PURSANT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Marketing Director
- Founder and Executive Director of Bottoms Up Organization
- Marketing Director With
As the Marketing Director with Pursant, Dawn is responsible for Pursant's marketing, media and branding initiatives.
She is an entrepreneur, owning and operating successful small businesses. She has worked with Fortune 50 companies and held key roles in the public sector. She has extensive expertise in all areas of marketing including digital marketing, social media and public relations. She has created innovative designs and has had executive oversight of professional and social networking technologies. Additional expertise include; training, development and strategic planning. She has created courses on many subjects including Compliance, Executive Leadership, Technology, Product Development, and much more.
Dawn is a graduate of Southern Illinois University with a BS in Education, Training and Development. She also attended graduate courses at the University of Connecticut.
Dawn is the Founder and Executive Director of Bottoms Up Organization, a 501c3 public charity dedicated to raising awareness of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Their mission is to foster Candid Conversations™ through education and to provide financial support to patients and families for items such as; infusion copayments, monthly maintenance medications and other medical costs directly associated with IBD.
Dawn enjoys skiing, mountain biking, watching football (Go Bears!), and vacationing with family and friends.
Dhillon is an Associate with Pursant, supporting the firm's various buy-side and sell-side strategic transaction and financial consulting engagements. Dhillon's responsibilities include (but are not limited to) conducting research, sourcing opportunities, financial modeling, conducting due diligence, and creating other transaction related materials.
Prior to joining Pursant, Dhillon was a Transaction Advisory Services Associate at RSM US, LLP. Dhillon received his B.S. in Accounting from the University of Florida and is a licensed CPA in the state of Illinois.
In his free time, Dhillon enjoys staying active in the gym or outside, boxing, watching sports and spending time with friends and family.
Elijah "Eli" is a Senior Associate with Pursant, supporting the firm's various strategic transaction engagements.
In his role, Elijah is a key member of teams that manage the firm's M&A and financial consulting engagements. Elijah's responsibilities include (but are not limited to) conducting industry and market research, sourcing acquisition opportunities for the firm's buy-side engagements, supporting the firm's sell-side engagements, constructing financial models, performing financial analysis and creating other transaction related materials.
Prior to joining Pursant, Elijah was an Associate with Cresset Capital. Elijah received his Bachelors in Accounting & Finance from Iowa State University.
In his free time, Elijah enjoys going to the dog park, sports and sailing with his father.
Job Titles:
- Transaction Specialist ( Technology )
Eric began his technology career in 1984 as the founder and Co-CEO of Greenbrier & Russel, Inc., a $55m IT Services company with over 400 employees. He successfully sold Greenbrier & Russel to Fujitsu in 2006. Since then, he has been an active advisor and investor in numerous middle-market technology, digital marketing, technology consulting and strategy companies.
Mr. Wasowicz is a 1980 graduate of Northern Illinois University and now teaches applied entrepreneurship in the business school. He was the recipient of the university's Distinguished Young Alumni award in 1999. He is also on the board of advisors at NIU's College of Business and the board of directors of Northern Illinois University Athletics. In 2009 he received the Business Alumnus of the Year award for Northern Illinois University.
Eric serves on the board of directors of the Illinois Technology Association, the board of directors of the Special Leisure Services Foundation, is a Past Chair of the Windy City Chapter of the Young President's Organization and current board member of the World Presidents Organization's Chicago chapter. He was the recipient of the Illinois High Technology Award in 2000, and is a 2001 inductee into the University of Illinois at Chicago's Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.
Grace Lau - Managing Director
Grace is a Managing Director with the firm, focused on Client Engagement while also playing an active role in the firm's mandates. She is responsible for developing and executing on Pursant's strategic growth initiatives and participating as an active strategic member of deal teams. She has more than 20 years of experience in business and strategy development, building and maintaining client relationships, and project and team management.
During her long tenure at Ernst & Young (EY), Grace was part of a global team focused on securing large audit and tax services projects. She also led a team of managers across the Asia-Pacific to grow EY's Assessment of Service Quality program, focused on improving client experience. In her recent years at the Young President's Organization (YPO), a global learning and networking platform for CEOs, she was the director in charge of leading the largest network within the organization, the Deal Network, which focuses on raising capital, M&A, and various liquidity events.
Grace has lived in Taipei, Washington, Hong Kong, and California. Now based in the Pacific Northwest, she enjoys the great outdoors and vineyards with her partner, Phil and their two rescue dogs, Mallow and Mochi. Having competed in her younger days, Grace is passionate in Muay Thai and boxing.
Grace holds an MBA from the Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and a BS in Technical Communications in Engineering from the University of Washington.
Hal Katz - Managing Director
Hal is a Managing Director responsible for leading Pursant's capital markets advisory practice and additionally takes on interim CFO assignments for the Firm's clientele. He leverages nearly three decades of diverse finance experience gained both in the US and overseas as an advisor and an operator.
Hal began his career as a commercial banker at Chemical Bank (Chase) followed by time in investment banking with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Credit Suisse First Boston and Chilmark Partners. More recently, he focused on capital raises for middle and lower middle market companies at Ablum, Brown & Co and Lancaster Gate Advisors, which he founded. He has worked with businesses across a wide variety of industries including consumer products, textiles, for-profit education, energy, professional services, equipment leasing and commercial recycling.
In addition to his advisory experience, Hal served nearly a decade as the CFO of two private equity backed businesses in the tech enabled services industry. One of those, Mindcrest, was successfully sold to a publicly traded UK law firm in 2020. In these roles, he was responsible for accounting, budgeting, financial reporting, lender compliance, treasury and investor relations, among other areas.
