Channing D. Hamlet

Managing Director

Channing Hamlet is a Managing Director with Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation. He serves as an execution leader for the firm’s M&A and Valuation Practice and leads the firm’s Business Services Practice. He brings more than 25 years experiences with investment banking and business valuation to our clients.

Prior to joining Objective, Mr. Hamlet served as a Managing Director of Cabrillo Advisors, where he was instrumental in both leading their M&A execution and growing the valuation practice from inception into a national entity serving more than 700 clients in five years. Previously, he served as a Director at Vistage; Principal at LLR Partners, a $260 million private-equity firm; and member of Legg Mason’s Investment Banking group.

Mr. Hamlet is active in numerous groups including the Association for Corporate Growth where he serves on the Membership Committee for the Los Angeles area. He also serves as a Group Leader in ProVisors and is active in philanthropy through his affiliation with PEERS.  He has a Master’s Degree in Operations Research and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University. He holds FINRA Series 7, 63 and 79 licenses and is a Registered Representative of BA Securities LLC, Member FINRA SIPC.

Trever F. Acers

Managing Director

Trever F. Acers is a Managing Director at Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation. Mr. Acers draws on his 20+ years of investment banking, acquisition, and strategy experience advising middle market companies on transaction execution and strategy.

Prior to founding Objective, Mr. Acers served as a Director at TGG Capital, where he led the firm’s financial and strategy consulting operations. Previously, he was Director of The Oxford Investment Group’s Western U.S. private equity activities and Managing Partner at Passage Venture Capital Partners. Earlier in his career, he managed the post-acquisition integration and continuing operations of three entities with total annual revenues of $29 million for EMC Corporation, and led business performance improvement engagements for KPMG Consulting.

Mr. Acers has a MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management with a finance concentration and a bachelor’s degree with high honors in business administration from the University of San Diego. He holds FINRA Series 79 and Series 63 licenses and is a Registered Representative of BA Securities LLC, Member FINRA SIPC.

Michael Kim

Managing Director

Michael Kim is a Managing Director at Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation, where he focuses on the execution of the firm’s investment banking activities. Mr. Kim has over 18 years of experience in the financial services industry.

Mr. Kim started his career at Deutsche Bank in the investment banking division, where he advised on numerous buy-side and sell-side M&A transactions and participated in debt and equity capital raises for clients across the technology landscape. Mr. Kim also worked as a Vice President at J.P. Morgan in the equity research group, where he covered the IT Hardware space. Prior to joining Objective, Mr. Kim served in the financial planning and investor relations team at CDW, a $12 billion Fortune 500 company. Throughout his career, Mr. Kim has worked closely with many leading private equity and venture capital firms on investment opportunities. Mr. Kim is a winner of the “40 under 40” Emerging Leaders Award for deal-making by The M&A Advisor.

Mr. Kim holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and is FINRA Series 63, and 79 licensed. He is a Registered Representative of BA Securities LLC, Member FINRA SIPC.

Carl Miller

Managing Director

Carl Miller is a Managing Director at Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation where he focuses on the execution of the firm’s investment banking activities. Mr. Miller has over 15 years of investment banking and transaction advisory experience advising clients across a broad range of industries and working on a variety of engagements including mergers, acquisitions, capital raises, restructurings, strategic advisory, fairness and solvency opinions, litigation support, and valuations.

Before joining Objective in 2019, Mr. Miller was a Managing Director at W Partners where he advised clients in mergers and acquisitions, capital raises, and strategic advisory assignments. Prior to W Partners, Mr. Miller was a Senior Vice President at M.M. Dillon & Co. where he was a founding member of the Energy Team and provided strategic advice on a wide range of financial transactions. Previous to M.M. Dillon, Mr. Miller was an Assistant Vice President in the Corporate Strategy and Business Development Group at AXA, and was responsible for leading teams in the analysis and execution of both acquisitive and organic business development strategies for the firm. Before AXA, Mr. Miller was an Associate in the investment banking group at Houlihan Lokey where he focused on merger and acquisition transactions in the Energy sector. Mr. Miller began his career as a Summer Associate at J.P. Morgan.

