Board of owners

Ben Rookes Partner at Cooper Parry Corporate Finance

Ben joined Cooper Parry in 2002 and has over 20 years M&A experience. Ben advises business owners and management teams across the business and industrial services sectors including cross-border and domestic company disposals and private equity transactions.

Ben has been a Board member of REACH for the last seven years. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant (“FCA”) and holds a BSc in Accounting Finance from the University of Birmingham.

Martin Plettner Partner at RIoN

Martin joined RIóN in 2002, and has participated in over 70 transactions advising on company sales, divestitures, acquisitions, public offerings and valuations. To date, Martin has successfully closed transactions in diverse sectors such as Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals, Food and Beverage, Consumer Products, IT, Retail, Financial & Insurance, Business Services, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Packaging, as well as Oil & Gas.

Prior to joining RIóN, Martin was an entrepreneur who founded two companies and also worked in consumer products (Procter & Gamble) as well as in management consulting (The Boston Consulting Group).

Paulo Cury Founder and Managing Partner at Condere

Paulo founded Condere in 2006. He has undertaken more than 80 operations involving funding and M&A in various sectors in Brazil, Argentina and Chile, including healthcare, education, technology, services, consumer goods and energy, with a focus on cross-border transactions. Previously, he was a senior executive at JP Morgan Chase and Banco Patrimônio/Salomon Brothers. In these organizations, he was responsible for long-term funding, joint-venture structuring and agreements with banks and insurance companies.

He is a Board Member certified by IBGC and currently serves on the Board of Directors of BIVI Holding S/A. He holds an MBA, with emphasis in strategy and corporate finance, from Fuqua Business School at Duke University

Matthieu de Baynast CEO at Financiere de Courcelles (FDC)

Matthieu de BAYNAST is an operational manager, he has spent most of his career supporting entrepreneurs in their development and growth projects in France and abroad. He has led more than 100 M&A transactions in 35 countries over the past 10 years. Former CEO of a large FM group of 3Bns €, Matthieu decided in May 2020 to acquire FDC and put his operational experience at the service of its clients and provide them with an overall strategic, financial, and organizational vision, the Augmented M&A®. He has graduated from Montpellier Business School and from Le Havre University in Mathematics and Physics.

Michael E. Gibbons Senior Managing Director & Principal Brown Gibbons Lang

Mr. Michael Gibbons is founder of Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL). Mr. Gibbons provides an active senior role to client engagements and business development opportunities. Immediately prior to forming BGL, Michael was president and CEO of Underwood, Neuhaus & Company, a leading regional securities and investment banking firm in Houston, Texas. While with this firm, he also held positions as executive vice president, head of capital markets and manager of corporate finance. Before joining Underwood, Mr. Gibbons was a senior vice president and served on the operating management committee of McDonald & Company Securities, Inc., in Cleveland, Ohio.

Mr. Gibbons serves on multiple governing boards for both public and private companies and nonprofit organizations. He is past chairman of Global M&A Partners, Ltd. He has a Juris Doctorate, Masters of Science in Management and Bachelor of Arts, cum laude.

Ivan Alver Co-Chairman of Global M&A Partners, Partner at Saga Corporate Finance

Ivan Alver is a co-founder of Global M&A Norway. Mr. Alver has served on a number of boards both as executive and non-executive member internationally. He has worked as an Investment Banker since 1997.

Prior to this, he was an executive in the aquaculture industry where he held positions as controller, marketing director and head of business development.

Ronald van Rijn Partner at JBR

Mr. Ronald van Rijn is partner of JBR since 1998. Mr. Van Rijn has more than 22 years of experience in corporate finance and strategic advice. Focus on mergers, acquisitions and restructuring.

Ronald graduated in Business Economics in 1989 at the Erasmus Universtity of Rotterdam and has since then managed over 100 national and international M&A transactions in a variety of industries such as Healthcare, Maritime and Offshore, Energy, TIME and Food & Agriculture.