Joseph Adipietro
Joseph Adipietro is Managing Director and Co-Head of the Advisory Group at ASGARD Partners & Co. He leads the firm’s origination efforts with a focus on capital raising and strategic advisory. Mr. Adipietro is passionate about helping management teams achieve their strategic goals and developing long term relationships.
Joseph brings over 20 years of leveraged finance and capital markets experience to ASGARD’s team. Prior to joining ASGARD, he was a Managing Director at Carolina Financial Securities where he focused on originating and executing capital raising and strategic advisory assignments for lower middle market companies. Prior to this, Mr. Adipietro was a Managing Director in Credit Suisse’s Syndicated Loan Group where he structured and arranged senior debt financings for private equity firms and corporate clients. During this time, he founded the middle market lending group and grew the business to over $40 million of annual revenues.
Mr. Adipietro was previously a Vice President in the Senior Debt Group at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette prior to its acquisition by Credit Suisse in 2000. Mr. Adipietro began his career as an Associate in the Asset-Based Finance Group at Citicorp Securities.
Over his professional career, Mr. Adipietro has arranged over $35 billion of transactions for middle market companies across a broad array of industries. The transactions include leveraged buyouts, mergers, strategic acquisitions, recapitalizations, re-financings and debtor-in-possession financings.
Mr. Adipietro holds an MBA in Finance and International Business from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BS in Computer Science from the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science. Joseph resides in Westport, CT with his wife and two sons and spends his free time swimming, playing golf, collecting fine wines and enjoying quality time with his family.
Robert Beall
Robert Beall is Co-Founder and Partner at ASGARD Partners & Co. He manages the operations of the firm, co-chairs the investment committee, and oversees the firm’s strategy and development.
Previously, Robert was Vice President of Investments at Maritime Finance, a specialty finance company backed by KKR and other sovereign wealth funds, where he focused on distressed and special situation investments across the global maritime industry. Prior thereto, Robert spent four years at Oaktree Capital Management, a global investment firm with over $100 billion in assets under management. While at Oaktree, Robert invested in a broad range of corporate credit opportunities including leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, and acquisitions across a wide variety of industries including general industrials, specialty distribution, and business services. He also supported the boards of various portfolio companies and assisted with strategic initiatives and add-on acquisitions. Robert started his career as a credit research analyst at Banc of America Securities, where he helped build the top ranked coverage platform by Institutional Investor for companies within the consumer and retail sectors.
Robert received a B.A. degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the Michael G. Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. He grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where he developed a love of nature and adventure. He resides in Manhattan and spends his free time traveling, running and golfing.
Christian Cantalupo
Christian Cantalupo is a Partner at ASGARD Partners & Co. He leads the Private Equity group where he oversees all investments and investment strategy, in addition to serving on the investment committee.
Previously, Christian was involved in successfully launching a new distressed strategies hedge fund within The TCW Group, a global multi-billion dollar asset manager. In this role, he was actively engaged in the oversight and management of various distressed investments and co-investment opportunities. Prior thereto, Christian was employed for eight years as a senior investment professional at Davidson Kempner Capital Management, a global multi-strategy hedge fund that manages over $25 billion in assets. While there, he was focused on distressed and special situations investment opportunities across the capital structure in a variety of sectors. Over his tenure at the firm, he invested over a billion dollars in numerous public and private credit and equity investments, several involving complex corporate restructurings, reorganization processes and liquidations. Preceding this role, Christian was employed in the investment banking division of JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the Syndicated & Leveraged Finance Group where he structured, originated and executed over $10 billion of leveraged loan and high yield debt transactions for financial sponsors and corporate clients.
Christian graduated magna cum laude from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park with a B.S. in International Business and a double major in Spanish Language and Literature. In addition to speaking Spanish, Christian has studied Portuguese at New York University in his free time. He also is Managing Partner of the newly opened restaurant in Chicago, Bar Lupo Italian Pub, and enjoys CrossFit.
Nicholas Desjardins
Nicholas Desjardins is a Partner at ASGARD Partners & Co. He oversees the firms advisory practice and is a member of the firm’s investment committee.
Before joining Asgard, Mr. Desjardins was a Director in Stifel’s Healthcare Investment Banking Group where he served growth companies in the Biotech, Pharma, Medtech and Healthcare Services subsectors. Before Stifel brought over the majority of the Healthcare group at Cowen, he worked with growth companies in the Healthcare and TMT Investment Banking groups at Cowen. During his time with Cowen and Stifel he closed more than $4.0 billion of M&A transactions and raised more than $6.3 billion in dozens of debt, equity and structured capital raising transactions. Previously he worked in the Distressed Investing Group at KP Capital Partners focusing on restructuring and turnarounds, and in finance and operational capacities at companies in China and Asia Pacific, including PriceWaterhouse, Beijing RELTEC (a subsidiary of an NYSE-listed telecom equipment manufacturing company) and MSL Express (a freight forwarding company).
Mr. Desjardins holds an MBA in Finance from the Yale School of Management, a BA in History from Yale College, and a BS in Accounting summa cum laude from The State University of New York at Plattsburgh. Having lived nine years in Shanghai, he speaks, reads, and writes Mandarin Chinese fluently. He owns and operates a Caterpillar 313C excavator, and as part of his interest in 20th century Russian history, recently traveled to Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan researching Josef Stalin’s roots and policies.
