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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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Bob Hyland—Principal
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Bob has worked with middle market business owners for 20 years
and has become an authority in the area of ownership transition advisory
services for this market segment, particularly in debt financing for growth companies.
As an Executive V.P. for FHA CPAs, Bob developed the market strategy to identify, qualify and
secure accounting, consulting and ownership transition advisory opportunities,
which became the foundation for Ascend. Prior to joining FHA CPAs
in 2004, he was a V.P. for Wells Fargo's Commercial
Banking Group, where he secured new financing and banking relationships with
middle market companies and helped to establish the bank as the leading middle
market lender in the San Francisco East Bay Region. Previously, Bob
held senior management positions with Odwalla, Inc. and Pepsi Cola Company.
He earned his B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing from California
State University, Chico.
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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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