David Jorgenson succeeds Paul Collins as CEO of Equiteq
Equiteq, an advisory and M&A firm to the professional services industry, has appointed New York based David Jorgenson as its CEO. Jorgenson succeeds founder Paul Collins, who transitions to the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Founded in 2006, Equiteq is one of the globe’s larger M&A advisors for consulting firms. The consultancy – headquartered in London, with further offices in New York, Singapore and Sydney – provides a range of strategic advisory and transaction support services to clients in consulting and IT services industries. Equiteq works with, among others, owners of consulting firms to help them grow their business, acquire counterparts or prepare their venture for sale.
Since the firm’s establishment in 2005, Equiteq has been led by Paul Collins, who previously worked as a consultant at WCI Consulting (which he founded in 1986 and sold off to a private equity party in 2002) and A.T. Kearney. After nearly twelve years at the helm of the firm, Collins has decided to transition to the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors. His role will be taken over by David Jorgenson, a New York based partner who joined Equiteq two years ago as Global Head of M&A. Jorgenson has gained extensive experience in the investment banking industry, serving the likes of Paramax Corporation, a boutique New York banker, and Baird, with more than $145 billion in client assets one of the US’ larger wealth management and private equity players. He started his career as a technology consultant.
At Equiteq, Jorgenson has, in the past two years, advised business owners, shareholders and C-level executives on every aspect of growth and value realisation, from valuation, strategic financial advisory, public and private equity and debt financing, exit planning and M&A execution, says the firm in a press release.
In parallel to the appointment of Jorgenson, Equiteq has also made two senior appointments across its US and UK offices. Alex White, previously senior M&A partner and Head of Private Equity at BDO Corporate Finance and latterly private equity investor, has joined Equiteq’s London office as Managing Director. White, who has over 25 years’ experience on growth strategy and M&A, has been named Head of M&A and Strategic Advisory Europe. Nicodemo Esposito has been promoted to the role of Managing Director and Head of M&A and Strategic Advisory North America – he has been with the consultancy for just over a year, and previously served Delaware North Companies, Deutsche Bank and UBS, among others.
White and Esposito have been given a position in the Executive Board, Equiteq’s newly created body that oversees the running of the business. The two M&A experts are joined on this Board by Jean-Louis Michelet (Managing Director, Head of M&A and Strategic Advisory Asia Pacific; former Capgemini VP), Greg Fincke (Director of Operations), Paula Allerton (Director of Marketing; previously served Moorhouse and PwC) and Bruce Ramsay (Managing Director of Business Development; formerly with Touchstone and KPMG Crimsonwing).
Commenting on the three senior appointments, Collins says: “David, Alex and Nicodemo are very experienced advisors in the professional services and IT services space and are uniquely suited to lead Equiteq in its next phase of growth.” Looking ahead, the Chairman says the firm finds itself in a period of strong momentum, “Equiteq is closing a record number of deals and will benefit from a new team to take it forward.”
Deals in consulting
According to Equiteq’s latest M&A Report, the total number of deals in the consulting industry passed the mark of 2,400 transactions last year – a ten year high with the exception of 2007, when the number of deals stood at 2,435. North America and Europe account for the majority of deals (83%), while, from a functional perspective, IT consulting is the largest segment, followed by deals in media and management consulting.
See the section News | Mergers & Acquisitions for an overview of all consulting deals featured on Consultancy.uk.