Sara Djarian
ASGARD Private Equity & ASGARD Advisory
Creative Marketing Associate
Sara Djarian is a Marketing Associate at ASGARD Partners & Co. She is primarily responsible for assisting with the firm’s marketing efforts including content creation, website design, CRM management and social media updates. In addition, she provides administrative support to several Partners and team members.
Before joining ASGARD, Sara worked for Retail Realm Distribution, a multinational software development and distribution company in Napa, California. Having started as an intern, she was quickly promoted to Event and Marketing Assistant Manager, working primarily with the Asia Pacific Region. Prior to this, Sara worked for Pixel Hero games a game development company in the United Kingdom, where she began her marketing career.
Sara moved to the US after having completed her M.A. in Marketing from Royal Holloway, University of London, in 2016. She has also completed her B.A. degree in Business Management from the University of Westminster in her hometown, London, England. She comes from a diverse cultural background and can speak four languages including, French, Persian and Spanish. Sara currently resides in New York City and enjoys travelling, horseback riding and swimming.
Jeff Eichel
Jeff Eichel is a Principal at ASGARD Partners & Co. Within the Advisory practice, Jeff leads the performance improvement group that provides strategic and operational guidance to clients, as well as to the firm’s portfolio companies. He also provides capital advisory services to the firm’s clients, supporting transaction execution.
Previously, Jeff spent three years as a Principal with a healthcare services and technology firm, where he focused on large-scale finance and IT transformations, serving healthcare providers across the U.S. Prior to that role, Jeff spent several years as a Manager with Ernst & Young, where he provided transaction advisory services and focused on operational transformations and turnarounds, serving healthcare and life sciences clients with revenues in excess of $1 billion per year. He started his career with Triage Consulting Group, a boutique consultancy that provides reimbursement and data analytics guidance to some of the largest for-profit healthcare systems and academic medical centers in the U.S.
Jeff is an Executive MBA Candidate at NYU’s Stern School of Business. Jeff holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia School of Law, and he has been admitted to practice law in the State of Georgia. He also holds a B.B.A in Finance from Emory University. Jeff grew up in the Southeast, where he developed a love for the outdoors and college football. Jeff resides in New York City with his fiancée, Kate.
Josh Gatlin
Josh Gatlin joined ASGARD in 2018. As an Associate in the Advisory Group, he works on all aspects of the deal execution process as well as providing origination support.
Previously, Josh worked in San Francisco at Vaquero Capital, a technology-focused investment banking firm where he focused on mergers and acquisitions and capital raising transactions. Shortly following his time there, he worked at a family office analyzing and managing operations for a number of portfolio companies.
Josh attended the University of Texas at Austin and is an avid golfer and sailing enthusiast.
Christopher Machen
Christopher is a Managing Director at ASGARD Partners & Co. Within the Advisory practice, he is primarily responsible for new business development and providing clients with strategic and capital advisory services.
Christopher has close to 20 years of investment banking, financial planning & analysis, corporate development and consulting experience across a number of sectors. During Christopher’s investment banking and corporate development career, Christopher advised and executed on strategic and M&A transactions valued in excess of $15 billion. Previously, Christopher was a Director of Corporate Development and Strategy at GCP Applied Technologies focused on strategy development and implementation from both an organic and acquisition perspective. Prior to this, Christopher spent time in the investment banking divisions of J.P. Morgan, Royal Bank of Canada, Barclays and HSBC. Prior to investment banking and corporate development, Christopher led the corporate financial planning & analysis efforts at Corporate Executive Board, a D.C. based advisory think tank that is now part of Gartner Inc., and CapitalSource, a Maryland-based commercial loan provider.
Christopher is a graduate of Cornell University (M.B.A. in investment banking) and the University of Pittsburgh (B.S. in finance). Christopher resides in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife Caroline, daughter Elsa and son Jack.
Karan Rai
Karan Rai is Founder and Managing Partner at ASGARD Partners & Co. Karan has a deep passion for fixing, growing, and investing in small and medium sized companies. He loves working with entrepreneurs and inspired leaders who are building purpose driven companies. Mr. Rai also, at times, serves as the interim CEO for ASGARD portfolio companies.
Before starting ASGARD, Mr. Rai was the CEO of Theodor Wille Intertrade (TWI), a multinational company that provides a range of supply chain solutions for U.S. Government agencies and the prime contractors who support them. Previously, Karan was the President of ADS, Inc., a leading specialty distributor and supply chain solutions provider, serving all branches of the Department of Defense. At ADS, Mr. Rai led the company’s turnaround efforts and helped grow ADS into a $1.5+ billion dollar global organization.
Prior to joining ADS, he worked in JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Investment Banking Group in New York, where he originated and structured over 50 deals during his tenure as a banker. During that time, Karan helped structure private equity deals for companies like Huish, Colt Defense, Wyle, Armored AutoGroup, as well as recapitalizations and financing deals for large public companies such as Macy’s, Limited Brands, B/E Aerospace, and JBS.
Karan was recently appointed to The Wall Street Journal CEO Council. He currently serves on the boards of Bcause, LLC and Avadim Technologies, Inc. He earned an MBA with distinction in Finance and Strategy from Yale University’s School of Management. Karan resides in Manhattan with his wife and two sons. He is also an instrument rated pilot with over 500 hours of flight time.
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