About Cutwater Advisory Partners
Our Vision & Philosophy
Our passion is to work with business owners to bring the exit value that they deserve after decades of dedication to their passion.
We do what others don’t, nor can’t. We bring investment, executive resources, investment banking, and tie it all together in a seamless exit strategy, ensuring that the business owner benefits more from our process than other exit options.
Exit advisors and business owners wonder how we can identify the optimum exit value of a business, find the ideal motivated buyer that would pay a premium, build the business to its acquisition attractive state, fund the growth strategy, and then seamlessly coordinate the exit transaction?
Explore our case studies with our clients…and then become one!
Executive leadership Qualifications
Below are the collective qualifications for our Leadership Team with over 150 years of experience. We have a diverse and robust team from which to address most every challenging issue and roadblock facing a growing company seeking an Optimum Value.
Credentials
- Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering programming
- B.S. degrees in Computer Science and MIS
- B.S. degree in EE
- M.S. degree in Computer Engineering and predictive modeling
- Was CIO for Quest/USWest and VP of IT for MCI (see specific experience above)
- Interim CIO/CTO for over 10 different companies
- Multiple certified Project Management Professionals
- Professional certification in supply chain and logistics
- Multiple Six Sigma certifications
- Principal Engineer/CTO
- Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
- PMI-PMP (Project Management Professional)
- PMI-RMP (Risk Management Professional)
- PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner)
- MIOP – Master’s Industrial/Organizational Psychology
- CSM (Certified Scrum Master)
- Logistics and Supply Chain Certified from Georgia Tech
- NASA Fellow
- Conference Speaker on programming languages, frameworks, agile methods, cloud adoption, resiliency, and IoT devices
- Society of Manufacturing Engineer “Educator of the Year”
- 10 Board Certifications in Cyber Security: CCTA/Certified Counterintelligence Threat Analyst; CECI/Certified Expert in Cyber Investigations; CDCI/Certified Digital Currency Investigator
- Series 79 Investment Banking license FINRA
Areas of Operational Assessment
- Simulation and Modeling
- Systems Engineering and Integration
- Thought Process on Strategy to Execution
- Process Optimization
- Portfolio Management and Balanced Scorecard at Corporate level
- Activity Based Cost and Cost Accountability
- Building High Performance
- Teams/Culture Management
- Setting up Project Management Office (PMO)
- Systems Thinking in Large Organization
- Lean and Six Sigma as applied to Organizational Culture
- Sensitivity Analysis and
- Resource Capability Matrix
- Agility and Agile Methodology
- Building Transformational Cultures/ Change Management
- Executive Coaching and Value realization
- Need Based Technology Assessments
- Artificial intelligence and other Relevant Technology Assessments
Areas of Technical Assessment
- Reliability (Does it do what it’s supposed to do?)
- TDD/BDD, DDD, FP, SOLID Principles, Feature Toggles, Testing practices
- Resiliency (Is it fault tolerant?)
- Production Stress Tests, Feature Toggles
- Maintainability (How easily can we maintain the existing functionality?)
- TDD/BDD, SOLID Principles, Clean Code
- Extensibility (How easily can we add new functionality?)
- TDD/BDD, SOLID Principles, Clean Code
- Security (Is it secure?)
- SAST, DAST, IAST, RASP, Security Culture
- Observability (Are we sure that the system is performing as expected?)
- Logging, Monitoring, APM, Dashboards, Anomaly Detection, Alerting
- Scalability (How much growth can we handle?)
- Microservices, 12 Factor App
- Agility (How quickly and easily can we adapt to changing priorities?)
- Lead Time for Changes, Cycle Time, Change Failure Rate, Time to Restore Services, WIP Limits, Agile Culture
Client Engagements
Software & Technology
Telecommunications
Healthcare
M&D / DoD / Federal
Retail / Services
What We’ve Done
Our proprietary process is industry agnostic, so no matter what industry you are in, we’ll craft the right solution for you. That said, we have specific experience across a broad range of industries. See below for some specific examples of how we’ve helped our clients.
Read More About Our Industry Agnostic Process >
Our team has well over 100 years of collective experience in helping organizations grow and exit at an optimum value. We are experts in understanding what buyers will pay a premium for, and helping companies implement exactly what is needed to exit at the value they deserve. We’ve helped dozens of companies across a broad range of industries optimize their business processes, reduce cost, grow top line revenue, improve NOI and EBIDTA, expand into new product and service offerings, and grow into new markets.
