Cascadia Capital, an investment bank serving middle market clients globally, is pleased to announce that Connie (Wessman) Wilson has joined the firm to augment Cascadia’s coverage team as a Vice President of Business Development. Connie will work with our close colleagues in the dealmaking community to enhance deal flow and referrals, as well as our experienced industry bankers to build long-term relationships with business owners and high-growth companies across the U.S.

Prior to joining Cascadia, Connie fostered deep relationships with middle market companies as a Vice President, Relationship Manager at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. She was classically trained in credit underwriting prior to her role in relationship management.

“I could not be more excited to add Connie to the team,” said Katherine Bellows, Managing Director. “Her years of experience and strong relationships further strengthen our coverage capabilities and will allow us to identify and create more opportunities and deliver greater value to our clients and partners.”

“I’m thrilled join the Cascadia team during this time of significant growth and momentum,” added Connie. “I have a passion for helping entrepreneurs and business owners, which is a perfect cultural fit with Cascadia’s long-term relationship and client first orientation.”

Meredith Mann
Chief Financial Officer

Cascadia Capital, an investment bank serving middle market clients globally, is pleased to announce that Meredith Mann has been appointed by the Board of Directors to the role of Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately.  As CFO, she will be responsible for scaling finance, strategic planning, human resources, technology and operations functions to support a significantly larger firm with a broader footprint. Through the use of KPIs, standardized metrics and quantitative analysis, she will bring greater rigor to our decision making process.

Prior to taking on the CFO role, Meredith spent 10 years in the finance industry, most recently as a Vice President in the Business Services group at Cascadia. Prior to her work at Cascadia, Meredith was at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supporting Global Health initiatives. Meredith started her career in various investment banking roles at the Royal Bank of Scotland and Mizuho Securities.

“Meredith has time and again demonstrated exemplary financial and business acumen, and exceptional leadership, consistently impressing our management team and Board of Directors,” said Cascadia Chairman & CEO, Michael Butler.  “She brings creativity, solid judgement, and a deep understanding of our industry to this role, which will be instrumental in continuing the firm’s growth.”

This appointment comes at a pivotal time for Cascadia, as the firm looks to build on recent momentum and fuel continued product, industry, coverage and geographic scaling of the platform following the strategic investment from Atlas Merchant Capital at the end of 2022.

“Meredith was a driving force in facilitating the successful completion of the Atlas transaction, proving her value as a senior leader of the firm,” Butler added. “At Cascadia, we are intentional about recognizing our highest performing individuals and positioning them within the firm to realize their greatest personal and professional successes.”

“I’m tremendously honored to step into this role, particularly during a time of such significant growth and opportunity for our organization,” said Mann. “We have an outstanding team with deep experience and a powerful combination of talent and strategic vision, and I am looking forward to supporting the firm’s growth initiatives to build the Cascadia of tomorrow and ultimately deliver the best service and highest value to our clients and partners.”

Ms. Mann is based in the firm’s recently opened Austin Office alongside Mr. Butler and a growing team of experienced investment banking professionals.

In 2022 and early 2023, several Managing Directors and senior investment banking professionals were hired and promoted to augment our experienced industry and coverage teams.

James Cartales Promoted to Managing Director at Cascadia Capital
February 3, 2022

Cascadia Capital is pleased to announce the promotion of James Cartales to Managing Director in the firm’s Consumer & Retail group. As a Managing Director, Mr. Cartales will continue to provide M&A advisory and equity capital raising services to founder and family-owned companies across the ecommerce, experiential retail, and consumer services sectors.

Mr. Cartales joined Cascadia Capital in 2013 and has been involved in over 40 transactions over the last nine years at the firm. During that time, he has played a central role in Cascadia’s marquee consumer transactions [….continue reading….]

Scott Ames Joins Cascadia Capital to Launch Financial Sponsor Coverage Efforts
March 8, 2022

Cascadia Capital, an investment bank serving middle market clients globally, is pleased to announce that Scott Ames has joined the firm as Managing Director of Financial Sponsor Coverage. In this role, he will continue to develop and institutionalize relationships with leading private equity firms, family offices and other capital players across the U.S. Mr. Ames will work closely with Cascadia’s industry sector bankers to make valuable connections, effectively coordinate deal flow, and leverage bankers’ sub-vertical expertise to provide buy-side, sell-side and financing services to the firm’s clients and institutional partners.

“Following a national search, Scott is the best cultural fit and the clear right choice to launch this dedicated effort at Cascadia. He will provide an unwavering focus to our approach of building deep strategic relationships with private equity and family office firms [….continue reading….]