Hal earned an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his BA in Economics from Indiana University.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Managing Director With
Kelly Lusson is a Managing Director with Pursant, responsible for leading the firm's Buy-Side practice. She is also involved with the firm's Sell-Side practice and manages other strategic engagements, providing clients with the guidance and support they need to navigate complex strategic transactions.
Prior to joining Pursant, Kelly was the Vice President of M&A and Corporate Development for a PE-backed market leader in the commercial laundry space. In this role, she directed all facets of the M&A transaction process, from deal origination to post-close integration. Before this role, Kelly was a Senior Manager for safety sector M&A at a FTSE 100 multinational conglomerate, supporting research initiatives, target identification, and commercial due diligence efforts.
Before focusing her efforts on the M&A space, Kelly was a founding partner of a management consulting firm and built the company's market intelligence practice. In this role, she worked primarily in the industrial manufacturing space to help companies understand their market potential and competitive landscape. Using this information, she developed robust sales and marketing strategies to drive business growth and profitability. Her in-depth knowledge of numerous industries has allowed her to provide clients with customized solutions that meet their unique needs.
Kelly has a BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA from the University of Tulsa. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, enjoying ALL the great food Chicago has to offer, going to Cubs games, and coaching little league.
Lauren Fischoff is an Associate with Pursant, supporting the firm's buy-side M&A engagements. Her role with the buy-side transaction team includes conducting industry and market research, sourcing acquisition opportunities for clients and managing outreach initiatives.
Lauren received a B.S. in Business Administration with High Honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She began her career in the Client Service Department of IRI, a supplier of quantitative market research. Prior to joining Pursant, Lauren was with Morgan Stanley, assisting with wealth management strategies and financial planning.
She enjoys running, yoga sculpt, travel, and making memories with her family.
Mark has more than 30 years experience starting, buying, building, operating and selling businesses in numerous sectors. His businesses have employed as few as 5 people and as many as 1500. To Pursant, he brings both experiential knowledge as well as an academic background that provides a foundation for the often business-critical strategic initiatives with which clients entrust the firm.
Mark is a Certified M&A Advisor through the AM&AA and a Harvard Business School alumni. He is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), serving in numerous governance roles including Central US Region Chairman, Chair of the YPO Deal Global Business network and Chapter Chair for the Chicago Windy City and Heartland Chapters.
Mark is an active public speaker, presenting on a variety of M&A and Strategic Transaction related topics. He serves on many private company and charitable boards. When not steering the direction of the firm, Mark enjoys spending time with his wife and four children. He is a competitive CrossFit athlete and also enjoys auto racing, mountain climbing and high adrenaline adventures.
Job Titles:
- Financial Executive
- Managing Director
- Founder and CEO of GlicksGiving
- Managing Director With
Scott is a Managing Director with Pursant, responsible for guiding business owners through strategic transaction events, including acquisitions and exits/divestitures.
Scott is a seasoned financial executive, spending the first decade of his career at Ernst & Young and the last decade working with private equity organizations including American Capital (NASDAQ: ACAS), Sterling Partners and Access Holdings.
Scott has built and led teams focusing on; executing pre-acquisition diligence, performing enterprise/equity valuations, enhancing portfolio company governance, processes, human capital and financial reporting and preparing for financing, liquidity and exit events. In addition to working "within the walls" of the equity organizations, Scott also held operating positions as part of executive management teams. In these roles, Scott designed and executed strategic operating and value creation plans, managed all aspects of the financial, accounting, and treasury functions as well as drove all financing and M&A processes.
Scott is Founder and CEO of GlicksGiving, a 501c-3 not-for-profit charity serving under-privileged inner-city children as well as children with deployed military parents. His charity has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in an effort to provide mentorship, counseling and guidance. Equally important, GlicksGiving relieves the financial duress for these families through covering expenses related to medical bills, housing, schooling, transportation, clothing, and so much more.
Scott holds a BS in Accounting from Indiana University and is a Certified Public Accountant. Scott values spending time with his family and enjoys playing and observing sports.
Job Titles:
- Transaction Specialist ( Telecom )
Steve has been deeply immersed in the cellular and telecommunications industry for over two decades. In 1998 founded a national master agency, Telelink. From there he partnered with two other strong companies uniting to become X4 Communications which eventually sold to Sandler Partners, the 2nd largest telecom agency in the US. He has since gone on to be an active investor in a number of industries, but remains a highly sought-after resource in the telecom sector.
Steve graduated from Ohio Wesleyan with a degree in economics and marketing. In his spare time, Steve enjoys traveling, music, auto racing, and spending time with his three kids.
Job Titles:
- Transaction Specialist ( Financial Diligence )
Trey has over two decades of M&A due diligence and related advisory experience, initially spending about a decade with Big 4 accounting firms and the past decade as an independent consultant. In between the Big 4 and independent consulting roles, Trey worked in the corporate development group of a publicly held company where his responsibilities included sourcing and evaluating acquisition opportunities.
Over the course of his career, Trey has served numerous private equity clients ranging from the largest most well-known funds to middle and lower middle market focused groups. Trey also has extensive buy-side and sell-side experience serving strategic clients. His due diligence experience has involved stock and asset deals, carve-out transactions and industry consolidations/rollups. Trey's industry experience includes, but is not limited to, automotive, general manufacturing, retail, distribution, chemicals, industrial and consumer products, business services, and healthcare.
Trey earned a Master's of Business Administration with a major in Finance and a minor in Marketing from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Trey earned a Bachelor's of Business Administration in accounting with Magna Cum Laude honors from the University of Notre Dame. Trey is a certified public accountant (inactive) and a member of the AICPA.