Meet ACG’s New Chair and Board Members
The newest board members discuss their vision and goals for ACG and the board.
Ringing in the new year, ACG welcomed its newest Chair, Dave Gershman, Partner and General Counsel at Trivest Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in family and founder-owned businesses.
Trivest, founded in 1981, is the oldest private equity firm in the Southeastern United States, and Gershman serves on Trivest’s investment committee overseeing Trivest’s multiple fund strategies.
Gershman said he’s looking forward to his term as the ACG board chair as ACG continues to implement broad changes, including revamping InterGrowth, hiring more than 30 new event and membership professionals and integrating many of ACG’s chapters under OneACG.
“ACG is ushering in a new beginning for the middle market as the pandemic winds down,” Gershman said. “We are now positioned to bring more dealmakers together where they can connect, share best practices and network with others. It’s never been a better time to be part of ACG.”
In other board changes, Christine Nowaczyk, BOK Financial senior vice president, joins Gershman on the Executive Committee, becoming the chair elect, Brent Baxter, Nolan and Associates Managing Director, is now the immediate past Chair. Steve Castino, Vestal & Wiler Shareholder, and David Hellier, Bertram Capital Partner, also join the ACG Executive Committee. Castino and Hellier serve as the Chairman of Finance and Chapter Council Chair, respectively.
Also, ACG recently added four new board members, who below share their hopes for ACG’s future.
TONY BANKS, DIRECTOR, GRANT THORNTON
Local Chapter: ACG Dallas
A past president of ACG Dallas-Fort Worth chapter, Tony Banks has held a variety of M&A strategy positions, including director at Hein and Associates, vice president at JD Ford and private wealth advisor at Goldman Sachs.
As a member of the ACG board in 2022, Banks will concentrate on expanding membership and enhancing awareness of ACG within the private equity and investment banking community. He added he’ll focus on making ACG synonymous with successful M&A dead flow, growth and market intelligence.
DAN RYAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, MIDOCEAN PARTNERS
Local Chapter: ACG Philadelphia
Before working at MidOcean, Dan Ryan was partner and head of business development at Milestone Partners. He was a member of the firm’s investment committee and served as a senior member of the portfolio monitoring team and board member on Milestone portfolio companies. He also helped build the business development function at PeakEquity Partners while at Milestone. Prior to that, he worked in investment banking at Susquehanna International Group and B. Riley FBR. His other board affiliations include the 1789 Fund.
“We are all starved for in-person interaction after two years of zooms, so I look forward to creating conference/event formats that bring people together and cultivate meaningful relationships, which is an increasingly important component of mid-market M&A,” Ryan said.
As an incoming member on the ACG board, he’s looking forward to leveraging the return of live InterGrowth and various technology tools to stronger align all ACG chapters and promote connectivity for constituents across the M&A ecosystem.
ANN COX, SENIOR PRIVATE BANKER IN THE WEALTH MANAGEMENT INDUSTRY
Local Chapter: ACG Atlanta
Ann Cox has been in private banking and the financial service industry with firms such as JP Morgan, Bank of America, BNY Mellon and Wells Fargo. She is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, the Atlanta Bar Association and the Atlanta Estate Planning Council. She maintains her Series 7 and 66 Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) licenses.
She has served on the Board of Directors for the University of North Carolina School of Law Foundation since 2015. She is a member of the UNC Law School Cornerstone Society, the UNC Law School Atlanta Alumni Council, the UNC Women’s Leadership Council and is an initial donor to the UNC Peachtree Scholars Fund.
Cox said she’s looking forward to all the live and in-person events ACG is hosting across the country this year.
“The variety of offerings provides everyone a chance to engage from capital connection events to growth conferences to family office symposiums to deal crawls of every shape and fashion,” Cox said.
JOHN E. SURRETTE, JR., PARTNER, DIRECTOR, PRIVATE EQUITY/VENTURE CAPITAL AND TRANSACTION ADVISORY SERVICES GROUP, KLR
Local Chapter: ACG Boston
John Surrette has more than 20 years of experience in public and private accounting. At KLR, he’s the director of the private equity/venture capital and transaction advisory services group and a member of the firm’s executive committee. KLR is a New England regional public accounting firm that is ranked among the Top 100 firms in the United States.
He’s the current president of ACG Boston. He is a past board member of the Turnaround Management Association’s Boston Chapter as well as the RENEW Energy Initiative, and past vice president of the board of trustees for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Rhode Island chapter.
As an ACG board member, Surrette is looking forward to the continued roll out of OneACG because it will create significant value for ACG members which in turn will strengthen the organization, he said. He’s planning on developing new relationships with fellow board members and finding ways that he can contribute to ACG at the national level.
