CORNER CAPITAL PARTNERS - Key Persons
Andy Weber began his career at Shell Oil Company, serving in various sales and marketing management capacities, responsible for Shell's investments in dealer and company-operated retail markets including New Orleans, Birmingham, and Chicago. Subsequent to Shell Oil, Andy served as an international consultant in Arthur D. Little's Global Energy Practice, with a principal responsibility for the downstream strategy practice. He and his team developed the Dynamic Brand Management practice model for ADL's marketing practice, and utilized the methodology for country and market entries for multi-national energy companies including BP, Mobil, and Kuwait Petroleum in Asia and the United States.
Prior to founding Corner Capital, Andy spent 10 years at Roundtree Capital, a private equity group in Santa Barbara. During this time, Andy was a principal in the company and served as CFO and President with overall responsibilities for the growth of the business from 100 to 230 convenience stores, while distributing motor fuels for Chevron, BP, Fina, Mobil, and Marathon. Outside the retail industry, he conducted Roundtree's M&A and Treasury activity in its food manufacturing investments.
Andy earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas and his MBA from Rice University. He is active in the Santa Barbara community, serving on the Boards of Old Spanish Days, Montecito YMCA, All Saints by the Sea Episcopal Church, and the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, and has two daughters attending college.
Barton Taylor began his career in Amegy Bank's Energy Lending Group, managing relationships for clients whose operations spanned the entire energy value chain in all major North American resource plays. During this time, Barton focused on originating and syndicating large credit facilities for clients comprised of private equity sponsored portfolio companies, closely-held middle market companies, and larger publicly traded firms and MLPs.
After business school, Barton joined the sales team at Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), a leading global mutual fund family and investment manager. At DFA, Barton coordinated business development and client service activities for the firm's Wirehouse/Broker-Dealer distribution channel.
Barton received his Undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Texas and his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Rice University.
Ben Achilles, Analyst, assists Corner Capital clients in all aspects of project management, from diligence analysis, market research, financial modeling, and project outreach. Ben began his career as a financial analyst for Public Consulting Group, managing client relationships, developing financing models for client projects, producing financial statement forecasts, and strategy scenario modeling. He was also responsible for developing internal financial systems utilized by clients to assist in projecting strategy options.
In his collegiate career, Ben was selected as one of the ten students to manage Texas Tech's Student Managed Investment Fund as a consumer discretionary industry analyst. During this time, Ben received his undergraduate degree in finance from Texas Tech University.
Carl Ray began his career with his family business Polk Oil Co., Inc., located in Lufkin, Texas and founded in 1937. Through his early career, Carl Ray ran a number of business units including lubricants distribution, convenience retailing, QSR management, and wholesale fuels distribution for Exxon, Mobil, and Texaco.
Carl Ray conducted a buyout of the family company, and later sold the company to Brookshire Brothers, LTD in 2007. Subsequent to the sale, Carl Ray served as Executive Vice President and as a member of the Board of Directors.
He is the Past Board Chair of the Texas Petroleum Marketers Association, a member of Coca Cola's National Retailers Council, served on several national committees for the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), and is Past Chairman of the Board of Lufkin's Chamber of Commerce. He has been appointed by Governor George W. Bush to the Angelina Neches River Authority where he served a six year term.
Carl Ray received his education from Kilgore College and The University of Texas-Austin, with additional studies in the Mergers and Acquisition Program through the Anderson School of Business at UCLA.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President of Business Development
- Senior Vice President of Business Development, Bega
- SVP, Business Development
Don Mitchell, Senior Vice President of Business Development, began his career with Exxon in 1971. After managing several different retail markets in North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas, Don was instrumental in Exxon's national entry into convenience retailing in the 1980's. In the early 1990s, Don managed Exxon's state and federal public, legislative, and regulatory affairs activities (including API) and also served as their Western Area Public Affairs Manager. From 1995 until retirement, Don was involved in numerous key branded distributor activities on a regional and national level and served as Area Manager and Market Development Coordinator for ExxonMobil's Western Distributor Area until his retirement.
As a leader within ExxonMobil and throughout the state and local marketing associations, Don developed deep relationships in the distributor community and industry overall. Don is a graduate from Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, NC, with a degree in Economics and Marketing, and offices in Houston, Texas.
Kevin Henrick began his career as a commodity derivatives trader for Chicago-based family offices (Ronin Capital and Nico Trading), where he became a trading member of exchanges in Chicago and New York City. During this time, Kevin primarily focused on sell-side transactions, macro-economic research, and financial modeling for crude oil and natural gas products. Over three years, he was appointed as a member of the natural gas settlement committee at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).
Mr. Henrick was recruited by the CEO of Avant, a global online consumer lending platform, where he presented data-backed recommendations to senior management and C-level executives, built a fraud prevention system for Avant's United Kingdom installment loan business, and directly contributed to a successful debt raise by the Company.
Mr. Henrick received his Undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois-Urbana, a Master's degree in Computer Science (MS) with a focus on Machine Learning from Columbia University in the City of New York, and an MBA from Wharton.
Parker King, Analyst, began his career as an investment banking analyst in Kansas City focused on M&A transactions within the Cybersecurity and Industrials industries. Parker previously worked for UVF Crossroads, providing investment recommendations for startup companies across the Midwest. He joined Corner Capital in 2021 in the company's new Austin office. Parker received his undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Kansas.
Job Titles:
- SVP, Business Development
After 34 years of service with both Shell Oil Company and Motiva LLC, Rob recently retired from his position as Sales Manager in the Southeast U.S. Early in his career Rob served in numerous capacities in the field for Shell, responsible for petroleum product sales and managing retail districts from Louisiana to Florida to the Carolinas, as well as Delaware to Maine in the Northeast. Rob also held management positions in Shell's Houston corporate office, including Manager, Credit Card Products and Services and Manager, Retail Supply and Logistics
Sean Stewart, Associate, began his career in Hall Capital's New York City portfolio management group, managing investment portfolios for high net-worth families and institutions across various strategies including fixed income, equities, hedge funds, private equity, and real assets.
Sean Stewart, Senior Analyst, began his career in Hall Capital's New York City portfolio management group, managing investment portfolios for high net-worth families and institutions across various strategies including fixed income, equities, hedge funds, private equity, and real assets. Subsequently recruited to Advent Capital to work with institutional investors in their long-only convertible strategies, Sean advised on performance drivers for Advent's strategies including benchmarking, portfolio positioning and projected outlook. He also built quantitative tools to help portfolio managers analyze client portfolios and conducted research that aided the company's marketing efforts. During his time at Advent, Sean became Product Manager for Advent's domestic long-only convertible strategies.
Sean also spent a year training with the US Army, where he created geospatial intelligence products. Sean finished Geospatial Engineering School at the top of his class as the Distinguished Honor Graduate and continues to serve in the Army Reserve for the foreseeable future. Mr. Stewart received his undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Arkansas, and he is a CFA Charterholder.