DORSET PARTNERS - Key Persons
Mr. Shiau is a 15-year veteran in private equity and financial services. Most recently, he led an acquisitions team at a private equity group focused on distressed manufacturing businesses and, previously, acquisitions for a real estate private equity group. Transaction experience includes Chapter 11 Bankruptcy (both reorganization plan confirmation and 363 sale), Article 9 asset sales, corporate carveouts, and other special situations. He is also an expert on financial derivatives, which can enable businesses to hedge commodity price, foreign exchange, and interest rate risk. Mr. Shiau studied economics and finance for undergrad at Princeton University and earned his MBA at Yale University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder.
Dave has more than 35 years of hands-on experience in senior management. He gained further experience as an operational/productivity consultant in such diverse areas as hospital restructuring/consolidation, retail, service industries and small to medium sized manufacturing. Dave's entrepreneurial background includes the startup of a domestic manufacturing business with over 250 employees selling nationwide.
As CEO/Founder of a $25,000,000 company; Dave's perspective was that of the lender's customer. He successfully negotiated multi-year credit lines, domestic and international vendor terms and was responsible for all banking relationships. Having fallen victim to Hurricane Katrina he also unfortunately experienced first hand the turnaround, bank workout and bankruptcy process; all from the client's point-of-view.
Dave graduated from Syracuse Univ. with a major in Advertising/Marketing. He also completed graduate studies in Finance, M&A and Business Administration from Syracuse, Case Western Reserve and Hofstra. He has served on numerous private company Boards, community Boards and the Board of the Tulane Family Business Forum.
Jeff grew up in working in his family's manufacturing business and returned as an adult to help grow, fix, grow again, fix again and eventually exit that business. Since then…
Larry was awarded the Turnaround Management Association's 2019 Small Company Turnaround of the Year Award for the rebuilding of Union Metals Industries Corp. Larry has managed all or large portions of companies for forty years. Most of his early career centered on marketing and sales. From 1990 until the present he has been the chief executive of four (4) companies. In every case taking over during a crisis and turning them around, growing them and making them profitable and sustainable. He has led companies with as few as five (5) employees and as many as 1,400.
As CEO of a one hundred year old textile company, Larry re-created a company with facilities in North Carolina, China and Honduras. A company that was on "life support" in 2002 with sales of $40 million became a thriving, dividend paying $145 million in 2010. Combining sales growth with efficient and talented management team - Larry learned that concern for the company's health and wellbeing and its associates' health and wellbeing must be married together or the company will fail. "Reducing healthcare costs dramatically while increasing benefits is not mutually exclusive," is one of the guiding principles behind Larry's success.
Larry graduated from Elon University with majors in History and Political Science. He has completed dozens of courses at Kenan Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill and The American Management Association. Larry has served on several private company boards, and dozens of community and non-profit boards. Larry was awarded the "Order of the Long Lead Pine," North Carolina's highest civilian honor.
Prior to joining Dorset Partners, Lyle operated Parachute Advisors a turnaround and exit advisory based in Denver. Previously Lyle co-founded Swing King, a golf technology and reinsurance company operating on more than 350 courses nationwide. Lyle's first turnaround was as COO of Advanced Telemetry, a cloud-based energy management solution acquired by Siemens. Lyle also was an operating partner with 21Ventures, a venture fund focused on clean energy.
In support of his advisory work with challenged companies, Lyle created Parachute360, an application that addresses the problem of unplanned owner absence in small and medium enterprises with thin management layers. Lyle holds a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the University of Oxford.
Martin has spent more than 15 years turning around businesses by transforming their operations and finance. He held roles as CEO, CRO, strategy advisor, board member, manufacturing manager and project manager. His impactful advice is recognized on the shop floor as much as in the board room.
Martin began his career at Siemens' material handling division where he transformed the engineering process and implemented a global standard for system design. He then moved to the corporate finance group where he first joined as internal business consultant and later held a position as a director for mergers and acquisitions in New York.
Martin has a hands-on mentality which, supported by his broad experience, has helped him to drive change projects in countless different settings.
Martin holds an MBA from Duke University Fuqua School of Business as well as Master degrees in mechatronics and electrical engineering from the University of Applied Sciences in Bochum (Germany), Universite Blaise Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand (France) and London Southbank University (UK)
Martin is a motorsport enthusiast and avid tennis player. Martin resides in Florida with wife and two sons.
Paul Fioravanti is a New England native, growing up in a family business, and is a proven leader with extensive experience in CEO, COO, CFO, CRO (Chief Restructuring Officer) and president roles, including leading a startup company (specialized transportation and construction services) to the Inc. 500 for four consecutive years. Among his various business transformations, he led the turnaround and sale of the one of the largest NYC metro based wireless infrastructure companies, which was successfully sold to a $4 billion private equity group, and worked on the turnaround and sale of a $250 million recreational marine vessel manufacturer, the fix of a $300 million industrial manufacturer, managed advisory for the divestiture of a healthcare specialty practice chain, and spearheaded a variety of projects in a mix of industries.
Earlier in his career, Paul worked directly for the CEO in a publicly held regional energy holding company as well as privately held companies in construction and infrastructure services, manufacturing, technology, renewable energy, automotive, marine, retail, and transportation logistics. He has also spearheaded successful startups, strategic and financial exits of businesses, led LEAN- and 5S-based process and outcome redesign, and post-merger integrations.
Paul holds three degrees from The University of Rhode Island (BS, MPA, MBA), an advanced degree from Bryant University (CAGS) and is a graduate of Leadership Rhode Island. He has served as an advisor and board member to a variety of companies and community and civic organizations during his career and has taught MBA- level courses at four different New England universities.
Toni is based in Barcelona, Spain and leads Dorset's European activities. Toni brings more than 20 years' experience in many different industries, having spent his last years working with Family…
Van has been solving financial problems for 40 years. He specializes in reducing taxes for single-owner businesses and solving serious IRS problems. As a tax professional, Van is an Enrolled Agent (EA). EAs are the elite group of tax experts licensed by the United States Treasury. Enrolled Agents have unlimited practice rights before the IRS in all states, and tend to deal in complex tax matters.
Van mastered accounting on his way to earning an MBA in Finance with highest honors, before personal computers were available to make the math easy. As a tax resolution specialist, Van completed a three-year post graduate study in tax law and was elected a Fellow of the National Tax Practice Institute. He represents clients in disputes before IRS on a daily basis.
In addition to his professional qualifications, Van knows small business from the inside. He founded two private companies and was a consultant to 200 others. In mid-career, Van was a Certified Management Consultant, and the National Director of Turnaround Consulting for KMPG BayMark.
Van has served his church as a Sunday school teacher, and his community through Rotary and non-profit leadership. He writes and speaks on tax reduction strategies for self-employed people, and practices what he preaches.
Outside the office, Van has been a pilot since 1969 and has flown more than 60 different aircraft. A former flight instructor, Van introduces kids to aviation through the Young Eagles mentor program.