Mr. Miller earned an MSc in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics, and MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, and a BA from Brigham Young University. Mr. Miller is a FINRA-registered securities representative holding the series 7, 63, and 79 licenses.

Dan Shea

Managing Director

Dan is a results-oriented leader with a 25+ year track record of success in building relationships, developing business opportunities, determining and implementing strategic initiatives, leading teams, providing solutions to complex business issues, and executing and closing transactions in high pressure, high value and time-sensitive situations. Mr. Shea helps lead our business development and transaction advisory efforts for enagagements across all Practice Groups.

Dan’s transaction experience includes private and public company sales, corporate divestitures, mergers, acquisitions and capital raise engagements, as well as preparing strategic assessments for owners, management and their boards often as a precursor to transaction execution. Dan has worked in a wide variety of sectors including consumer, healthcare, manufacturing, distribution and technology.

Dan is a frequent presenter/panelist/lecturer at M&A conferences. He has also been cited for his expertise by various publications including The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones’ Private Equity Analyst, U.S. News & World Report, Financier Worldwide, Pitchbook, IndustryWeek, Alt Assets, and Industry Today.

Before joining Objective, Dan served as Managing Director with BDO Capital, Hadley Partners, and WYCampbell & Company (a division of Comerica Bank). Early on, he held a senior position with Ernst & Young Corporate Finance LLC, as well.

Dan received an MBA in Finance from the Weatherhead School at Case Western, and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan.

Christian Dougherty

Managing Director, Valuation

Christian Dougherty is a Managing Director at Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation, and serves as a strategy and execution leader for the firms Valuation Advisory Services Practice.

Prior to joining Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation, Christian operated as a Managing Director for Vantage Point Advisors. In this role, he began leading and managing the Vantage San Diego office and subsequently the New York office. Mr. Dougherty drove strategy and execution related to operations, business development and client relations for both Vantage Point office locations.

Previous to working at Vantage Point Advisors, Mr. Dougherty served as the Director for the Valuation Services Group at Cabrillo Advisors where he led initiatives for sustainable company growth including training, recruiting and valuation best practices. He was responsible for maintaining and developing client relationships as well as generating record new project starts by utilizing thorough diligence with scoping, pricing and negotiating engagements. Mr. Dougherty’s breadth of experience also includes time as a Valuation Manager in PwC’s valuation practice in New York. His work there included assisting clients with valuation matters for businesses regarding intangible assets, and equity and debt securities for the purposes of financial and tax reporting, merger and acquisition planning, reorganizations and restructurings, and financing and litigation.  Prior to PwC, Mr. Dougherty worked as a Valuation Manager at Deloitte and Ernst & Young, and as a Senior Associate at a regional accounting and consulting firm as well as Grant Thornton in a similar capacity.

Mr. Dougherty has led a variety of tax and financial reporting valuation engagements for some of PwC’s and Cabrillo’s largest corporate clients and has been involved in numerous mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, initial public offerings and corporate finance transactions.  These engagements have involved clients, both national and international, in a wide range of industries including financial services, manufacturing, retail, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, technology and food distribution industries among others. Mr. Dougherty holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance & Accounting from Drexel University.

Jordi Pujol, CFA

Director, Valuation

Jordi Pujol is a Director at Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation, and serves as an engagement leader for the firms Valuation Advisory Services Practice. Mr. Pujol is responsible for expansion efforts in Los Angeles, California, where he serves local clients in addition to serving remote clients across the US.

Prior to joining Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation, Jordi was Senior Manager at EY (Ernst & Young) in their Corporate Finance practice under Strategy and Transactions (SaT). In this role, he focused on the Technology and Healthcare sectors, performing valuations for enterprise software, healthtech, medtech, and biotech clients triggered by transactions, reporting and disclosure needs, as well as strategic decision-making.

