info@exitthefamilybusiness.com
978-369-4800
Meet The Team
Our Team
Creating “value” is far more than just increasing revenue. It is more than merely increasing net profits. When it was all about lifestyle, the cash flow you could take home was all that mattered. Now that it's time to start transitioning out of business, you need to understand the gap between the owner value world and buyer value world. Our team is here to help you every step of the way.
Founding Partners
Rick McDonald
CEO,
Family Business Advisor, Lead Exit Planner
Steve Vesey
Founding Partner,
Lead Exit Planner, Business Valuation Specialist, CPA
Senior Advisors
Rob slee
Senior Advisor
Author, Investment Banker, Mentor, and Business Owner.
David Hockley
Partner & Senior Advisor
Business Growth Expert
Advisors
MIke Camarro
Business Development Officer
PETER Wollmeringer
Chief Valuation Officer
Associates
David J. Roache
Trusted Advisor. Business Growth, Strategy & Execution
Richard Katzman
Founder and MD of OCL. Profitability Expert for family & small businesses
ANDY SHERMAN
Fractional CRO
Back Office Team
ANALYST TEAM
Hand-picked business analysts and transition experts
Is This you?
Exit is always looking to add talented people to it's team. We'd love to hear from you if you'd bring relevant value or contacts to the team.
Rick McDonald
CEO, Personal Wealth Advisor,
Lead Exit Planner
Steve Vesey
Partner, Lead Exit Planner, Business Valuation Specialist, CPA
David Hockley
Partner, Senior Member of Exit Team, Business Growth Expert
ANALYST TEAM
Hand-picked business analysts and transition experts
Rick McDonald
A note from Rick...
It’s important to know that members of your Trusted Advisory team have been around the block a couple of times, that they “get it” and they care.
I have built a family business and sold it to my boys. They run it now. So I understand the challenges and family dynamics involved in a family transaction. In fact, over my career, I have probably worked with a hundred families dealing with the transition of their family business, both small, and some worth more than
$100 million. Some first-generation businesses, some 4th generation businesses.
I also come into this with a balance of understanding of human capital, family dynamics, and financial management. I have worked in Wall Street firms, and in fact, some of the largest in the money management industry. I have been a mutual fund manager, have significant experience in a number of wealth management disciplines, and perhaps more importantly, I built and ran my own firm for over 30 years before the boys got a hold of it. But most importantly, I have helped clients understand the meaning of money, their values, and the value and role of their wealth, be it liquid, a business, or something else. All in pursuit of happiness and fulfillment of life’s goals.
I am proud of what we do at Exit. Family business owners are often overwhelmed with the decision to sell and understand the process. And while I have witnessed countless firms willing to sell these fine businesses, few take the time to learn about the family, and how to improve the value of the business as they
approach a transition of ownership to either family, employees, or outsiders. This is what Exit is all about. I am blessed with great partners and know that the work we do is beyond anything I have seen in the marketplace, and for that, I am truly proud of what we offer, what we deliver, and the valued relationships we
create with those who put their faith in us, our cherished clients.
Steve Vesey
Steve Vesey is another integral part of the 'Exit' Team. He was born in Boston and graduated from Salem State University. He's been a CPA for 40 years and sold his ten-person practice to devote full-time efforts to business valuation and exit planning.
Steve now lives in Danvers, MA with his wife Michele. They raised 6 children and are the proud grandparents of 13 grandchildren.
For the past 25 years, he’s prepared hundreds of business valuations. Steve has assisted hundreds of baby boomer business owners in creating successful succession plans to exit from their enterprises.
Steve is also the proud recipient of the National Excellence in Exit Planning Award from Pinnacle Equity Solutions and is a frequent speaker at national conferences on exit planning.
His professional mission is to help the baby boomer business owner get to the finish line and enjoy the retirement they so justly deserve.
Rob Slee
Rob Slee is an author, investment banker, mentor, and business owner.
Rob has authored more than five hundred articles on private finance topics in a variety of legal and business journals. Rob's book, Private Capital Markets (Wiley) is considered the seminal work in finance for private companies. Rob also authored Middle Market M&A, Midas Managers, Midas Marketing and Time Really Is Money.
