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Michael A. Friar—Principal
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Mike brings over 29 years of public accounting and
strategic business management experience to Ascend. In 1990, he
launched FHA CPAs, which by 2005 was one of the top 25 accounting
firms in the San Francisco Bay Area. Formerly a manager at KPMG
and an audit partner at a regional accounting firm, he has extensive
experience with middle market companies in a wide variety of industries,
including manufacturing, wholesale and distribution, retail, technology,
service companies, and franchisors. For the last fifteen years,
Mike has specialized in strategic planning for middle market companies,
with a focus on growth and exit strategy through merger &
acquisition and family succession. Mike has completed over 55
sell and buy side transactions in addition to hundreds of advisory
engagements. Mike graduated with a B.S. in Accounting and Finance
from California State University East Bay.
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Mark Stailey—Principal
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Mark has over 20 years of operational, financial and project
management experience in the software and financial services
industries. Prior to joining Ascend, Mark was a managing director
at Pen-Cal, Inc., where he marketed and installed corporate
non-qualified executive benefits plans for public and private
companies. Previously, Mark was a project manager for Hewlett
Packard's Global CRM team, where he led international release
management and quality assurance teams for the worldwide implementation
of Siebel and Oracle eBusiness Suite. He has also served as
the COO of BISNet, Inc., a provider of online employee benefits
administration services and President/COO of InsMark, Inc.,
a leading developer of insurance and financial software for
planning professionals. Mark began his career as manufacturing
manager for West Coast Scientific, a biomedical plastics manufacturer.
Mark earned his MBA from Saint Mary's College and B.A. in Computer
Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Scott Pietro—Principal
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Scott has seventeen years of well-rounded experience in all
aspects of manufacturing, including sales, operations, finance,
treasury, procurement, human resources, product development,
and strategic planning. Scott is a founding partner of LegalShore
LLC, a successful SaaS (Software as a Service) company offering
web-based employee compliance products to small and mid-size
businesses. Prior to this, Scott held the position of Vice President
of Finance and Vice President of Human Resources and Procurement
for a $100 million high growth privately-held plastics manufacturer.
Previously, Scott spent five years as the Financial / Administrative
Manager for Reynolds Metals, an aluminum can manufacturer. Scott
has a B.A in business economics from the University of California,
Santa Barbara.
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