He has 10+ years of financial modeling experience and has worked on a vast number of financial reporting engagements, tax opinions, and intangible asset valuations. His focus includes purchase price allocations, business valuations, goodwill impairment testing, 409a and other employee compensation related valuations, valuations of IP and other intangible assets, as well as investment holding valuations for funds in the private equity and venture capital space. He also has significant experience performing audit support reviews for both public and private entities.

Jordi received his Bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, has a Masters in Finance from EGADE Business School (ITESM), and is in the process of completing his MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder, a designation awarded by the CFA institute to investment and financial professionals, and is part of the Los Angeles chapter.

David H. Crean, Ph.D

Senior Advisor

David H. Crean, Ph.D is a Senior Advisor at Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation where he leads the firm’s M&A, partnering, strategic advisory and capital financing transactions with life science and healthcare clients. Dr. Crean has in excess of 25 years of life sciences R&D and corporate development transactional experience in the pharmaceutical industry responsible for leading mergers, acquisitions, licensing and collaborations, and establishing corporate strategy. Dr. Crean holds FINRA Series 79 and Series 63 licenses and is a Registered Investment Banking Representative of BA Securities LLC, Member FINRA SIPC.

Dr. Crean also serves on the Board of Directors for Histogen, Inc., Talapo Therapeutics, and California Life Sciences Association (CLSA), as a business advisor for several early-stage life science companies, is a limited partner with Mesa Verde Venture Partners, and a member of BIOCOM and Corporate Directors Forum. For his outstanding advisory work in the Life Sciences and Healthcare sector, Dr. Crean was recognized for the 2018 Healthcare Hero, 2017 Thought Leader of the Year and 2017 Advisor of the Year Awards. Dr. Crean is also active in the non-profit sector where he serves in leading Board roles for the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) San Diego, Solutions for Change, Alzheimer’s Association and Altus Institute of San Diego.

Dr. Crean holds a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) Degree with a finance concentration from Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Management. Additionally, he holds a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Degree in Biophysics and a Masters of Science (MS) Degree in Oncology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. Crean also earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) Degree in Biology/ Pre-Med from Canisius College.

Matthew Pelo

Director

Matthew Pelo serves as a Director for Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation.

Prior to joining Objective Capital Partners, Mr. Pelo served as Vice President of Financial Strategy and Operations at the New York Genome Center (NYGC). Mr. Pelo joined NYGC during its formation in 2012 and was instrumental in the company’s growth into a premier research institution. Mr. Pelo was the longest serving member of the executive team and held a variety of roles at the NYGC during his tenure. Most recently, Mr. Pelo directly oversaw project/program management, research administration, facilities, government relations and financial strategy. Mr. Pelo also held roles as the interim Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff to the President and Scientific Director. Mr. Pelo also led key business development activities such as the partnership between NYGC and IBM, partnering with Johnson and Johnson Innovation to build JLabs@NYC, and collaborating with the University of Buffalo and New York State to establish a genomics medicine network throughout New York State. 

Prior to his time at NYGC, Mr. Pelo was an Associate at TGG Capital and Consulting Controller at TGG Accounting. Mr. Pelo began his career as co-founder of networkText.com (now Tatango.com), an industry leading text messaging marketer in the US, which he exited successfully in 2008. He holds FINRA Series 7, 63 and 79 licenses and is a Registered Representative of BA Securities LLC, Member FINRA SIPC.

Mr. Pelo graduated from San Diego State University majoring in Finance and enjoys golf, skiing, hiking, good food and traveling.

Mandy F. Woods

Chief Operating Officer

Mandy F. Woods is the Chief Operating Officer at Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation, playing a strategic leadership role managing the firm’s ongoing operations and is responsible for the efficiency of business. Her responsibilities encompass financial management, human resources, operational management, office administration, information technology and marketing. Ms. Woods has more than twenty-five years of experience within office administration and operations management working with C-suite executives and board of directors.

