Our team of industry leaders take pride in
delivering exceptional results and maximizing value for our clients.

Across cultures and civilizations lions have been a symbol of majestic strength, power, great courage, strength of character, and fidelity. Lions are known for their visionary ability to assess opportunities and aggresssively pursue their goals with great success. They are amazing hunters as part of a pride working as a strategic alliance . Lions work together as a team focusing in on their intended targets with relentless pursuit and coordinated efforts towards their goals. Lions are known for their ability to deliver results with remarkable precision. It was an ancient belief that lions slept with their eyes open and are symbolic of watchfulness and protectiveness.

At Capital Partners Group we have the strength, power, courage, character and fidelity to deliver extraordinary results and maximize results for our clients. We take great pride in meeting and exceeding your expectations.

Professional Team

John Rooney, Managing Partner

Dr. Helena Yli Renko

Michael Becker – New York
Ryan Kessel – Senior Associate
Jesse Wachtel – Associate, New York
Donald J. Snyder
Charles Dargan
Jane Applegate

Our Team Bios:

John Rooney - Principal at Capital Partners, a middle market financial advisory group specializing in private equity, sell and buy side advisory, special situations and restructuring.

Mr. Rooney brings over twenty five years of experience in capital advisory/financing, sell side, buy side, financial restructuring, and turnaround operations management for middle market companies. Mr. Rooney has provided advisory services to companies ranging in size from major corporations to middle market and small companies. John has personally been involved in hundreds of middle market companies during his career.

Previoulsy Mr. Rooney was:

Chairman and CEO of a direct marketing company which provided customer relationship management for national clients including: Sears, Jiffylube, Pepboys, Teleflora, Shell Oil, 1-800 Dentist, Valvoline, and thousands of other businesses processing 45 million data records weekly. John led the effort to restructure the business, grow revenue, and EBIDTA earnings and facilitated the sale to a private media company.

President and CEO, publicly traded frozen food manufacturer for Claim Jumpers, Milton’s Costco, Safeway, Ralphs, and many other well known food companies. In a two year period, John successfully restructured the company from negative earnings to profitability and facilitated the sale to an international private equity group.

President and CEO of a major Business Development Corporation for twelve years. John expanded the organization offices which assisted thousands of companies with, capital raises, restructuring, financing, buy-sell advisory entrepreneurial training, and management consulting. The U.S. Department of Commerce awarded the organization as the “best economic development program” in the western United States.

Chairman, breakthrough partners – Mr. Rooney led a group of dozens of high-growth companies in collaboration with Merrill Lynch successfully leading the efforts to expand these companies significantly.

Mr. Rooney has been quoted and featured in many major newspapers, television, radio and business magazines nationally and internationally as one of the country’s prominent middle market company experts. John was awarded the “Good Guy” award by the National woman's political caucus for his work with women owned business.

Faculty Member USC’s Marshall School of Business in the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, The program has consistently ranked among the top programs in the nation and has been ranked #1 by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine. Business Week with U.S. News and World Report labeled the program as "one of the best Entrepreneurship programs" in the country

Mr. Rooney holds a BS in Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, an executive degree in real estate development and an MBA from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business where he graduated with national honors.

Dr. Helena Yli Renko
Dr. Yli Renko is an international renown “Strategic Management” consultant. Prior to joining the USC faculty in 2003, Dr. Yli Renko worked as Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company where she led teams focusing on a variety of strategic, marketing, and organizational issues. Dr. Renko’s strategic consulting has assisted some of the world’s most efficient Fortune 500 companies.

Dr. Helena Yli Renko teaches courses in entrepreneurship on the graduate and undergraduate levels at the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, University of Southern California.  Dr. Yli Renko’s research has won awards from the Academy of Management, the Babson-Kaufman Entrepreneur Research Conference, the International Council for Small Business World Conference, and the Finnish Academy of Science.

Dr. Yli Renko worked as a Research Fellow at London Business School conducting her dissertation research on the key customer relationships of young, middle market based firms, as well as other projects on European venture capital and the internationalization of young firms.  Dr. Yli Renko received her doctorate in 1999 from Helsinki University of Technology. Institute of Strategy and International Business.

Michael Becker – New York
Mr. Becker, a co-founder of Broadsword Partners in 2000, was a Senior Vice President and Director of Equities at UBS Warburg Dillon Read from 1994 to 2000. Prior to Dillon Read, he was a Senior Vice President at Smith Barney and Kidder Peabody. His scope of responsibilities included institutional equity and fixed income sales, retail equity and fixed income sales, private equity analysis and capital raising. He graduated from the University of Arizona and received an MBA from Columbia Business School graduating with honors. He served on the Board of Directors of the Lymphoma Research Foundation for over seven years and Vodium, Inc., is a Columbia Business School Lang Fund mentor, and a 2008 graduate of the FBI Citizens Academy and 2009 NYPD Citizens Academy. Through his far-reaching network of national and international relationships, Mr. Becker has been an active private equity investor for over 20 years and assisted many firms in developing business and financial strategy. Mr. Becker is registered with the NASD and holds the series 7 and 63 securities licenses with Shields & Company, New York.

