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ManagementRobert W. TillsonManaging PartnerRobert W. Tillson is Managing Partner of Pierce’s software and information technology practice. He has experience in private placements, venture capital, valuations, and mergers and acquisitions. He has advised several companies on acquisition strategy and has completed transactions valued at over $500 million dollars. He advised the CEO of HBOC on the acquisition of 16 healthcare IT companies. He has arranged the sale of several government contractors. He arranged financing for several early stage software companies including Edge Technologies, Open Service, and CavaSoft. He serves on the Boards of several software and information technology services companies. Prior to joining Pierce, he was a pioneer in the online information services and software industry for over 25 years. He marketed the first commercially available online information services as an executive of the IBM Company. He introduced the first consumer interactive online service as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for CompuServe, and was the senior executive managing the first eCommerce services for General Electric Information Services. He was founder and CEO of the first Sales Force Automation and CRM software company, National Management Systems. Mr. Tillson holds a BS in Engineering from Syracuse University and attended New York University Graduate School of Business and Lehigh University. He is a member of the Association for Corporate Growth, National Association of Corporate Directors, The Tech Council of Maryland, and the Northern Virginia Technology Council. Peter YanachkovGeneral Counsel and PartnerPeter Yanachkov has over 12 years of experience in financing, restructuring and privatization in the financial, manufacturing, water, energy, oil and gas, transportation and mining sectors. Mr. Yanachkov has advised governments, multilateral institutions and strategic investors in Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia. As international counsel and investment advisor, his experience includes project appraisal, asset valuation, development of restructuring and social impact mitigation plans, and preparation of investor “roadmaps”. He has advised investors in privatizations in Central and Eastern Europe - including the preparation for privatization of two large hydro power stations in Ukraine in 2001-2002. Mr. Yanachkov is familiar with various investment guarantee mechanisms, in particular with those, designed by the World Bank and MIGA for the economies in transition in Europe, and has extensive experience in advising foreign investors on obtaining such guarantees. Mr. Yanachkov’s career has been a mixture of law and finance. After 1996 to present he worked as an attorney for Morris Deutsch/Columbia Development Corporation and for International Legal Counsels. Prior to 1996 he worked as an attorney and project finance expert for the World Bank in the European and Central Asian Deparatment and in the Private Sector Development Advisory Group. Mr. Yanachkov education includes an LLM from Georgetown University, a J.D. from St. Climent of Okhrid University – Bulgaria, and a number of specialized courses in project finance and financial markets in the World Bank. Mr. Yanachkov is fluent in: Bulgarian, English, Russian, Polish, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, and Czech. Michael J. ClarkPartnerAs head of Pierce’s syndication desk, Michael led syndication of US $20 million private placement of an international broadband service provider. Michael has also managed the syndication of multiple telecommunications and technology companies in private equity and debt markets for a combined value of over US $300 million. Recently he has been active in the sale of distressed telecom companies. Michael came from a background in communications and politics and has worked on many national and statewide campaigns. Michael attended the Claremont Colleges and the University of Paris, La Sorbonne. Stan GutkowskiManaging DirectorHas recently served as the managing director for Accenture's Washington D.C office. In that role, Mr. Gutkowski served as Accenture's external voice in the Washington D.C. business community and managed the company's overall growth in the region. He is the immediate past chairman of the board of the Professional Services Council. He is on the board of directors of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and the government advisory board of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) and, in the past, has been a member of the boards of the ITAA, Government Electronics and Information Technology Association (GEIA) and NASA Space Club. Mr. Gutkowski graduated from Seton Hall University in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and received a master's in business administration from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College in 1973. Dan ChaneyManaging DirectorRecently served as managing director with the national accounting and consulting firm of RSM McGladrey where he provided general business consulting, valuation, ESOP advisory and merger & acquisition support primarily to clients in the government contracting and information technology arena. He was also founder and president of a middle-market business valuation and mergers and acquisitions consulting firm. A business valuation expert, Mr. Chaney is certified by all four of the valuation credentialing organizations and is also a CPA. His experience also includes serving as VP of Finance and Chief Financial Officer for a middle-market defense and intelligence IT Services Company. Mr. Chaney holds a BS degree from University of Maryland and an MBA from Mt. St. Mary's University. He is a Certified Mergers & Acquisitions Professional. Wes TeagueManaging DirectorWes has over 30 years combined experience in the field of corporate growth - as a commercial banker, an investment banker, in senior positions in company operations and corporate governance, as a consultant to small- and mid-cap firms, and in leading merger and acquisition effort for clients as well as for his own companies. He has additional expertise in alternative ownership structures, such as the sale of a large ESOP-owned privately-held professional services firm to a billion dollar publicly traded company, where he led the M&A efforts of this firm through numerous acquisitions and the ultimate disposition, resulting in the quintessential example of successful employee-ownership. Wes recently served as the Senior Vice President - Defense and Intelligence for INDUS Corporation from 2005 to 2006, when INDUS, a large federal