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Steve Hammes
President
Wayne G. Nielsen President and Managing Partner
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Mr. Nielsen is the Managing Partner of W.G. Nielsen & Co. and has more than 30 years of investment banking experience. Since 1996, he has specialized in providing customized mergers and acquisitions services for privately held middle-market companies.
Prior to founding W.G. Nielsen & Co., Mr. Nielsen was Executive Vice President of Kirkpatrick Pettis, a subsidiary of Mutual of Omaha, where he founded and managed the firm’s Rocky Mountain investment banking operations, including corporate and public finance, retail and institutional sales, trading activities and money management services. Before that, Mr. Nielsen managed United Bank of Denver's investment banking activities.
He began his financial career as a commercial loan analyst with Midland Bank, a Norwest Bank, and then moved to Northwestern National Life Insurance Co. as a portfolio investment analyst.
Mr. Nielsen holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Pacific Union College and an MBA from Webster University.
Shane Thornton
Vice President
Ronald M. Barber Executive Vice President
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Mr. Barber joined W.G. Nielsen & Co. in August 2002. Prior to joining the firm, he consulted for several clients of W.G. Nielsen & Co. Mr. Barber previously served as CEO of Corybant, Inc., a company that develops Active Information Models for enterprise applications and social networking. Prior to Corybant, he was a founder and served as Executive Vice President of Sales and International Operations for TomTec Imaging Systems, a manufacturer of medical imaging and information management systems. In addition, Mr. Barber has extensive experience in building corporate sales and marketing organizations, as well as hands-on experience in the biomedical and medical laboratory fields.
Mr. Barber received his Medical Technology degree in Pathology from Bethesda Memorial Hospital/Florida Atlantic University.
Jim Duval
Operations Manager
Michael D. Harris Vice President
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Mr. Harris joined W.G. Nielsen & Co. in July 2016. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Harris was the Controller for DataGryd Data Centers, a start-up urban data center located in TriBeCa and funded by a large, publicly-traded private equity firm. Prior to DataGryd Data Centers, Mr. Harris worked as a Senior Associate within the valuation practice of Duff & Phelps’ New York office where he advised clients on the valuation of tangible and intangible assets on a pre- and post-merger basis. He also performed investment valuations for large private equity groups and provided merger & acquisition advisory services. Additionally, Mr. Harris has investment management experience from roles at Bear Stearns and KM Capital Management. Mr. Harris has extensive financial modeling experience, having taught financial modeling to incoming investment banking analysts at several bulge bracket banks in New York while working with Training The Street. He also served as a Teaching Assistant for a graduate level valuation and finance course taught through the Harvard University Extension School.
Mr. Harris earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and his M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also completed graduate studies at Handelshögskolan (Stockholm School of Economics), and has passed the CFA Level I and Level II Exams.
Brad Peskovitz
Sales Manager
Ray J. Hernandez Managing Director, Telecommunications & Technology
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Mr. Hernandez joined W.G. Nielsen & Co. in September 2011 and has over 25 years of investment banking experience. He oversees the firm's efforts in telecommunications, data networking and information technology.
Prior to joining W.G. Nielsen, Mr. Hernandez was a Managing Director at Janco Partners Inc. in Denver and Roth Capital Partners in Los Angeles, CA. Before that he founded an IP telephony business focused on the SMB market. Also, Mr. Hernandez has served as a Vice President in the Corporate Development group at Covad Communications, a broadband access and network services company. He began his investment banking career in 1990 with Falkenberg Capital Corp. Prior to joining the investment banking industry, he was a cable television entrepreneur and served as Director of Acquisitions for Tele-Communications, Inc., formerly the largest cable television systems operator in the U.S.
Mr. Hernandez began his career as a tax and corporate attorney and is a graduate of the University of Colorado and Harvard Law School. He holds the Series 7, 24, 63 and 79 securities licenses.
Ronnie Wiegand
Scheduling Manager
J. Gregory Karsh Director
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Mr. Karsh joined W.G. Nielsen & Co. in December 2011. Prior to that, Mr. Karsh was a senior associate in the Dallas office of Houlihan Lokey where he was a member of the Financial Opinions & Advisory Services practice. While at Houlihan Lokey, he specialized in fairness and solvency opinions as well as enterprise valuations, tangible and intangible assets valuations, valuations of investments for large private equity groups and other advisory services.
