TEAM

Everglades’ investment team works closely with a unique group of highly talented Strategic Advisors and an accomplished Advisory Board of experienced investment professionals, certain of whom are listed below.

Everglades draws from this group of talented individuals to form Boards which are tailor made to each portfolio company’s industry and growth opportunities, providing Management teams with tremendous value as they execute on their strategic vision.

Managing Partner
Brett Craig

Brett is the Founder and Managing Partner of Everglades Equity, where he actively leads the sourcing, investment activity and strategic direction of the firm.

Brett has nearly twenty years of top tier private equity and investment banking experience. Prior to founding Everglades Equity, Brett served as a Principal of Hidden Harbor Capital Partners, where he was responsible for sourcing, evaluating and executing lower middle market private equity investments and served on the firm’s Investment Committee.

Prior to joining Hidden Harbor, Brett was a Vice President of H.I.G. Capital, where he focused on making private equity investments in special situations and turnarounds across both debt and equity. Prior to H.I.G., Brett served as an associate at Quad-C Management, a leading middle market private equity firm focused on partnering with top management teams. Brett began his career at The Blackstone Group.

Brett holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, magna cum laude, and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

Strategic Advisor

Jonathan Beard
Operational Excellence
& Implementation

Jon Beard is an operations executive with extensive experience both directly leading and consulting across industries. In his most recent role, he led operations for Oldcastle Enclosures Solutions, a $200M business unit with ~600 employees with manufacturing and distribution operations across North America.

Prior to Oldcastle, Jon spent 10 years as an Operations consultant with McKinsey & Company in their Atlanta location where he was affiliated with the America’s Operation Practice and the McKinsey Implementation service line. Jon is an expert in the identification of value creation opportunities within the operations of a business, establishing the management systems to prioritize and plan the execution of these opportunities, and implementing the Operational Excellence tools to sustainably capture the value. His past projects have included, but are not limited to, operations and organizational improvements, implementing lean strategies across processes and supply chains, and strategic sourcing initiatives.

Jon began his career as a submarine officer in the United States Navy where he led sailors and officers in the safe and efficient operation of multiple nuclear power plants. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science (with merit) in Systems Engineering from the United States Naval Academy, an MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, and a qualification as a nuclear engineer by the Department of Naval Reactors. He currently resides in Atlanta, GA with his wife and 3 children where he is an avid college football fan and recreational hiker.

Strategic Advisor

Blake Dahlgren
Sales Operations
& Analytics

Blake Dahlgren is a Senior Manager of Global Sales Operations at FedEx Logistics and is responsible for inter-company Sales Team Integration, Sales Incentive Compensation Design, Territory Optimization, and SalesForce Customer Relationship Management (CRM) maintenance and future design. In addition, Mr. Dahlgren works closely with Executive Leadership to develop Sales Strategy and Executive level KPI reports to determine the health of both Sales and Customer retention.

Prior to joining FedEx Logistics, Blake was a Manager of Sales Planning and Support for FedEx Express in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Division, where he focused on Sales Optimization, Territory Planning, and KPI Report Automation for Senior Leadership to drive profitable revenue growth.

Prior to joining FedEx, Blake was a Software Developer at MYCG Consulting Group where he specialized in the full-stack design, development, testing, and refinement of client, server and web software applications. Blake holds a B.B.A. in Management Information Systems from the University of Oklahoma.

Strategic Advisor

Alex Miller
Cost Structure
Optimization

Alex Miller is CEO of Synergetics, a boutique management consulting firm with over 150 professionals focused on executing profitability and cash flow improvement projects primarily for private equity backed portfolio companies.  The firm has completed over 1,600 business process implementations for a diverse client portfolio made up of leading industrial and service companies globally.

Alex has over 25 years of management consulting experience with an emphasis on diagnosing and implementing process improvement initiatives to achieve cost structure efficiencies and working capital improvements.  He has particular expertise in identifying and realizing cost efficiencies via overhead structure optimization, process streamlining and automation, offshoring/outsourcing, and supply chain/procurement cost optimization. In addition, Alex has extensive experience leading post-merger integration of add-on acquisitions including realization of synergies.

Prior to joining Synergetics in 1993, Alex served as a Project Manager for Proudfoot, a management consulting firm, and as Mining Operations Manager for Anglo American Corp.  Alex holds a Bachelors in Engineering from University of Exeter, UK; a Masters in Systems Engineering from University of Cape Town, S.A.; and an MBA from Open University, U.K.

Strategic Advisor

Jonathan Peters
Organic Growth
Strategy

Jonathan Peters is the President of Amerjack, a designer and manufacturer of men’s dress shoes and apparel he founded in 2019 with former senior executives of Cole Haan, Nike and Adidas. Jonathan leads all aspects of Amerjack’s corporate strategy and operations.

Jonathan is an expert in identifying, evaluating, and executing on organic growth opportunities. Prior to founding Amberjack, Jonathan served as Senior Director of Corporate Strategy and Business Development at McDonald’s Corp. There, Jonathan helped lead the design and rollout of McDonald’s Global Delivery Program, which was co-launched with UberEats across 20+ countries, including delivery economics and profitability, driver and store operations, and marketing strategy.

Prior to McDonald’s, Jonathan served as a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company. As an Engagement Manager, Jonathan led teams of strategy consultants advising Fortune 100 and other leading companies across a broad range of industries, including consumer products, distribution, food & beverage, and technology. He has worked with numerous management teams to assess the attractiveness of potential new markets (both domestic and international), including analyzing competitive dynamics, sizing opportunities, developing customer insights through surveys and interviews, and designing initiatives to execute on these opportunities. Jonathan graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Economics and Management, magna cum laude.

Advisory Board

Clinton Biondo
Managing Partner,
Fir Tree Partners

Clinton Biondo is a Managing Partner of Fir Tree Partners, a multibillion dollar hedge fund with offices in New York and Miami. Mr. Biondo oversees all investment activities of the Firm, and together with David Sultan, is responsible for the general management and development of the investment team. Mr. Biondo has over 15 years of investment and finance experience and has led many of the firm’s distressed credit, structured credit and residential real estate investments. He has also helped orchestrate and lead a number of Fir Tree’s strategic debt and equity activist initiatives within the residential real estate and energy sectors.

Prior to joining Fir Tree, Mr. Biondo worked at private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, where he analyzed leveraged buyout investments. Before WCAS, Mr. Biondo was a member of the mergers and acquisitions group at The Blackstone Group. Mr. Biondo received a B.A. in Finance, and graduated with High Honors from the Business Honors Program at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.