 |
|
|
|
Our Team
George J. Sherry, Founder & Sr. Managing Partner George has been active in the merger, acquisition and divestiture arena for over the past ten years guiding a number of firms and owners through the process. In addition George has led numerous efforts to improve sales operations, competitive positioning and operating margins across a wide range of industries including high-tech, communications, specialty manufacturing, distribution and services. Prior to his role with Navigator Associates, George has had extensive entrepreneurial and sales operating experience working with and coaching early stage and small middle-market companies. He established the original business relationship among Intira, Deloitte Consulting, and Deloitte Ventures, to provide an advanced form of mission critical application outsourcing. The initial value of the relationship was calculated at $200M pre-IPO. He was also instrumental, first as a Director of Sales & Marketing, and later as general manager, in the rapid commercial growth as well as the successful divestiture of a Mid-Atlantic based computer systems integrator. George began his career first as a sales account executive with Xerox Corporation, later moving on to sales management, product management and general management positions with Rolm and IBM. George’s initial professional consulting experience with Coopers & Lybrand’s Strategic Management Services Group was focused on developing business unit and operating strategies, improving client competitive position, implementing productivity improvements leading to acquisition and divestiture activities for Fortune 500 clients. George received his MBA, with honors, from the University of Chicago (Finance & Economics) and holds a Bachelor of Science degree, magna cum laude, from Northeastern University. John L. Verna, Founder & Sr. Managing Partner
John has equally extensive experience leading corporate acquisition activities; this experience proves useful in providing sellers a clear understanding of the buyer perspective while positioning the seller for success. His depth of M&A experience includes pre-transaction consulting, deal structuring, valuation and selling of privately owned companies and business lines as well as the sale of operating units of publicly owned companies, and John has closed many middle and small market deals. Prior to this, John was with the consulting division of Coopers & Lybrand, where he was responsible for the start-up and operation of the Atlantic Region M&A Divestiture Consulting Practice. He was also a manager with the firm’s Strategic Management Services Group, which was engaged in business strategy development as well as competitor, customer, vendor and partner intelligence gathering for various multinational corporations. Other Coopers & Lybrand consulting experience involved business turn-around, financial restructuring, bankruptcy reorganization as well as management and organizational evaluation. Prior to this, he was a Senior Auditor with Coopers & Lybrand’s Financial Audit Group. John is an adjunct professor at Widener University’s Graduate Business School, where he lectures on business valuation, the divestiture process and business strategy. John holds a Bachelor of Science in Commerce degree from Rider University and a Masters of Business Administration degree in Business Strategy and Marketing from Cornell University. He is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Pennsylvania. Joseph Diegel, Managing Partner
Joe was instrumental in starting a new Division to handle the growing Vinyl window business and established the divisional reporting, hiring, and organizational structure. Joe then spent five years with a Bank in Philadelphia as CFO and served as a member of the Board. Using all of these experiences, Joe most recently has been instrumental in the turnaround efforts at three different companies in the cyclical metals industry. In addition, Joe has served as a Director on the Boards of three mid-size manufacturing companies. Joe holds a Bachelor of Science degree from LaSalle University in Philadelphia with a Major in Business Administration and Accounting. He is also an MBA candidate at St. Joseph University in Philadelphia with a concentration in Finance. Richard J. Sharoff, Senior Advisor
Richard is a Managing Partner of Windstar Advisors along with its affiliate Franstar. Both companies serve the consumer products and services industries, with Franstar focusing on emerging multi unit retail companies. Prior to this, he was the founder and CEO of an international restaurant chain, which he acquired and built to approximately 200 units. As one result of his efforts he was named a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Maryland in 2003. He was also President and CEO of another 13 unit restaurant chain, and President and COO of a publicly traded foodservice manufacturing company where he affected a widely acclaimed turnaround. He was Director of Corporate Planning for a Fortune 50 company where he was instrumental in several M&A transactions. Richard holds MBA and BS degrees from New York University. He served on the Boards of five companies including one health care firm with revenues of $5 billion. He is a past member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and has appeared as a guest speaker on several local radio shows. James W. Morrissey, Senior Director, Valuation & Corporate Financial Services
Intangible assets valued by Mr. Morrissey include trademarks, trade names, customer information files, patents, information data bases, trade secrets, proprietary processes, contractual rights, subscriber files, copyrights, computer software, goodwill, going concern values, assembled workforces, licenses, net operating loss carry forwards, and engineering drawings. Mr. Morrissey has managed special projects dealing with multi-discipline valuation engagements, remaining life studies, and feasibility studies. His investment banking experience includes guiding merger and acquisition transactions, and debt and equity placements for domestic and foreign clients. Jim is an active speaker on business valuation and financial analyses before the American Institute of CPAs Continuing Education program. His articles were published by the Maryland Institute of Continuing Professional Education of Lawyers, Perspective, Daily Record, and the Legal Times-Special Report on Intellectual Property. He has authored a course and manual by the AICPA titled Research and Analysis: Critical Techniques in a Business Valuation Engagement. Jim served on committees of the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) and the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts developing professional practice standards for business appraisers. He is past president of the Northeast Philadelphia Chapter of the National Association of Accountants and a past officer of the Maryland Chapter of the ASA. Jim earned his Master of Business Administration from Indiana University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, minors in economics and mathematics, cum laude, from East Stroudsburg State College. He earned the ABV designation, Accredited in Business Valuation, sponsored by the AICPA, and holds an inactive CPA license from Pennsylvania Richard Madrid, Senior Director