Technology | Software
- Azure Software MSP – Held off ownership from selling company, restructured various aspects of the business, worked closely with technology investment bankers, implemented the cross-selling business development system and sold business for 60% more value within one year.
- Online Software – Investment and operations takeover of internet software company. Identified fraud, restructured company, preserved shareholder value and merged with strategic acquirer in less than 12 months.
- Content Management Co. – Increased average client from $25k to $100k; Gross Margin quadrupled to 35%.
- Software Services – Increased revenues from $9 million, to over $23 million, and increased EBITDA from 5% to over 12% in 3 years.
- Digital Web Development – In 24 months, designed and launched new sales and business development system that increased average project size by 3.5X to $75,000. Company was acquired at significantly increased value.
- Growth to Exit – Grew technology company $400M in 2 years leading to $9B merger that drew a 40% premium from prior valuation
- Post Exit Integration – Was one of 5 executives to manage product and services integration of merger between J.D. Edwards and PeopleSoft
Real Estate | Hospitality
- Hospitality – After full gut renovation, tripled profits after doubling compensation to employees over a three year period with 127 customized incentive programs for all workers and management.
- Hospitality – Worked through the tragic events of September 11, 2001 with swift business model shifts. Retrained staff while increasing employee camaraderie and customer loyalty alike.
- Real Estate – Turned around a failing real estate company in danger of insurance fraud by eliminating poor leadership, changing the culture from cutting corners to achieving high margins through quality workmanship. Negotiated with bankers, creditors and restored compliance to create a sustainable model for both residential and commercial markets.
- Multiple Hospitality Projects – Increased existing assets for family real estate holding company by 92%. Increased profits and valuation over 300% in less than three years. Increased valuation by 161% in 14 months working with two unions to restructure processes and increase incentives to all employees.
- Real Estate – Restructured timeshare/villa project, cleared zoning and water usage issues, created new financial model for further development for developers.
Manufacturing
- Pharmaceutical – Created a complete acquisition process for a $10B pharmaceutical company critical to their growth of Phase I and Phase II studies. Worked through and resolved significant cross-border cultural differences with work in multiple countries to gain 100% endorsement of all 13 executive leaders of the organization in a two-day in-person conference in Germany.
- Automotive – Took over 1,000 person $200MM company under regulatory scrutiny and created an industry leading compliance system that reshaped the industry. Worked with former regulators and 10 Attorneys General to create industry standards of conduct for the industry. Increased profits by 44%. Final compliance audit from industry regulatory law firm stated, ”A sincere dedication to regulatory compliance permeates the [company’s] current business practices. It is our belief that if all companies meet these standards, consumers will have a level of comfort and security knowing that their interests are being well looked after.” Witness Appearance on “American Greed” episode outlining the engagement.
- Fabrication – Complete restructuring and turnaround of industry-leading granite/marble fabrication company. Resolved a difficult situation for ownership, took over operations with owners still retaining majority carrier interest and sold company as the industry leader with entire executive leadership team benefitting from the transaction. Company began growing over 20% after transaction.
Transportation
- Automotive – Took over 1,000 person $200MM company under regulatory scrutiny and created an industry leading compliance system that reshaped the industry. Worked with former regulators and 10 Attorneys General to create industry standards of conduct for the industry. Increased profits by 44%. Final compliance audit from industry regulatory law firm stated, ”A sincere dedication to regulatory compliance permeates the [company’s] current business practices. It is our belief that if all companies meet these standards, consumers will have a level of comfort and security knowing that their interests are being well looked after.” Witness Appearance on “American Greed” episode outlining the engagement.
Health Care
- Health Care – Redesigned the FMLA/STD process for Magellan Health Services, the largest provider of mental health services in the US. Automated the FMLA manual which resulted in reduced costs, errors and processing time.
- Held many executive positions including the Vice President/Chief Technology Officer for Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), Chief Executive Officer for Concerned Women for America — one of the nation’s largest public policy organizations, as well as the Chief Operating Officer for Touch Inc., the nation’s largest faith-based music and entertainment digital company.
- Directed the new architecture and infrastructure to support CHI’s electronic health record 5-year strategy and support a 99.999% uptime target. He also deployed a second data center to serve as CHI’s disaster recovery site while implementing VMWare to virtualize the servers and storage resources. Through innovation, and several key partners such as VMWare, Cisco, and Imprivata, CHI developed the single sign-on and roaming sessions proof of concepts that were later rolled out to over 100 hospitals.