Before Houlihan Lokey, he was a senior associate in the New York office of Standard & Poor’s (formerly PriceWaterhouseCoopers Corporate Value Consulting and currently Duff & Phelps), where he worked on enterprise valuations, valuations of tangible and intangible assets and other advisory services. Earlier, he was an associate at a boutique investment bank in Denver that focused on M&A advisory services.Mr. Karsh earned his bachelor’s degree in finance with a concentration in accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and his MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Carole Patient
Office Manager
Michael Mazer Managing Director, Telecommunications and Engagement
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Michael Mazer has been an active investment banker in the telecommunications field for more than 25 years and in the engagement and human capital field for four years. Since 1993, Michael has personally represented over 30 owners of minority cellular interests and represented 23 owners of privately owned local exchange carriers in the sale of their assets. We believe this number of closings is more than anyone else in the industry.
He has added the field of engagement and human capital to his portfolio as a result of advisory services provided to the Enterprise Engagement Alliance at TheEEA.org, a leading authority on engaging stakeholders across the enterprise.
Before launching Mazer Telecom Advisors, Michael was Senior Vice President of another investment banking firm, where he directed the company’s efforts in the independent telephone company industry.
Prior to that, Michael held various management posts in media, marketing and financial management at TIME Magazine, HBO, and Credit Suisse Group, all based in New York City.
Michael graduated from Yale University with a BA degree in Administrative Science. He holds his Series 79 license.
Richard L. Millett, Jr. Senior Vice President
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Mr. Millett joined W.G. Nielsen & Co. in December 2010 and has more than 28 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions and private and public company financings. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Millett was the Chief Financial Officer of Office Source, Inc. where he acquired five regional companies to form a national office furniture wholesale company with $125 million in revenues.
Before Office Source, he served as the Vice President of Acquisitions and Corporate Development of Corporate Express, Inc., where he was responsible for 185 acquisitions completed in six years, both public and private, including 73 international acquisitions. He also practiced law at Davis, Graham & Stubbs, one of Denver's largest and oldest law firms, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, corporate securities and finance, and general corporate law.
Mr. Millett received his law degree from J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, and a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Brigham Young University. He is also a former Certified Public Accountant.
John Woodberry Managing Director
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Mr. Woodberry joined W.G. Nielsen & Co. in July 2019 and has over thirty years of experience in the financial markets.Prior to joining W.G. Nielsen & Co., Mr. Woodberry managed Woodberry Holdings, LLC, a family office and financial advisory firm. In addition to building a portfolio of private equity, venture capital, and public market investments, Mr. Woodberry advised the Coors Family on their acquisitions of Liberty Woods International LLC (www.libertywoods.com) and MJB Wood Group, LLC (www.mjbwood.com). Earlier in his career, Mr. Woodberry was an investment banker at Smith Barney Inc. and Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. as well as a Portfolio Manager for Passport Capital, LLC (www.passportcapital.com).Mr. Woodberry currently sits on the boards of Ares Real Estate Income Trust and American Marksman, LLC. Ares Real Estate Income Trust is a $2.9B REIT managed by Ares Management Corporation (NYSE: ARES, www.aresmgmt.com). Ares Management Corporation is an American global alternative investment manager with $295B of AUM. American Marksman, LLC is a privately held recycling and ammunition company (www.theamericanmarksman.com).Mr. Woodberry is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Business School.
Alex Shapiro Vice President
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Mr. Shapiro joined W.G Nielsen & CO. in April of 2019. Mr. Shapiro is highly involved in the day to day operations of the firm, working closely with deal teams to execute M&A transactions.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Shapiro began his career with Tudor, Pickering, and Holt (a subsidiary of Perella Weinberg Partners) as an investment banking analyst focused on the oil & gas markets. After completing his internship, Mr. Shapiro joined K Squared Fund, LLC, a Denver based generalist private equity fund focused on the middle market. There, Mr. Shapiro was in charge of deal teams and deal execution focusing on the Technology, Business Service, and Healthcare markets.
Mr. Shapiro holds three B.S degrees in Finance, Accounting, and Operations from the University of Colorado at Boulder Leeds School of Business.
Teresa L. Crosier Financial and Operations Principal
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Ms. Crosier joined W.G. Nielsen in 2018 as Chief Compliance Officer and Financial and Operations Principal. She is responsible for day-to-day compliance activities and the filing of regulatory financial reports.
Ms. Crosier has over 40 years experience in investment banking. She began her career with United Bank of Denver’s Public Finance Department. During her tenure with United Bank, she earned her General Securities Principal license and was responsible for monitoring certain activities of the Investment Banking Group.
Prior to joining W.G. Nielsen & Co., Ms. Crosier was with Wells Fargo Brokerage Services with the middle market Sales Group. During her time with Wells Fargo, she was responsible for compliance monitoring as well as selling securities to Colorado corporations and non-profits.
Ms. Crosier holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Kansas State University.