While at Ameritech, Rich coordinated the $980M investment into General Electric Information Services’ subsidiary to develop new electronic commerce/EDI solutions which led to product/service roll outs for Supply Chain Management, Inventory Management, and On-line purchasing applications while also acting as the voting member to CommerceNet, the Alliance for Converging Technologies. Richard also led the technical and business partner due diligence teams in approving venture investments in Broadvision, Open Market, Verisign, and Premenos. Rich is very experienced in assessing markets, and analyzing revenue, operational, and financial metrics relating to successfully position products and services to optimize performance in highly competitive markets. As Vice President of Product Development & Product Management at Dantis, Inc., Rich was responsible for providing software/service development and national service roll out plans. Related, he was responsible for developing the Marketing Requirements in tandem with leading channel and technology partners, and responsible for negotiating the relevant value propositions, business models, and business relationships. Ronald Bonlender, Senior Managing Director
Prior to joining Navigator Associates, Ron Bonlender spent over 20 years engaged in new venture activity, new product development and product management, and process improvement. At IBM, Ron held senior product and market planning positions while building software product awareness and directing related product launches. Ron is highly skilled in both qualitative and quantitative market research, and experienced in performing competitive analyses required to successful exploit various market segments. This experience includes prioritizing high profit and strategic markets for both established organizations and start-up ventures. While with IBM, Ron worked with Booze Allen to produce detailed market studies to determine trends that led to substantial increases in market share. As VP of Product Management at Chorus Networks, Ron was responsible for delivering business results through his design and implementation of an effective product development process, integrating business strategies with financial objectives and organizational capabilities, while focused on exploiting the telecommunications market. Previous to this, Ron built a consulting practice within RCI/HFS, a leading firm serving the vacation industry, to provide a global strategic planning process to achieve and maintain leadership in worldwide markets. He was also responsible for creating and implementing ‘Scenario Analyses’ to simulate future market and competitive actions. Earlier in his career, Ron developed advanced analytical skills working as an industrial engineer for the 3M Company. These skills serve our clients well in providing objective analysis to seek out best alternatives and options related to cost/benefit analysis, efficiency analysis, and profit or business value maximization strategies. Ron earned his MBA from the Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, with a concentration in Marketing/Finance, and received his BS degree in Industrial Technology from the University of Wisconsin. Helen Athey, Director of Research
Helen has extensive experience in identifying and qualifying potential business buyers. She is expert at gathering and analyzing intelligence on direct competitors, new market entrants, customers, vendors, financial groups as well as other potential company buyers. She is highly skilled and creative in researching topics important to privately held companies using a variety of sources and techniques, both public and private. Prior to joining Navigator Associates, Helen was a Research Assistant at the University of Maryland. Helen was the only graduate student recipient of the prestigious Christa McAuliffe Scholarship Award in the State of Maryland. Helen graduated, Magna cum Laude, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and earned her Masters in Education from the University of Maryland with honors. She also attended the University of Colrain in Ireland.
|
|
Copyright © 2005 Navigator Associates |
Joe Diegel’s experience over the past two decades includes holding
various Senior Financial Management positions for diversified manufacturing
companies. Joe’s responsibilities included all acquisition work at the various
organizations including pre-transaction due diligence, deal structuring and
valuation, negotiations, and eventual Bank sourcing when necessary. The size of
the successful acquisitions ran from $10M to a high of $45M including a multiple
site purchase. As part of his operating experience, Joe directed and provided
oversight of all financial matters along with short and long-term financial
planning while also managing the successful implementation of complete
Information Systems at his last four companies. Some of these assignments
included multi-national responsibilities in Europe and South America. Joe began
his career in various financial roles with CertainTeed Corporation. CertainTeed
is a Fortune 200 leader in the building materials industry, operating 12
manufacturing facilities in the United States. 
Jim has developed or reviewed over 400 business valuation conclusions and
financial analyses for litigation support, estate tax planning, employee stock
ownership plans, purchase price allocations, buy/sell agreements, economic
damages, mergers, acquisitions, recapitalizations, leveraged buyouts, and
fraudulent conveyances for clients in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada
and Latin America. The equity valuations have included common stock, preferred
stock, member interests, limited partnership interests, and general partnership
interests.
Richard Madrid, prior to joining Navigator Associates, has spent 20
years serving the technology industry at both Fortune 500 and early stage
ventures where he focused on performing business and technical due
diligence, financial strategy, product/services planning and roll out, and
business development. In these capacities, he often served as an external
interface to leading industry analysts, investors, and opinion leaders,
and spoke at major industry forums. Richard also led key marketing and
software IT initiatives across vertical industries including
Manufacturing, Healthcare, Financial, and Automotive.
Ron
is very skilled at assisting organization’s to identify market/business/product
opportunities and best position and better extend into markets they currently
operate within through deployment of both a strategic and functional framework;
the objective is to produce higher market valuations through better competitive
positioning and superior operating results. 
Helen Athey is a Director with Navigator Associates responsible for
Research and has over 10 years of business research experience.