Jeff Wigginton Managing Partner Jeff Wigginton founded True North Equity in 2008. Prior to TNE, he was a Principal with Strength Capital Partners, a middle-market leveraged buyout firm located in Birmingham, MI with $170 million under management. There, Jeff was responsible for all phases of the investment process, from deal sourcing and evaluation, to due diligence, negotiations, securing acquisition financing, and portfolio company monitoring. During his time at Strength Capital, he was involved in the acquisition or divestiture of fifteen businesses and served on the Board of Directors of five companies, including holding the Chairman role with one.
In addition to his investment experience, Jeff also has significant hands-on operational experience, including working with more than twenty companies on operational enhancement initiatives. Twice, he has taken an interim CEO role at a troubled company in order to provide stability while a permanent manager was located.
Jeff received a MBA from The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and a BBA from Eastern Michigan University. His interests include golf, reading, and travel - with highlights including scuba diving in Belize, bungee jumping from a bridge in New Zealand, skydiving in Hawaii, visiting the Great Wall of China, traveling the Amazon river basin, and summitting Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Jim Wigginton Advisor Jim Wigginton is currently the CEO of Inland Industrial Service Group, LLC and is a board member of Inland Pipe Rehabilitation, LLC, both portfolio companies of Strength Capital Partners.
Over a career spanning 38 years, Jim has assisted more than 100 under-performing companies and companies in turnaround situations in a wide variety of industries. He served for seven years as the CEO of The Ronin Group, a consulting firm focused on turnaround situations. Before that, Jim acquired, improved and sold a dozen operating companies in the automotive, packaging, industrial service and technology industries. He also spent a decade with Omnicare, Inc. (a $2.5 billion NYSE health care company) in various positions, culminating as Chief Operating Officer and Director of the company.
Jim earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance and a Masters of Business Administration degree with a concentration in Marketing from Eastern Michigan University. He has also completed the Executive Program at Stanford Graduate School of Business and attended The Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management.
Jim has been actively involved with the U.S. Olympic program since 1972, representing the United States as a coach at various times until 1998. Dedicated to community involvement, he was with the Red Cross in New York City immediately after the September 11th tragedy in 2001.
Sam Khoury Advisor Sam is currently a Managing Partner of Risk Equity Partners, LLC, an LA-based investment firm focused on leveraged buyouts of underperforming companies, turnarounds, and special situations, including Section 363 asset sales, and debt of financially distressed companies.
Sam has been a private equity investor since 1989 and is also the Managing Partner of RSK Enterprises, a firm specializing in operational turnarounds. As a hands-on CEO, Sam has completed sixteen turnarounds in industries as diverse as branded consumer products, building products, industrial electronics, direct marketing, health care, newsletter publishing, enterprise software, training, and computer hardware and software.
Sam holds a Bachelor of Science degree and an MBA from the University of Southern California, a JD from Loyola Law School, and is a member of the California Bar.
Sam is a director of several companies, and has been on the Board of Directors or served as Executive Chairman of numerous companies with annual revenues of more than $100M.
John Darcy Advisor
John is a CEO-level executive with global experience managing in Fortune 100 environments, non-performing situations and younger rapid growth companies. He creates shareholder value by establishing leading market positions, financial discipline and focused teams. John's expertise is in industries driven by marketing, technology and manufacturing and he has successfully grown companies in food, pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals, computer software and e-commerce. Most recently, he built three separate start-up businesses in the food, software, and ecommerce sectors. He was instrumental in raising capital, building and leading the management teams and structuring exits.
John's prior experience includes re-structuring Avis Enterprises, an underperforming $1.8 billion conglomerate with holdings in automotive, sporting goods, electronics, commercial real estate and other areas. As President, he exceeded targets by installing strong management throughout, consolidating or divesting under-performing subsidiaries, improving financial controls, and converting to a market driven decision process targeting superior financial returns.
Prior to Avis, John was Group General Manager and Corporate Vice President at Carnation/ Nestle where he was responsible for three operating divisions and eight manufacturing facilities generating over $2 billion in revenue. He was also the Chief Marketing Officer for the grocery business at the Pillsbury Company.
John received his B.A. and M.A. from the State University of California, Los Angeles.
True North Equity, LLC 7887 Cooley Lake Rd., Suite 110 West Bloomfield, MI 48324 P: (248) 890-3961 F: (248) 786-6847 www.truenorthequity.com
