led a transaction with Hilex Poly, an industry leading manufacturer of plastic bag and film products. Chris was also responsible for originating a majority investment in Offshore Inland, a multinational provider of maintenance and repair services to the offshore oil & gas industry. Previously, Chris was an Associate with Oppenheimer & Company. Prior to that, Chris was an Analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.

Chris is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds an MBA from Columbia University.

Kyle R. Nichols nichols@castlecrow.com
Director

As a Director 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.

Dave Gaggero gaggero@castlecrow.com
Vice President

Dave brings over a decade of financial services experience to Castle Crow. Previously, Dave worked in the Private Wealth Management Group of Credit Suisse where he advised high net worth individuals, company founders and senior executives on a wide array of personal and corporate financial strategies. While at Credit Suisse, Dave was directly involved in acquiring over $100 million in new management assets.

Prior to Credit Suisse he worked as an Equity Analyst at Symphony Asset Management; a San Francisco based hedge fund offering market neutral strategies. While at Symphony, Dave was responsible for investment decisions in the Oil Field Services and Technology industries, performing critical investment research on companies and industries, and directing meetings with senior executives.

Dave received the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Designation in 2005 and is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley.

Joseph Flannery flannery@castlecrow.com
Associate

Joe joined Castle Crow in early 2010 and primarily works closely with the firm’s senior professionals on a variety of transaction origination activities.

Joe has worked in Turkey and Korea, most recently in the corporate law department at Barun Law in Seoul, Korea’s fastest growing full service law firm. Previously, Joe worked in marketing for the San Diego Chargers.

Joe is a graduate of University of California, San Diego and is currently pursuing his JD/MBA at Santa Clara University.

Tyler Smith tsmith@castlecrow.com
Associate

Since joining Castle Crow in 2009, Tyler has worked closely with the firms professionals researching target markets and assisting the firm’s professionals with a wide variety of business development activities.

Previously, Tyler worked in the Private Wealth Management Group at Merrill Lynch. While at Merrill Lynch, Tyler provided research and assisted with the development of investment strategies for high net worth clients.

Tyler graduated with distinction from San Diego State University and is currently pursuing his Masters in Financial Analysis at the University of San Francisco.

Mark Agosto agosto@castlecrow.com
Senior Advisor

Mark is a Senior Advisor of Castle Crow and oversees the Southern California office. Mark has nearly 17 years of investment banking and corporate finance experience. He has advised more than 100 companies and has been involved in a variety of M&A related transactions, including acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, divestitures and capital raises. Mark’s experience spans a number of different industries, including plastics and advanced materials, aerospace and defense, business services, logistics and distribution, industrial manufacturing, and consumer products.

Prior to joining Castle Crow, Mark was a Managing Director at McGladrey Capital Markets, a leading investment bank where he assisted private and public businesses with their acquisition and growth strategies. He was an integral part of the senior leadership team and managed the Plastics & Advanced Materials, Chemicals, and Energy teams. Before McGladrey Capital Markets, he was a vice president with a San Francisco based merchant bank, the ARCH Group, where he facilitated leveraged buyouts. He also worked as a mergers and acquisitions principal with a Boston based middle market investment bank, Mirus Capital Advisors (formally Ross Crossland Weston) and as an analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

Mark currently serves on the board of directors for Pacific Quest, a wilderness therapy program for struggling teenagers based in Hawaii and meters2web, a smart meter reading company for utilities. Mark is a graduate of California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo and has a MBA with Honors from Boston University. He holds FINRA Series 7, 24 and 63 securities licenses.

Melissa Bergenty bergenty@castlecrow.com
Research Assistant

Prior to joining Castle Crow as Research Assistant, Melissa worked for First Mariner Bank in Baltimore, Maryland where she was responsible for branch settlement and other retail account services. During her time in Maryland she was also involved in politics at the state and local levels. Most recently, she worked in the San Francisco office of Turner & Townsend plc, a global consultancy firm.

Melissa is a graduate of Loyola University Maryland and has studied abroad in Spain and has studied law in San Francisco. She is also an active volunteer with Hands on Bay Area.

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