Chartwell is excited to welcome Michael Coppa to the firm as a Managing Director, focusing on business development and transaction execution activities in the Southeast region of the U.S.

Position: 1-Managing Directors

Wil Becker

Wil has been with Chartwell for over 20 years and is a member of the firm’s corporate finance practice. He focuses on providing ownership transition strategies to middle-market companies, including the execution of traditional M&A processes for both sell-side and buy-side transactions. He provides corporate consulting services to both private and ESOP-owned companies and has experience within a variety of industry sectors.

Wil also has significant experience in performing valuations of privately-held companies for corporate planning, equity compensation, tax, financial reporting, and transaction-related purposes. Wil is head of Chartwell’s broker dealer affiliate CCS Transactions, LLC, and is its Chief Compliance Officer.

Professional Involvement & Certification

Wil is a member of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), The ESOP Association, and the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO). He is a frequent presenter on M&A and valuation issues to professional groups.

Wil is designated as an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) in Business Valuation by the American Society of Appraisers. Wil holds FINRA Series 7, 24, 63, and 79 licenses.

Professional Experience

Prior to Chartwell, Wil was part of the corporate development team at Securian Financial, where he was involved in M&A activities as well as the company’s restructuring into a mutual holding company.

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Will Bloom

Will leads Chartwell’s Chicago office. He is an investment banker for the firm’s corporate finance practice and heads the firm’s capital markets team. Will has worked on both mergers and acquisitions as well as capital markets transactions within a variety of industries while executing high-profile ESOP buyouts, terminations, and restructurings.

Professional Involvement & Certification

Will is an active member of The ESOP Association, where he currently serves on the Finance Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) and the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG). Will is a recipient of The M&A Advisor’s 40 Under 40 Award in recognition for his expertise and professional accomplishments.

Will is a registered representative with Chartwell affiliate CCS Transactions, LLC, and holds FINRA Series 7, 63, and 79 licenses.

Professional Experience

Prior to Chartwell, Will was an investment banker with Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Transaction Development Group, where he focused on executing sell-side, buy-side, and ESOP transactions for middle-market clients between $200 million and $2 billion in enterprise value.

Prior to Bank of America, Will spent considerable time as a member of ABN AMRO’s Global Markets group, where he participated in originating and executing investment grade and high yield bond issuance, traditional senior private placements, securitizations, junior capital and underwriting, and distributing second lien loans. Will also participated in establishing De Meer Asset Management, a division of ABN AMRO, where he acted as a principal investor in liquid and illiquid leveraged senior and junior loan assets as a part of multiple cash and synthetic collateralized loan obligation structures. 

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Nick Braun

Nick joined Chartwell in 2007 and leads the firm’s Portland office. He provides financial advisory and valuation services to the middle market, with extensive valuation experience related to fairness opinions, employee stock ownership plans, corporate planning, and shareholder liquidity alternatives. Nick also has significant experience in corporate finance engagements, including transaction advisory and corporate development. He works with clients across the United States, covering a broad scope of size, industries, and capital structures.

Professional Involvement & Certification

Nick is an active member of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), The ESOP Association, and the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO). Nick has been a featured speaker for these organizations on employee ownership and valuation issues. He also regularly presents to management teams, boards of directors, ESOP trustees, and employee groups.

Nick is an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) designated in Business Valuation by the American Society of Appraisers. He is also a registered representative with Chartwell affiliate CCS Transactions, LLC and holds FINRA Series 63 and 79 licenses.

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Tim Cleary

Tim leads Chartwell’s ownership advisory practice, helping privately-held and mature ESOP-owned companies understand, evaluate, design, and implement strategic alternatives for the next stage of the business’ life cycle. He also helps mature ESOP-owned companies establish financial disciplines to assure long-term sustainability. Tim’s legal, tax, and administrative experience allows him to design creative yet practical solutions that optimize benefits for clients. He has been helping privately-held business owners and management since 1987.

Professional Involvement

Tim is an active member of The ESOP Association and the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO). He is also a member of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), where he currently serves on the Affiliate Advisory Committee. Tim is a nationally known speaker and writer on ESOPs.

Professional Experience

Tim started his consulting career as a corporate tax and ESOP attorney. He then led Ernst & Young’s National ESOP Consulting Practice, where he was instrumental in shaping innovative S Corporation ESOP structures. Tim also led Principal Financial Group’s ESOP Consulting Practice, one of the largest ESOP administration and consulting practices in the country.

Michael Coppa

Michael is an investment banker in Chartwell’s corporate finance practice and leads advisory activities across the Southeast region. He has over 20 years of corporate finance, management consulting, and organizational leadership experience, advising publicly- and privately-owned companies and their owners on a wide range of strategic finance, transaction, and operational improvement mandates. Michael is responsible for brand development, relationship management, and transaction execution in the Charlotte, Atlanta, Washington DC, and greater Florida major metropolitan areas.

Professional Involvement & Certification

Michael is a member of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), The ESOP Association, and the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO).

Michael is a registered representative with Chartwell affiliate CCS Transactions, LLC and holds FINRA Series 63 and 79 licenses.

Professional Experience

Prior to Chartwell, Michael served in a variety of advisory and operating roles. He provided investment banking services to middle market clients at both Wells Fargo and Edgeview Partners (currently Piper Sandler) and served large-cap investment banking clients as a member of Wachovia’s (Wells Fargo) Leveraged Finance Group. Additionally, Michael worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co., guiding large-cap and government clients through Lean Management and Agile operational transformations.

Earlier in his career, Michael was an Army Aviation commissioned officer serving in leadership roles from Platoon Leader to Company Commander for V Corps in Germany and the 101st Airborne Division where he led his units in combat theatres in Albania, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

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Greg Fresh

Greg has been with Chartwell since 2010 and leads the firm’s corporate finance practice. During the course of his 25+ year investment banking career, he has been involved in hundreds of transactions including both M&A and capital markets, in public and private markets.

