MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Oak Ridge Financial Services Group, Inc., based in Golden Valley, Minn., today announced that it has made several key hires to expand its rapidly growing investment banking practice. Five of the hires comprise a newly created Equity Capital Markets Group, and two will provide Structured Finance services for specialty finance companies.
“We see increasing needs among smaller and specialized firms for expert investment banking services,” said Russell S. King, Chairman and CEO of Oak Ridge Financial. “Our investment banking groups bring deeply experienced professionals to these underserved markets. All of our practice areas are growing quickly, indicating to us that our clients value our commitment to their needs.”
Oak Ridge Financial’s new Equity Capital Markets Group will offer essential advisory services to small and medium-sized public and private companies. It will help them to successfully raise rounds of capital, execute public offerings and evaluate strategic opportunities. It also will compile and publish original research reports and profiles that will raise clients’ visibility in the market and position them favorably among key funding sources as an attractive investment.
Joe Sullivan has joined Oak Ridge Financial as managing director and head of this new Equity Capital Markets Group. Sullivan came to Oak Ridge Financial from Dougherty & Co., where he was head of corporate finance and investment banking. He has more than 25 years of experience, with a focus on the kinds of emerging growth companies that will be targeted by Oak Ridge Financial. The other new hires to the Equity Capital Markets Group include:
- Mark Hagen and Mike Larson, Senior Vice Presidents, both join Oak Ridge from Feltl and Company. Each brings more than 20 years of institutional equity sales and investment banking experience.
- David Lantz, Senior Vice President, joins from Dougherty & Company, and has more than 20 years of investment banking experience raising capital through private placements and public offerings, executing M&A transactions and preparing fairness opinions.
- Mark Smith, Senior Research Analyst, brings 14 years of experience covering a diverse group of small and micro-cap companies. He has been named “Best on the Street,” a “Top Stock Picker” and a “Top Earnings Estimator” many times by The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Investor’s Business Daily. Mark was formerly at Sidoti & Company.
Oak Ridge Financial also has hired two managing directors to create a Structured Finance Group providing structured products solutions, portfolio sales, warehouse funding and securitization funding to specialty finance firms. Tom Baurle and Chris Flannery have a combined 50 years of experience in structured finance and private debt placements. In their new roles, they will originate, structure and place a wide variety of transaction types including warehouse facilities, securitizations and whole loan sales, primarily for clients in the specialty finance industry. Both join Oak Ridge from Piper Jaffray, where they were leaders in that firm’s structured finance group.
These new practice areas are an important extension of the broader Oak Ridge Financial investment banking platform. Since 2007, the Financial Institutions Group has provided mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and fairness opinions to community banks in the Upper Midwest. Craig Mueller and David Stieber are co-heads of this area.
Oak Ridge Financial also offers municipal bond underwriting and trading through its Public Finance Group, headed by Scott Vanderwerp. Operating primarily in Michigan, this group serves municipalities, charter schools and other non-profit issuers.
About Oak Ridge Financial
The Oak Ridge Financial Services Group, Inc., based in Golden Valley, Minn., has been creating, managing and protecting wealth for its clients since 1977. Oak Ridge is a full-service financial services firm providing private client and investment banking services to individual, institutional and corporate customers. Its Private Client Services Group includes 40 financial advisors and brokers serving thousands of clients across the U.S. Its services include stock and bond trading, investment management, estate planning, wealth management and insurance. The Oak Ridge Financial investment banking practice includes the Equity Capital Markets, Structured Finance, Financial Institutions and Public Finance groups. Collectively, these groups provide capital raising, mergers and acquisitions and financial advisory services to public and private companies and municipalities across the country. Oak Ridge Financial is a member of FINRA and SIPC. For more information, visit http://www.oakridgefinancial.com/.