Cascadia Capital Welcomes Corey Berse as Managing Director, Operations
July 2022

Corey Berse serves as Managing Director, Operations for Cascadia Capital. He is responsible for the firm’s operations across Human Capital Management, IT and Information Systems, Compliance and Facilities Management. He has a particular focus on helping ensure the firm’s strategic growth through effective practices across recruiting, development and employee experience.

Prior to joining Cascadia, Corey spent 16 years with Houlihan Lokey in a variety of roles across Business Unit Management and Operations, Marketing and Human Capital Management [….continue reading….]

Cascadia Capital Adds Technology Focused Managing Director, Jim Stone, to Austin Office
January 5, 2023

Cascadia Capital, an investment banking firm focused on growth companies in the middle market, is pleased to announce that Jim Stone has joined the firm as a Managing Director in the Technology practice. Mr. Stone is based in Cascadia’s Austin office where he will bolster the firm’s presence in Texas. He will continue to focus on providing M&A, capital raising, and corporate finance advisory services to software and tech-enabled services clients in the fintech, payments, healthcare IT, government, and legal tech sectors, as he has throughout his 26-year investment banking career.

Mr. Stone brings his experience as a client success-driven investment banker, former corporate growth executive, and former business lawyer to benefit Cascadia clients. He has completed more than 70 M&A and capital raising transactions for growth companies and has successfully closed sell-side and buy-side engagements for leading private equity firms [….continue reading….]

Cascadia Expands its Financial Sponsor Coverage Group with Addition of Kerri Hagen
January 11, 2023

Cascadia Capital, an investment bank serving middle market clients globally, is pleased to announce that Kerri Hagen has joined the firm as a Director in the Financial Sponsor Coverage group. In this role she will be responsible for expanding the financial sponsor coverage platform, with a focus on broadening and deepening relationships with middle-market private equity firms and other institutional investors in the Northeast. Ms. Hagen will work closely with Cascadia’s industry and product bankers to make senior-level connections, and effectively deliver Cascadia’s deal flow and leading investment banking services to our private equity clients.

“I’m thrilled to have Kerri join our Financial Sponsor Coverage group to lead our coverage efforts in the Northeast [….continue reading….]

Additional Cascadia Promotions
January 2023

Novan Le was promoted to Senior Vice President in Cascadia Capital’s Healthcare Group, focused on M&A and growth equity advisory for healthcare technology and services companies. Novan brings over 10 years of corporate finance and M&A experience working with public and private companies in the healthcare and technology sectors. [….continue reading….]

Cascadia was also pleased to promote five team members to the position of Vice President and 5 team members to the position of Associate.

Highlighted below are  sub-vertical expertise areas for each member of our team.  Our full industry coverage and sub-vertical expertise is outlined on our industry pages.

SAVE THE DATE

The 2nd Annual

CASCADIA CONNECT
ROBOTICS, AUTOMATION, AND AI CONFERENCE
May 1-3, 2023
The Fairmont Pittsburgh

Add to Calendar

The Cascadia Connect RAAI Conference is the premier event for the robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence community, including growth companies, investors, entrepreneurs, academics, and technologists. Cascadia Capital has curated an invite-only group of the industry’s best minds to gather in the nation’s emerging RAAI innovation hub — Pittsburgh — for high-impact networking and inspiring discussion.

The conference registration, welcome reception, and meals during our agenda are complimentary to our invited guests. We have also secured a block of guestrooms at a discounted rate for conference attendees at the Fairmont Pittsburgh, which will be available on a first reserved, first secured basis following your registration.

Stay tuned for our registration announcement and the launch of the conference website to include speaker information, the detailed agenda, and more.

To learn more, please visit the 2022 Cascadia Connect RAAI Conference Recap

We look forward to connecting with you in May!

Cascadia Capital, an investment bank serving middle market clients globally, is pleased to announce that Kerri Hagen has joined the firm as a Director in the Financial Sponsor Coverage group. In this role she will be responsible for expanding the financial sponsor coverage platform, with a focus on broadening and deepening relationships with middle-market private equity firms and other institutional investors in the Northeast. Ms. Hagen will work closely with Cascadia’s industry and product bankers to make senior-level connections, and effectively deliver Cascadia’s deal flow and leading investment banking services to our private equity clients.

“I’m thrilled to have Kerri join our Financial Sponsor Coverage group to lead our coverage efforts in the Northeast,” noted Scott Ames, Managing Director and Head of Financial Sponsor Coverage. “She brings a breadth of experience and relationships to our platform and will play an instrumental role in delivering Cascadia’s services to the private equity community.”