Professional Involvement & Certification

Greg is a member of the Association for Corporate Growth, The ESOP Association, and the National Center for Employee Ownership. Greg is a frequent speaker on variety of corporate finance topics involving ESOPs.

Greg is a registered representative with Chartwell affiliate CCS Transactions, LLC and holds FINRA Series 7, 62, 63, and 79 licenses.

Professional Experience

Prior to Chartwell, Greg was Managing Director of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s M&A advisory group, where he was responsible for covering diversified industrial clients, as well as ESOP advisory for the investment bank. Prior to Bank of America, Greg was Managing Director at ABN AMRO where he was responsible for M&A advisory and a member of the coverage team for the consumer sector. In addition, he established and led the ESOP Advisory practice for the investment bank, as well as co-led the middle market public to private practice. Prior to his large cap investment banking experience, Greg was a Managing Director at Lazard Middle Market (Goldsmith, Agio, Helms) where he represented private business owners, corporations, and  private equity in a variety of middle-market M&A transactions.

In addition, Greg has held positions of increasing responsibility with Fortune 100 companies Diageo, plc and Invensys plc in corporate development, planning, and finance director positions. Greg began his M&A career in private equity with the Jordan Industries, Inc., the holding company strategy of the Jordan Company. He began his career in public accounting.

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Ryan Graham

Ryan leads Chartwell’s repurchase obligation and sustainability practice, providing ESOP-owned companies a holistic approach to corporate sustainability. Ryan has been assisting privately-held business owners and management teams in analyzing the financial impact of transactions and the ongoing repurchase obligation for ESOP companies since 2004. He is recognized nationally as a leader in ESOP sustainability and repurchase obligation forecasting. Throughout his career, Ryan has worked with companies of many different sizes in diverse industries across the country. Ryan has worked with over a third of NCEO’s “The Employee Ownership 100: America’s Largest Majority Employee-Owned Companies.”

Professional Involvement

Ryan is an active member of The ESOP Association, where he currently serves on the Administration Advisory Committee, the Programming Committee for the Wisconsin chapter, and the Advocacy Committee for the Minnesota/Dakotas chapter. Ryan is also a member of the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO).

Ryan has presented to employee groups, management teams, boards of directors, investors, and trustees on the topics of ESOP sustainability, ESOP repurchase obligation, and the benefits of ESOP ownership.

Professional Experience

Prior to Chartwell, Ryan led the ESOP Financial Analysis Team at Principal Financial Group, providing repurchase liability, feasibility, sustainability and benefit-level modeling to ESOP companies, and helped develop the online repurchase liability modeling software used by hundreds of ESOP companies annually.

Paul Halverson

Paul began his career providing independent business valuation services to privately-held companies and their shareholders. He founded Chartwell in 1995 and has grown the firm into a leading national financial advisory serving the middle market.

He engaged with his first ESOP-owned company in 1987 and has dedicated 30+ years to providing unrivalled guidance on all financial aspects an organization may encounter during the lifecycle of ESOP ownership.

Paul has led Chartwell’s development from a single location valuation firm into a multifaceted financial advisory firm offering unmatched consulting, corporate finance, and valuation expertise. He devotes the majority of his client focus to advising companies, boards of directors, ESOP trustees, and business owners on long-range ownership and capital planning matters.

Professional Involvement & Certification

Paul is an active member of The ESOP Association and the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO), where he has been a frequent speaker and thought leader for both organizations.

Paul is a registered representative with Chartwell affiliate CCS Transactions, LLC and holds FINRA Series 24, 63, and 79 licenses.

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Richard Joseph

Richard has been with Chartwell since 2015 and leads the delivery of the firm’s West Coast financial advisory and consulting services. For over 25 years, Richard has worked with privately-held companies and shareholders with an emphasis on employee ownership. Richard is a recognized authority in fiduciary compliance, corporate governance, ESOP consulting and transaction execution, ownership transition strategies, corporate sustainability, and other business issues involving capital planning for privately-held businesses.

Professional Involvement

Richard is an active member of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), The ESOP Association, and the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO). He is a frequent speaker at local, regional, and national ESOP conferences.

Professional Experience

Prior to Chartwell, Richard was a Managing Director with Alerus Financial’s ESOP Services practice, where he regularly engaged with companies on a broad range of topics including ESOP formation, fiduciary issues, stock transaction structure, corporate governance, repurchase obligation, stock valuation and capital analysis, ESOP sustainability, and participant communications.

Dan Kaczmarek

Dan is an investment banker in Chartwell’s corporate finance practice. He provides leadership in the execution of debt/equity capital raising transactions and sales of privately-held businesses to strategic acquirers, private equity firms, and employee stock ownership plans. Dan has worked on a myriad of successful M&A, capital markets, and ESOP transactions within the industries of consumer products, food products, business services, healthcare, manufacturing, transportation/logistics, and technology.

Professional Involvement & Certification

Dan is an active member of The ESOP Association and the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO), where he is frequent speaker at national conference held by both organizations.

Dan is a registered representative with Chartwell affiliate CCS Transactions, LLC and holds FINRA Series 63 and 79 licenses.

Professional Experience

Prior to Chartwell, Dan was an investment banker with BMO Capital Markets’ Mergers & Acquisitions group, where he focused on executing sell-side, buy-side, and recapitalization transactions for middle-market clients between $200 million and $2 billion in enterprise value.

Prior to BMO, Dan was a member of Stout Risius Ross’s Valuation and Financial Opinions group, where he focused on ESOP equity valuations. Additionally, Dan advised ESOP trustees in sell-side, buy-side, and recapitalization transactions.

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