News

Atlantic Street Capital Builds Leading Operating Advisor Network

Aug 23, 2018

Appointment of Seven Industry Veterans Will Better Service Businesses And Deliver Transformational Growth

STAMFORD, CT, August 23, 2018 – Atlantic Street Capital, a private equity firm targeting entrepreneurial businesses poised for the next level of growth, announced today the expansion of its network of operating advisors with the addition of seven senior level operating professionals whose deep domain expertise and industry knowledge will help Atlantic Street further build its current and future portfolio of investments at the lower end of the middle market.

Andy Wilkins, Managing Partner of Atlantic Street Capital, said, "This is a significant development for our firm and we welcome these seven professionals whose diverse and complementary industry experiences will help support our existing management teams and entrepreneur partners to build bigger and better companies. Their combined talents will help us to more quickly drive revenue growth, profit improvement, and operational efficiencies. Importantly, their work at our portfolio companies will continue to better leverage our team’s time and allow Atlantic Street to focus on sourcing and executing on the many investment opportunities ahead of us."

The new operating partners include:
Patrick Jones, who was previously the Global Chief Financial Officer for Coda Payments, a global mobile payments company based in Singapore. Mr. Jones has extensive experience working with private equity and venture capital backed companies during his career. He currently works with Atlantic Street’s portfolio companies Fast Sandwich and PLNTF Holdings. Prior to Coda Payments, Mr. Jones was the Chief Financial Officer for Addison Group Holdings, a private equity backed professional staffing firm. Prior to joining Addison, he was a Divisional CFO for Home Depot's Building Materials division, a $600m division with 67 branch locations.

Rizwan Khan previously oversaw the Financial Operations & Analytics division at Atlantic Street’s portfolio companies Fast Sandwich and PLNTF Holdings; he continues to be actively involved in those investments today, and was responsible for the design, development, and implementation of the entire Business Intelligence infrastructure. He previously worked at Bridgestone Retail Operations where as a Lead FP&A Analyst he was involved in all aspects of corporate finance highlighted by the implementation of the first-ever 2200 location, store-level budgeting process. He launched his finance career at myFootpath, a lead generation, Inc. 500 start-up.

Roy Serpa is a proven industry leader with over 33 years of experience in the Healthcare services such as Home Health & Behavioral Health. Prior to joining Atlantic Street, he was President and CEO of Lakeview Health, a group of Residential Treatment Centers for the Medical & Clinical treatment of substance abuse disorders from 2013 to present. Roy has had three successful Private Equity exits in the Healthcare Services space including with Jordan Health Services, a comprehensive Home Health provider, Lakeview Health as President & CEO, as well as being the only independent Board member of Castlewood Treatment Centers, an eating disorder provider of treatment.

Susan Stautberg joins Atlantic Street Capital as Governance Advisor, to launch the first private equity firm effort to recruit women for portfolio executive positions, company boards, and customer advisory boards. Susan recently retired as Chair and Co-Founder of the WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD) Foundation, the only global membership organization and community of women corporate directors. She is the President and CEO of PartnerCom Corporation, and co-founded OnBoard Bootcamp (OBB), an insider’s guide on how to be selected to a corporate, private company, or advisory board director position, and the Belizean Grove, a preeminent community and retreat for leading women who share knowledge and connections. The addition of Susan to ASC was announced earlier this year.

Tim Sutton is a veteran engineer, strategist and entrepreneur who has helped global brands and businesses grow. He started his career in engineering for GM, Whirlpool and Starbucks Coffee. After earning his MBA, he joined AT&T Wireless and led innovation that helped deliver 50% improvement in store efficiency. Mr. Sutton founded an enterprise software company, and completed a deal to sell the platform to AT&T. He then joined Blockbuster as VP of Retail Innovation to improve store operations and launch new store concepts. He has also held senior leadership roles at prominent strategy and innovation consulting firms Innosight, Fahrenheit 212, Redscout, and M&C Saatchi.

Tammie Valentini most recently served as Senior Vice President of Operations for a private equity backed financial services company where she was responsible for leading operations and support services across 800+ stores. Prior to this, she was a managing director for Change Capital Investments, where she was responsible for the business performance of several portfolio companies in the financial services and retail industries. As a founding member for ICG Commerce, she played a significant role in growing the company from start-up to approximately $175MM in revenue, which was successfully sold to Accenture in 2013. Additionally, she was a partner and Chief Operating Officer of a retained search firm for mid-market companies.

Katie Sick joins the firm as Operations Associate focused on Corporate Development from Spirit Realty Capital’s Acquisitions team, where she was responsible for sourcing, underwriting, and overseeing the procurement of real estate investment opportunities across 32 industries investing in middle market and investment grade tenants. Prior to joining Spirit, Katie consulted for a student housing development firm where she provided cash flow analysis and market research for various development projects. Prior to her consulting role, Katie worked for Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) overseeing HR and Operations of 10 stores with 300+ personnel.

The new operating advisors join an existing group of five advisors, led by Senior Operating Advisor Bryan Bevin, who has helped construct the team over the last two years. The existing advisors, all of whom have been with the firm since 2017, also include Kevin Graff, Karen Kuehneman, Lee Roever, and Scott Sider.

Mr. Bevin commented, "I'm incredibly proud of the breadth and depth of the team and talent that we’ve compiled at Atlantic Street. With the continued growth of the portfolio comes the heightened importance of being able to continue to provide top level operational, strategic, managerial, and financial support to our investments. I’m confident that this team will help us provide the operational support to create scale and growth at our companies that will help deliver significant returns to our investors."

About Atlantic Street Capital

Atlantic Street Capital is a private equity firm that invests in middle market companies with between $4 million and $12 million of EBITDA. The firm invests in fundamentally sound companies that will benefit from capital investment and value-adding strategic and operational initiatives. Atlantic Street Capital’s partners are hands-on investors who work closely with management to unlock their business’ underlying value and help them succeed. The firm is currently investing in Atlantic Street Capital III, LP. For more information, visit www.atlanticstreetcapital.com.

Contact: Chris Tofalli
Chris Tofalli Public Relations, LLC
914-834-4334