Ms. Hagen joins Cascadia from Gemspring Capital, a middle market private equity firm, where she was the Director of Business Development responsible for sourcing new investments and driving the firm’s business development efforts and investment banking relationships. Prior to joining Gemspring, Ms. Hagen was a Senior Business Development Consultant at Axial, where she assisted in the deal sourcing and M&A efforts of middle market private equity firms, family offices and lenders. Before Axial, she served as Vice President, Equity Sales at The Buckingham Research Group. Early in her career, Ms. Hagen assisted the research, sales, and trading functions of investment banks while at IHS Markit (formerly Ipreo, a portfolio company of Blackstone and Goldman Sachs).

“I am excited to join Cascadia’s talented group of professionals with deep sector expertise and be a part of a rapidly-growing firm,” said Ms. Hagen. “I believe Cascadia can add significant value to financial sponsors and I look forward to continuing to help build these relationships.”

“The addition of Kerri further enhances our team and allows us to more broadly deliver our leading industry and product resources to the financial sponsor community,” added Cascadia Chairman & CEO, Michael Butler. “We have achieved record growth in recent years and we will continue to fuel our strong momentum with great hires like Kerri. We are far from done adding world-class talent to this platform.”

Cascadia’s Financial Sponsor Coverage group focuses on developing and institutionalizing relationships with leading private equity firms, family offices and other capital providers. The firm’s financial sponsor clients value Cascadia’s high-quality middle market deal flow, outstanding execution, and ability to deliver Cascadia’s resources through coordination of activities across sectors and product groups.

To learn more about or connect with Cascadia’s Financial Sponsor Coverage team, please contact:

Cascadia Capital, an investment banking firm focused on growth companies in the middle market, is pleased to announce that Jim Stone has joined the firm as a Managing Director in the Technology practice. Mr. Stone is based in Cascadia’s Austin office where he will bolster the firm’s presence in Texas. He will continue to focus on providing M&A, capital raising, and corporate finance advisory services to software and tech-enabled services clients in the fintech, payments, healthcare IT, government, and legal tech sectors, as he has throughout his 26-year investment banking career.

Mr. Stone brings his experience as a client success-driven investment banker, former corporate growth executive, and former business lawyer to benefit Cascadia clients. He has completed more than 70 M&A and capital raising transactions for growth companies and has successfully closed sell-side and buy-side engagements for leading private equity firms. Prior to investment banking, Mr. Stone was Vice President of Corporate Development at Affiliated Computer Services (later sold to Xerox), a leading Dallas-based fintech/payment processing, IT services, and information storage company. Before ACS, he was an M&A and corporate law attorney.

“Jim is a terrific addition to the Cascadia team and we are thrilled to welcome him to the Austin office,” noted Michael Butler, Chairman and CEO of Cascadia Capital. “He is a talented banker with broad and deep industry relationships, significant experience and recognized industry expertise that will allow us to better serve our technology clients here in Austin and beyond.”

“I am truly excited to join Cascadia Capital to support tech-enabled clients and help the firm grow and expand its presence in Austin,” added Mr. Stone. “The city has grown tremendously in the last few years, especially in the technology sector, and since I first moved to Austin in 1985. I’m thrilled to join a platform that has committed to growing with the business community here and helping founder and private equity owned businesses explore their liquidity and growth financing options.”

To connect with or learn more about Mr. Stone, please visit his profile on the Cascadia website here.

Cascadia announced the opening of its Austin office in November 2022. In the same month, Cascadia Capital closed a strategic growth equity investment from an investment fund affiliated with Atlas Merchant Capital LLC. With the additional resources from the investment and the Atlas team’s support, Cascadia continues its geographic, product, team, and sponsor coverage growth nationwide. Learn More.

We are excited to share that Cascadia Capital’s strategic growth equity investment from an investment fund affiliated with Atlas Merchant Capital LLC has officially closed following routine regulatory approval. With the additional resources from the investment and the Atlas team’s support, Cascadia will continue its geographic, product, team, multi-industry, and sponsor coverage growth nationwide.

Cascadia Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO Michael Butler and Co-Founder & Managing Director Kevin Cable sat down with Atlas Founding Partner & CEO Bob Diamond to discuss how the investment is already adding exciting momentum to the firm’s growth, client services, and team expansion plans.

Read the Full Press Release Here

To speak with our team or learn more about how this partnership will further enable us to achieve successful outcomes for the businesses and capital providers we serve, please reach out.