Founded in 2009, this premier award recognizes those in the Private Middle Market Financial community who create and advocate new ideas that add value to the marketplace.
Furthermore, these contributions add to the body of knowledge serving as a solid foundation for AM&AA’s education and credentialing programs.
To date, 18 leading professionals have earned the prestigious Middle Market Thought Leader of the Year Award.
2022 Thought Leader of the Year Sponsor
2022 Thought Leader
Managing Director
BiggsKofford Capital
Chris is Managing Director for BiggsKofford Capital, which he founded in 2002 as the investment banking division of Colorado CPA firm, BiggsKofford. Chris has also served as the CPA firm’s Managing Partner since 2007.
Within the AM&AA, Chris has lead the CM&AA program since 2007, served 15-years on the Advisory Council (including Chairman from 2020-2022), and belongs to the “Founders Circle”.
Chris co-authored “Middle Market M&A” in 2012, and the second edition in 2022.
2021 Thought Leaders
Senior Partner, New Heritage Capital
CEO, Greenberg Variations Capital
In 2021, Andy and Charlie launched Middle Market Musings (MMM)—a podcast devoted to the “people and ideas of the middle market.” While there are other podcasts, MMM is unique in its focus on the middle market, and in its intense practitioner’s view. Each episode features a deal professional or sponsor who has achieved differentiation in our industry, how they did it, how they think about it, and what it means for middle-market M&A.
2020 Thought Leader
Chief Economist
RSM US LLP
Joe is known in the industry as the ‘chief economist to the middle market’ and is a preeminent voice championing issues and policies facing the midsize companies that make up the “real economy” in the United States and around the world.
2019 Thought Leader
Acquisition Entrepreneur
Author, “Buy Then Build”
Walker Deibel cofounded three startups and has acquired seven companies, and exited two. He holds an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis where he received the Declaration of Achievement in Entrepreneurship from the Skandalaris Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Walker is a Certified M&A Advisor and former SEC licensed stock broker.
2018 Thought Leader
Co-Founder
Orange Kiwi
Allie’s research is ground breaking in that it recognizes that a key component of any business sale is the psychology of the owner. Despite all the financial and operational analysis that gets done at the point of the deal, psychology is measured at best with intuition. Allie’s research identifies scientific means of defining and measuring an owner’s propensity to exit their business.
2017 Thought Leader
Managing Director
Objective Capital Partners
David’s thought leadership is materially expanding the investment banker’s role in serving life sciences companies and provide these companies with a highly attractive, non-diluting alternative to hard-to-secure venture capital.
2016 Thought Leader
President/CEO
Exit Planning Institute
Christopher Snider, President/CEO, Exit Planning Institute, empowers business owners and advisors to proactively embrace exit planning as a management and life planning system that enables best-in-class performance in the owner’s financial, business and personal life in his book “Walking to Destiny.”
2015 Thought Leader
Managing Director
Global Leader of Family Offices & Business Strategies at Berkeley Research Group, LLC
Mr. Sheeler authored “Equity Value Enhancement: A Tool to Leverage Human and Financial Capital While Managing Risk.” The advisory community serves a significant role in not only identifying and measuring risk associated with an operating business as part of the traditional legal and financial due diligence; but to manage the risk and leverage the human capital such that value is not only known, but is created. This work promotes strategic activities for clients who are not accustomed to a holistic approach that places as much focus on human as it does on financial capital; thereby providing the entire gamut of different types of advisors and their clients a road map to elevate intangible assets.
2014 Thought Leader
Founder/CEO
Potentious
Dr. Dunbar’s dissertation research in “Leaders Who Make M&A Work” found for the first time, a quantifiable correlation between collective leadership capabilities of acquirer and target companies and the particular deal’s financial success (or potential risk aversion).
2013 Thought Leader
Managing Director/CEO
Bigelow LLC
Mr. Worrell received the award for his book titled, Enterprise Value: How the Best Owner-Managers Build Their Fortune, Capture Their Company’s Gains, and Create Their Legacy.
2012 Thought Leader
CEO
Fairmount Partners
Mr. Greenberg received the Thought Leader of the Year award for bringing factual data and relevant thinking to the lower middle market.
2011 Thought Leader
Associate Dean
Pepperdine University
Dr. Paglia received the award for his groundbreaking research at Pepperdine University to understand the true cost of private capital across market types and the investment expectations of privately-held business owners.
2011 Thought Leader
Roberston & Foley
Rob Slee received the Thought Leader of the Year award for his work on the seminal book Private Capital Markets: Valuation, Capitalization, and Transfer of Private Business Interests, Second Edition.
2010 Thought Leader
Evans & Associates
Mr Evans co-authored the second edition of the book, Valuation for M&A: Building Value in Private.
2010 Thought Leader
President & Founder
Delphi Valuation Advisors Inc
Chris Mellen, Delphi Valuation Advisors, Inc and Frank Evans, of Evans and Associates, co-authored the second edition of the book, Valuation for M&A: Building Value in Private.
2010 Thought Leader
President & Founder
Delphi Valuation Advisors Inc
Chris Mellen, Delphi Valuation Advisors, Inc and Frank Evans, of Evans and Associates, co-authored the second edition of the book, Valuation for M&A: Building Value in Private.
2009 Thought Leader
Managing Director
Board Resources
Mr. Pryor, co-author of The Private Equity Edge: How Private Equity Players and the World’s Top Companies Build Value and Wealth, is an expert on helping companies build value.
2009 Thought Leader
Founder & CEO
Laffer Associates
Dr. Laffer was honored as the first Thought Leader of the Year Award for his book, The Private Equity Edge: How Private Equity Players and the World’s Top Companies Build Value and Wealth along with co-authors William J. Hass and Shepherd G. Pryor IV.