civilian agency government contractor, acquired two smaller defense-related firms. He was previously the Executive Vice President of C-CUBED Corporation, a government contractor that provided specialized services to clients in the Department of Defense, and federal civilian and intelligence communities. C-CUBED was an ESOP-owned company which was sold to CACI in 2003. While at C-CUBED, he also served as the Corporate Secretary, was on the Board of Directors and structured the majority ESOP, serving as its initial Trustee. Wes served in the U. S. Army as a Legal Specialist in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He holds a BS in Economics from Auburn University and an MBA in Finance and Investments from The George Washington University. Wes has a current Department of Defense Top Secret clearance, which he has maintained since 1990. Bob DinkelManaging DirectorBob has over 30 years experience in the computer software and services industry. He managed mergers and acquisitions for a multi-billion dollar computer software company focussed on the federal government market place. Over twenty years he planned and executed over 20 acquisitions. He negotiated software licensing contracts with most agencies of the federal government and is considered an expert on government contracting in the acquisition of professional services. He built and managed a 400 person professional services division of a major software company. He was also President of FedResults, a company that represents IT organizations to the Federal Government. Bob serves on the Board of Directors of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and SECAF (The Small and Emerging Contractors Advisory Forum), and is a past member of the Board of the Tech Council of Maryland. He is also active in Tech America and ACT-IAC. He studied advanced IT and systems analysis at Miami University. Bob maintains a Top Secret clearance which provides access to the Intelligence Community. Donnie BlanksManaging DirectorDonnie has over 25 years of executive experience managing the business development organizations of several large government contractors and various aspects of their mergers and acquisition programs. He was executive vice president of Perot Systems and was instrumental in their acquisition of QSS. He was also executive vice president of CACI and member of the executive committee that initiated several acquisitions. He was also a senior executive of CSC and GTE. Mr. Blanks graduated from Southwest Texas State University and The Wharton School of Business Executive Development. Donnie served in The United States Airforce as an intelligence systems analyst. He managed and defended a budget exceeding $300 million at annual OSD and OMB budget hearings. He also served as the Air Force liason with Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute (SEI). Monique S. GawManaging DirectorHas extensive Wall Street experience in capital markets - fixed income with Dean Witter (Morgan Stanley), Paine Webber, and Charles Schwab, and was Series 7 and 63 Registered. As Vice President of Federal Government Relations, for the American Financial Services Association, she represented the financial services and consumer lending industry and was Vice President, Government Affairs for Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. She has extensive international finance experience and is fluent in Dutch and moderate in German and French. She graduated from Boston University with a degree in Economics. Advisors & ConsultantsWarren MartinAdvisorWarren is a partner with Argy, Wiltse & Robinson, an accounting and business advisory firm located in northern Virginia . Prior to joining Argy, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at MorganFranklin, a government contractor, was responsible for legal and risk management, contracts, finance and treasury, and corporate development. Prior to joining MorganFranklin, Warren was co-founder and managing director of Claris Capital LLC, a NASD registered broker/dealer investment bank in Vienna, VA. Prior to Claris Capital, Warren was a senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. As part of his 20-year career with PwC, he served as the managing partner in PwC's Metro Washington, D.C. high-technology audit assurance practice. In that capacity Warren managed partners and professional staff in the delivery of audit services to high-technology clients located throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. He began his career with IBM Corporation. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of the the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association (MAVA), the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), and the Board of Trustees for WETA (Public Radio and Television in Washington, D.C.). He has been a featured speaker at numerous national conferences for the venture capital, software and information technology industries. Warren is certified with NASD Series 7, 24 and 63, a CPA, and holds a B.S. in business administration from Boston University. Robert MasseyAdvisorRobert Massey is Chairman of CallTech Communications. He was previously President and Chief Executive Officer of CompuServe from 1995 to 1997. Prior to serving as CompuServe's CEO, he directed CompuServe's Network Services Division from 1991 through 1997. He also held numerous executive positions with the firm over a twenty-year period in various sales, marketing and general management, plus served on the company's Board of Directors during the period 1991 through 1997. Bob previously was with the IBM Corporation, Control Data Corporation, now known as Ceridian. He is a graduate of Holy Cross College and has an MBA from Syracuse University. Mohamed CassamAdvisorMohamed is Pierce’s Senior Advisor for energy and power. As founder of Cassam & Associates, he specializes in formulation, development and funding of power projects primarily in Africa and Asia. He has completed assignments in privatization and public-private infrastructure financing in some 20 countries including, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and most of the countries of Africa and the Middle East. Prior to forming Cassam & Associates, Mr. Cassam was a Manager in the World Bank’s South Asia Region where he designed and implemented the $800 million PSIDF facility that funded 4500 MW of IPPS in Pakistan, and closed the financing of the $1.8 billion Hub power project. During his career, Mr. Cassam has worked for the United States Agency for International Development, Acres International Consulting Company and the World Bank FAO/ Cooperative Program.
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