Prior to joining Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation, Ms. Woods worked within the industries of life science, healthcare, and law including roles at Ansun Biopharma, Inc., Search Optics, LLC, Pediatric Biosciences, Inc., Palomar Health, Ignyta, Inc., Celula, Inc., Morrison & Foerster, LLP, and Digital Gene Technologies, Inc.

Ms. Woods holds a Master of Business Administration degree with a specialization in Organizational Leadership and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from The University of Arizona.

Chanie Smith

Marketing Operations Manager

Chanie Smith serves as the Marketing Operations Manager and is responsible for driving Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation marketing strategy and execution. Ms. Smith contributes to strategy formulation, manages marketing programs, and develops company collateral.

Previous to Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation, Chanie most recently served as the Marketing Manager and subsequently the Director of Operations at Poptik Agency, a growth stage marketing agency who specialized in SubOptic IP in industries including Consumer Products, Technology, and High Security & Currency. During her time in that role, she advised overall company and industry specific strategy, directly managed all projects, and maintained client communication. While at Popitk, Ms. Smith was able to manage projects in a variety of verticals for clients such as Spacecode, the leader in RFID inventory management for high value healthcare, diamonds, and rare gems; Mattel, the global toy manufacturer, and 3SMK, a premier manufacturer of high security and currency technology.

Chanie began her professional career once graduating from California State University Chico with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, a concentration in Marketing, and a Minor in International Studies. In order to achieve her minor, she spent a year of her college career in Den Haag, Holland studying international business and policy. She now utilizes her love of travel and golf in both her personal and professional life.

Ben Stenson

Senior Associate, Investment Banking

Ben Stenson is an Investment Banking Senior Associate at Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation responsible for preparing financial, business and market analyses including assisting in preparation of management presentations, Confidential Information Memorandums (CIMs), three statement financial models and all required due diligence information.

Prior to joining Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation, Mr. Stenson worked at University Growth Fund (UGF), a growth-stage venture fund based in Salt Lake City, Utah. At UGF Ben was a Senior Associate overseeing the entire diligence process resulting in investments in companies including: Postmates, Fastly, Scorestream, and others.

Mr. Stenson graduated from The University of California, San Diego with a B.S. in Management Science and a minor in Business Finance. He holds FINRA Series 63 and 79 licenses and is a Registered Representative of BA Securities LLC, Member FINRA SIPC.

David Waiyaki

Associate, Valuation

David Waiyaki serves as an Associate in the Valuation Advisory Services Practice at Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation. He provides business valuations analysis for various purposes including financial reporting, tax compliance, litigation support, share-based compensation, and for fair value measurement purposes.

Prior to Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation, David worked as a Transaction Advisory Associate at Whitley Penn, LLP where he performed financial and accounting due diligence for mergers and acquisitions purposes. Prior to this, he worked as a Valuation Associate at B. Riley Financial, Inc. where he performed tangible asset valuations for banks and financial sponsors. David started his consulting career at Grant Thornton, LLP.

David received a Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies with an economics concentration and minors in mathematics and finance from the University of North Texas. Additionally, he holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with a finance concentration from Texas A&M University – Commerce.

Benjamin Hefter

Analyst, Investment Banking

Ben Hefter serves as an Investment Banking Analyst for Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation in the San Diego office.

Prior to Objective, Mr. Hefter worked at Alexander Hunt, a firm that is based in Chicago, Illinois and is focused on raising capital for emerging growth companies. At Alexander Hunt, Ben was an Investment Banking Analyst working on numerous deal processes to help companies prepare for capital raises and sell side transactions.

Mr. Hefter graduated from San Diego State University with a B.S. in Finance.

Kavya Anand

Analyst, Investment Banking

Kavya Anand serves as an Investment Banking Analyst for Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation.

Previously, Ms. Anand was a Summer Analyst at D.A. Davidson & Companies at their Atlanta office, where she covered the Financial Institutions and Diversified Industrials Group.

Ms. Anand graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi and has a Master of Finance from Gies College of Business, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.