Rob has owned equity positions in dozens of private businesses. Several companies he founded accomplished the following: laid thousands of miles of fiber optic cable in the Alaskan arctic (Quintillion Networks); helped create the paint film industry (Soliant); pioneered exit planning (MidasNation); and established the first international institute on mergers and acquisitions (IMAP). He is also credited with creating the field of study called Middle Market Finance.
Rob has taught at Pepperdine University since 2006. In 2008 he founded the Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Studies, which are now considered the most important source of capital formation behavior in the world.
Rob has advised business owners on billions of dollars of middle market company exits and capital raises.
Rob is certified in private business appraisal (CBA) and in mergers and acquisitions (CM&AA). He taught the capstone courses so hundreds of appraisers and merger and acquisition specialists could also achieve these certifications.
He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Miami University, and received a Master's degree from the University of Chicago and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University.
But Rob is still best known as the father of Jen and Jessie Slee, his identical twin daughters.
David Hockley
David Hockley is a partner and senior member of the 'Exit' Team. He is an influential business entrepreneur who has carried multiple companies through rapid and continuous growth.
Over the past 15 years, David has grown businesses across Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East. David is responsible for over $300 million in sales.
David now lives in Dubai, UAE with his wife and three children where is also the Founder & CEO of GrowthMachines.io, a sales and marketing automation system that provides advanced demand-generation capabilities and sales frameworks that enable growth-focused business owners and sales teams to automate and scale their lead flow and revenue growth.
Before exiting via an industry trade sale, David was also the CEO & Co-Founder of a leading Investment company, with offices in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
David’s professional mission is to leverage technology to enable growth-focused business owners and sales teams to increase their sales and help them make more money than ever before while working less than ever before.
Mike Camarro
Mike is the Business Development Officer here at Exit the Family Business.
Before being named Business Development Officer, Mike worked as Controller and CFO in several different industries including retail, distribution, technology and wealth management. He played a major role in a variety of strategic acquisitions, leading the finance and accounting teams throughout the due diligence phase of integration.
Mike Started his career as an auditor working in the Boston office of Coopers & Lybrand (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers). There, he earned his CPA, and worked in a myriad of industries specializing primarily in manufacturing and financial services.
Prior to joining Coopers, Mike earned his BS degree in Business from Salem State University, graduating Magna Cum Laude in 1989.
Mike now resides in Danvers, MA with his fiancé Jenn and is the proud dad of his three children.
Peter Wollmeringer
Peter Wollmeringer is a Managing Director at Rockport Investment Partners, a private valuation consulting firm focused on middle market companies. Peter’s role as Chief Valuation Officer on the Exit team is to assist with the valuation of client businesses.
Peter has over 30 years and 45,000 hours of diverse valuation experience where he has been a trusted advisor to large corporations, small companies, private equity, venture capital and legal counsel providing valuations of businesses, business assets and complex financial instruments in the context of financial reporting, tax, litigation over business disputes, bankruptcy and distressed situations.
Peter has been a technical leader throughout his career and has spoken at industry conferences and presented and monitored live webinars on various valuation topics with accounting and law firms. Peter also has contributed to published Big 4 accounting guides, an American Bar Association newsletter, and an Appraisal Foundation guide related to the valuation of customer-related intangible assets. Peter joined a Big 4 national office to assist its leadership with accounting matters involving fair value, contributing to relevant publications, presenting in educational webinars and instructing fair value courses for the partner and management group.
Peter earned an MBA from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and an BBA from the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst.
Aside from preparing business valuations, Peter enjoys spending free time motorcycling, bicycling, traveling, skiing and hanging out with friends and family.
David J. Roache
A trusted advisor with C-level operating and M&A experience, Dave works with small business founders, CEOs, and management teams to help grow, build value, and exit their businesses.
With 30 years of experience in growing private and public companies across a variety of industries, David has contributed to the start-up and growth of public company business units that grew to $800M, $125M, and $55M, to the revitalization of middle-market companies, and to the formation, growth, and exit of early-stage companies.