Telecommunications
Consulting to major providers
- Broadband –Design and deliver broadband including cable, DSL and 4G/5G wireless that
deliver affordable primary and secondary networking capabilities - Ethernet – cost-effective high-speed connections, Ethernet Layer 2 private lines, or
hub-and-spoke and mesh wide area networks - SD-WAN – cost-effective, resilient and prioritized global and branch networks
- MPLS – Scope and source IP MPLS private networking solutions for HQ and remote
locations - Contracted with hundreds of carriers to negotiate reduced rates for telco and Internet for
customers, helped clients optimize network and improve performance while reducing cost - Project management and process improvement for Motorola, Verizon, ATT, and others
- COQ (Cost of Quality) reduction for the Motorola plants in Singapore and Malaysia
- Professional Certifications in Project management, Six Sigma and Supply chain and
logistics - Significant global experience in service delivery and outsourcing
- Simulation and process modeling, Agile and Agility management
In-House Leadership
- CIO USWest/Quest
- Led Service Delivery Center of Excellence
- Led development of $9M BI solution, driving 15% lift in DSL and Dex new business
- Oversaw merger of Qwest and USWest IT service delivery organization 9over 3500 systems, $350M in capital spending
- Build CRM architecture to support 10,000 sales and customer service reps across US
- Vice President MCI/WorldCom
- Managed the Sacramento development center of 450 developers in support of consumer marketing applications
- Implemented Oracle rule-based fraud detection application, reducing fraud by >200%
- Implemented national lead generation system that produced >300M telemarketing leads and 200M direct mail leads annually
- Developed BI application to support 300M daily call records and build 24×7 Ops center to monitor switches and network
Outsourced Services Experience
Consulting to and operating within mid-large companies
- Led strategy, marketing, and lead gen for $150M Software Implementation and Engineering Services division for $1.5B software company
- Founded, grew, merged, and sold $10M services company
- Consulted with dozens of service companies to improve operational efficiency and drive growth through innovative demand calibration; integration of sales, marketing, and business development; and led significant sales and service enablement and trainings that drove improved win rates
- Operated as interim CxO (COO, CIO, CTO, CMO, CRO) for dozens of companies helping them lead through inflection points and drive turnarounds and significant growth cycles.
- 20+ years experience managing complex programs and highly technical systems and solutions requiring various engineering disciplines within the DoD and Commercial SATCOM, Space Domain Awareness, and Commercial Storage industries.
- Led and managed multiple projects that focused on delivering highly tailored solutions and engineering services to meet rigorous technical requirements
- Responsible for driving new business in excess of $100m within tailored solutions/engineering services and products
About the Cutwater Family of Companies
Cutwater Advisory Partners (CAP)
www.cutwateradvisory.com is our core company that brings together decades of experience across our entire leadership team. We work with companies that are seeking an optimal exit within 36 months. We create a Personalize Roadmap to an Optimum Value Exit – PROVE it Canvas™ – and then implement a growth strategy and a seamless exit transaction. We only engage if we can significantly increase the market Value for a company and our process is quite detailed to determine the Optimum Value. We take a phantom stock equity position for the growth upside and are compensated upon the closing of the exit.
Watch our four minutes videos on our model and process.
United Cutwater
www.unitedcutwater.com is our Private Equity division. We have an equipment leasing company and equity investments specifically for the purpose of funding the growth phase of an Optimum Value Exit.
Executive Advisory Partners
www.execadvisorypartners.com is our operational engagement consulting firm founded by our CEO, Steve Maegdlin, that oversees the implementation of the growth phase of our Optimum Value Exit Engagements.
R.L. Hulett Investment Bank
https://rlhulett.com/team/ – Christopher Riley, a licensed Series 79 (FINRA) investment banker, has been in Investment Banking for over a decade in New York. R.L. Hulett will perform initial valuation and market studies for Cutwater clients and help Riley coordinate the Optimum Value Exit.
Cutwater Financial Guardians
www.cutwaterfinancialguardians.com – Many times
businesses get into challenging situations. Riley, a licensed investigator, and his team, surround the
business with expertise and forensic resources to find creative solutions for the business. We can
restructure in hopes of growing to an optimal exit or wind down the company effectively.