Ryan Kessel – Senior Associate
Prior to joining Capital Partners, Ryan worked as a Strategy Consultant for the High Tech and Life Sciences industries where he specialized in new product development and launch strategies for advanced technologies. Ryan is also an expert in the food/nutrition/health & wellness space, where he has spent years examining data for C-Level executives. He has advised a variety of small to mid size companies through the development and implementation of marketing programs, go-to-market strategies, and fund raising initiatives. He specializes in analyzing market trends to identify untapped growth sectors, optimize commercialization plans, and form strategic alliances. .

As President and CEO of Kessel Transport, Ryan provided transportation/logistics services to an array of national organizations, as well as disaster relief services for hurricane Katrina, Wilma, and Rita. Some of his clients included multiple Municipalities, Waste Management, and Sims Metal Management, the largest scrap metals company globally. Ryan led the company through four consecutive years of significant customer expansion and EBIDTA growth.

Ryan holds a BS in Disease Prevention from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, and an MBA from the Marshall School of Business. While completing his MBA, Ryan was hired by the Executive Management of Bumble Bee Foods to identify operational improvements. Ryan has received multiple Dean’s List honors and was awarded a research fellowship at the Institute for Disease Prevention Research.

Jesse Wachtel – Associate, New York
Co-Founder of SimulScribe LLC, the provider of PhoneTag's award winning  voicemail-to-text technology. 
As the Chief Operating Officer,  Jesse oversaw the development and management of a fully automated voicemail transcription platform that runs on highly advanced recognition technology with SimulScribe's proprietary models as well as an overseas support and service team. 

SimulScribe grew to about 20,000 paying subscribers and reaching about 80,000 more subscribers through wholesale partnerships, when Jesse and his partners signed an exclusive agreement with Ditech Networks in September of 2009.

Jesse holds a BS in Entrepreneurship from USC's Marshall School of Business and the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.

Donald J. Snyder - Advisor
Green Hasson & Janks - Owner
Don heads the firm's accounting and auditing practice. areas of emphasis includes providing accounting services to food service and distribution, wholesale/distribution, manufacturing, and import/export companies with annual sales ranging $10million to in excess of $300 million. Don has over twenty-five years experience in public accounting and chairs the firm’s Accounting and Auditing Department, as well as the Quality Control Department. He provides audit, accounting and consulting service to clients in numerous industries, including manufacturing, wholesale/distribution, professional services, non profit and technology. Don holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Administration with emphasis in Accounting from the University of Colorado. He is a member of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of CPAs. Don is a competitive master swimmer and lives in Westwood with his wife and his twin children.

Charles Dargan  - Advisor
CFO-911 Chief Executive Officer
Founder an organization of experienced senior executives who find solutions to problems and issues in accounting, finance and operations for both public and private companies. CFO personnel are all skilled in operations and will implement the solutions provided. The firm is national in scope and goes where the engagement is located.

The Seidler Companies Incorporated - Managing Director
Member of the investment banking department and responsible for public and private debt and equity financings as well as merger and acquisition transactions. Experienced with a wide variety of industries centered in the middle market and emerging growth economy such as telecommunications, medical products, distribution, technology and entertainment. Seidler is a private investment bank, brokerage and public finance firm headquartered in Los Angeles.

L.H. Friend, Weinress, Frankson & Presson - Managing Director
Responsible for managing the Los Angeles investment banking office and for transactions, which include public and private debt and equity financing and mergers and acquisitions. Focused in the middle market and emerging growth economy and with a wide variety of industries and companies. L.H. Friend is a private investment bank with institutional brokerage activities headquartered in Irvine, Ca.

Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, Inc - Managing Director of Investment Banking and Director of Finance.
Responsible for the management of the private placement activities of the firm. Arranged private placements of debt and equity for middle market corporations. Also provided client companies with merger and acquisition advice and financial consulting and valuations.

Drexel Burnham Lambert - First Vice President, Corporate Finance Responsibilities were as a generalist investment banker. Arranged public and private financing through equity, debt and specialized unit offerings for both foreign and U.S. corporations. Also arranged merger and acquisition transactions, and performed financial consulting, corporate reorganizations and financial restructurings.

Price Waterhouse & Company - Senior Accountant
Audited and provided tax planning and preparation to a large corporate clientele.

University of Southern California Master of Science Finance; derivative and security markets 1982 University of Southern California M.B.A accounting and finance 1980 Dartmouth College A.B Government and Economics 1977

Jane Applegate
Jane Applegate is one of America’s leading small business, “middle market” management experts. A former columnist for the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of four popular books on entrepreneurial success. Her most recent, “The Entrepreneur’s  Desk Reference” was published by Bloomberg Press.

The Applegate Group Inc. is a New York based multimedia communications company. It provides small business content to publications and websites, as well as producing conference events for entrepreneurs.

Ms. Applegate’s corporate clients include Wells Fargo Bank, Mastercard International,  Sprint, General Motors and JP Morgan Chase.