Dave specializes in go-to-market strategy & execution, sales & business development, capital-raising, and exit planning. Most recently, Dave has served as a Strategic Advisor for the Foundation for Business Equity, helping to grow minority businesses in New England. Sector experience includes Technology, Publishing, Media, Healthcare, Retail, Financial, Food, Manufacturing, Distribution, and Logistics.
Dave holds a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Finance from Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, and lives with his wife, Liz, in Marblehead, MA.
Richard Katzman
Richard Katzman is the Founder and Managing Director of On Call Leadership (OCL). OCL is a hands-on consulting firm working with “Exit The Family Business” to increase profitability for family and small
businesses. Richard has brought success to numerous turnaround and business development projects
through his expertise and depth of experience. Notable projects Richard led were stepping in as interim
CEO for Process Solutions Inc. (PSI), a specialty chemical manufacturer, and as interim CEO for RSI Inc., a
scrap metal recycling facility. At PSI, Richard developed and implemented an operational restructuring
plan which added over $1,000,000 to the sale price of the company. At RSI, Richard guided the company
out of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and back to profitability.
All OCL consultants have previously owned and successfully exited their businesses. The team has
experience assisting all types of companies including businesses seeking to overcome stagnant growth,
looking toward expanding or increasing revenue. Our professionals provide a detailed operating
assessment along with a business plan and strategy. In addition, OCL assists companies with the
implementation of “The 7 Pillars of Value Creation”.
OCL creates a comprehensive analysis of operations, develops an action plan, and sets attainable goals
for the following business functions:
- Identifying areas of potential change that will have the biggest impact on profitability
- Performing a thorough review of financial history, including P&L statements, balance sheets and
cash flows
- Evaluating company culture and management
- Reviewing industry positioning
- Creating financial modeling and projections
OCL’s areas of expertise include:
- Family businesses
- Preparing companies for sale
- Operational restructuring and improvement
- Increasing sales
- Lean manufacturing
- Business financing
Andy Sherman
Andy Sherman is the President of Apex Growth Advisors, a firm focused on helping companies achieve breakthrough Sales Growth, Discipline and Accountability. Functioning as a Fractional Chief Revenue Officer, he works with small and mid-sized organizations on strategic and tactical improvements to their overall approach to sales.
Andy has a history of sales leadership and success spanning three decades in large organizations, including IBM and Apple, as well as with startups and restarts. He led one startup from $0 to $100 million and an IPO Fractional CRO while building the sales team from scratch to an organization of over 100 people, all in four years. He also led three turnarounds for organizations that were struggling with growth and where he was able to turn them around, leading to successful exits.
Outside of work, Andy has no problem keeping busy, especially with lots of family activities and due to the projects that invariably come up when living in a 218-year-old house. His recreational pursuits include mountain biking, skiing, and sailing. He is also a founding Board Member and President of the Friends of Harold Parker State Forest and leads projects to support both recreation and conservation in conjunction with another favorite organization, the New England Mountain Bikers Association.
As Featured
True Experts, Spreading The Word
Rick, Steve and The Exit Team are passionate about every business owner having the knowledge to sell their life's work for its true value. To not risk their retirement or their legacy simply because they did not know which steps to take. They appeared on 'The Voice of Business' to share the importance of Exit Planning, transitioning your business to sell, and reaching its maximum value.
© 2024 ETFB. All Rights Reserved
*The Lower Middle Market is comprised of businesses worth $5-$30 million, typically having EBITDA of $1 million - $4 million.
The 7 Pillars of Value Creation is our name for our work as Business brokerage services and related consulting pertaining to business sales, mergers, acquisitions and business valuation. Exit The Family Business the downloadable guide and any accompanying assets or affiliates are provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide tax, accounting or legal advice, nor is it an offer or solicitation to buy or sell, an endorsement or sponsorship of any company, security or fund. Certain owners, officers or affiliates may be associated with investment firms and may make referrals from time to time for such services, but this does not constitute investment advice, nor should it be construed as Exit The Family Business being in that business. We always suggest you seek professional advice. Past results are not a guarantee of future results.