About Us
Private Equity
We have over 15 years of experience helping businesses and CEO's prepare for the unknown while meeting their financial goals.
Mr Pickard is especially good at management transitions where the major shareholder wants to stay involved for some period of time a new management is brought in.
Our goal is to be a value added partner that helps you meet your goal while at the same time ensuring our investors get a superior return on investment.
Its all about Partnership
We seek to partner closely with management, enhancing business performance by bringing our extensive industry experience and contacts to bear. It is our goal to be active board members that truly take the company to sales and profit levels they never believed possible.
In addition, we routinely partner with other groups, including:
The Courtney Group: www.thecourtneygroup.com
Cave Creek Capital Management: www.cavecreekcapital.com
Pegasus Capital Management: www.pegasusmgmt.com
SeaCoast Capital: www.seacoastcapital.com
Businesses we Invest In
Stewart Capital Management only invests in established businesses with stable or growing cash flow. We look for situations where there is a clear opportunity to improve profitability and generate a superior return on investment for our investors.
Our ideal situation is one where the management team thrives, the company grows, and the investors get a superior return on investment.
Investment Types
Shareholder Liquidity and ReCapitalizations
Sometimes business owners want to stay in control, but they have too much of their personal net worth tied up in their business. A recapitalization can provide liquidity to allow for asset diversification, while allowing the business owner to stay in control.
Aquisition and Growth Financing
Often a CEO or business owner sees the opportunity to grow through acquisition.
Management Buyouts
We often run into situations where a founder wants to retire and existing management wants to buy the company, but they don't have the resources to do it. Stewart Capital will work with management to help them achieve their goal.
Target Industries
Stewart Capital is especially interested in Manufacturing, Distribution, Direct Marketing, and restaurants/retail.
Businesses we avoid
We will not look at:
- Start ups
- Real Estate
- Banks
- Emerging Technologies
Our Team
Paul S. Pickard: Managing Director
Mr. Pickard’s extensive operating background as the CEO or top business leader at several different companies and large divisions of Fortune 500 companies allows him to partner with management in a value added fashion unlike private equity investors without operating experience. He is often the first phone call a portfolio company CEO makes when there is an issue because his broad background guarantees he will have a viewpoint.
Before Stewart Capital, Mr. Pickard previously ran American Identity, where he reversed five years of declining sales and profits and led the company to record earnings. American Identity is a large apparel manufacturing and promotional products distribution company, with the largest decorating capacity in the promotional products industry.
Paul also led National Pen, a world-wide direct marketer and pen manufacturer, through a demanding three-year repositioning initiative. During his three year tenure, National Pen grew over 50% in sales and over 100% per year in profit.
Before joining National Pen, Paul established and built a $250 million manufactured housing business in the western United States through seven acquisitions and 14 greenfield start-ups.
Paul’s earlier career was with the Taco Bell Division of PepsiCo, where he was responsible for the Los Angeles market, an information technology department, and a key marketing department. He introduced many new products into the Taco Bell system, achieved dramatic cost savings leveraging information technology, and contributed leading-edge ideas to the marketing program.
Paul began his post-MBA career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co. Prior to attending business school, he worked for Texas Instruments and Hewlett-Packard in engineering, sales, and strategy development roles. Paul holds an M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance and Marketing and a B.S. in Engineering with a major in Mechanical Engineering and Material Science, earning both degrees at Duke University.
Jon Strombom: Vice President
A senior executive and consulting board member who is a change agent with 23 years of broad leadership experience who has a passion for creating and delivering strategic initiatives that drive financial and operational business success. Years of turnaround and high growth experience have enabled Jon to create substantial KPI improvements, typically within the first year working with a company, showing a strong leadership ability to keep personnel motivated and focused. Company CEO's often search Jon out for difficult operating issues, much as CEO's did when working for Kurt Salmon Associates fresh out of college.
Mr. Strombom was a key member of the leadership team at American Identity who aided Mr. Pickard in the turnaround and lead several profit improving initiatives. He also ran operations for Norm Thompson Outfitters and Corporate Express.