Founded in 2009, this premier award recognizes those in the Private Middle Market Financial community who create and advocate new ideas that add value to the marketplace. Furthermore, these contributions add to the body of knowledge serving as a solid foundation for AM&AA’s education and credentialing programs. To date, 16 leading professionals have earned the prestigious Middle Market Thought Leader of the Year Award.
2020 Thought Leader of the Year Sponsor
2020 Thought Leader
Joe Brusuelas
Chief Economist, RSM US LLP
Joe is known in the industry as the ‘chief economist to the middle market’ and is a preeminent voice championing issues and policies facing the midsize companies that make up the “real economy” in the United States and around the world.
2019 Thought Leader
Walker Deibel, Acquisition Entrepreneur
Author, “Buy Then Build”
Walker Deibel cofounded three startups and has acquired seven companies, and exited two. He holds an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis where he received the Declaration of Achievement in Entrepreneurship from the Skandalaris Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Walker is a Certified M&A Advisor and former SEC licensed stock broker.
2018 Thought Leader
Allie Taylor, PhD
Co-Founder, Orange Kiwi
Allie’s research is ground breaking in that it recognizes that a key component of any business sale is the psychology of the owner. Despite all the financial and operational analysis that gets done at the point of the deal, psychology is measured at best with intuition. Allie’s research identifies scientific means of defining and measuring an owner’s propensity to exit their business.
2017 Thought Leader
David H. Crean, PhD
Managing Director, Objective Capital Partners
David’s thought leadership is materially expanding the investment banker’s role in serving life sciences companies and provide these companies with a highly attractive, non-diluting alternative to hard-to-secure venture capital.
2016 Thought Leader
Christopher Snider
President/CEO, Exit Planning Institute
Christopher Snider, President/CEO, Exit Planning Institute, empowers business owners and advisors to proactively embrace exit planning as a management and life planning system that enables best-in-class performance in the owner’s financial, business and personal life in his book “Walking to Destiny.”
2015 Thought Leader
Carl Sheeler
Managing Director, Global Leader of Family Offices & Business Strategies at Berkeley Research Group, LLC
Mr. Sheeler authored “Equity Value Enhancement: A Tool to Leverage Human and Financial Capital While Managing Risk.” The advisory community serves a significant role in not only identifying and measuring risk associated with an operating business as part of the traditional legal and financial due diligence; but to manage the risk and leverage the human capital such that value is not only known, but is created. This work promotes strategic activities for clients who are not accustomed to a holistic approach that places as much focus on human as it does on financial capital; thereby providing the entire gamut of different types of advisors and their clients a road map to elevate intangible assets.
2014 Thought Leader
Dr. J Keith Dunbar
Founder/CEO, Potentious
Dr. Dunbar’s dissertation research in “Leaders Who Make M&A Work” found for the first time, a quantifiable correlation between collective leadership capabilities of acquirer and target companies and the particular deal’s financial success (or potential risk aversion).
2013 Thought Leader
Peter R. Worrell
Managing Director/CEO, Bigelow LLC
Mr. Worrell received the award for his book titled, Enterprise Value: How the Best Owner-Managers Build Their Fortune, Capture Their Company’s Gains, and Create Their Legacy.
2012 Thought Leader
Andrew T. Greenberg
CEO, Fairmount Partners
Mr. Greenberg received the Thought Leader of the Year award for bringing factual data and relevant thinking to the lower middle market.
2011 Thought Leader
Dr. John Paglia
Associate Dean, Pepperdine University
Rob Slee received the Thought Leader of the Year award for his work on the seminal book Private Capital Markets: Valuation, Capitalization, and Transfer of Private Business Interests, Second Edition
2011 Thought Leader
Rob Slee
Roberston & Foley
Dr. Paglia received the award for his ground breaking research at Pepperdine University to understand the true cost of private capital across market types and the investment expectations of privately-held business owners.
2010 Thought Leader
Frank Evans
Evans & Associates
Mr Evans co-authored the second edition of the book, Valuation for M&A: Building Value in Private.
2010 Thought Leader
Chris Mellen
President & Founder
Delphi Valuation Advisors Inc
Chris Mellen, Delphi Valuation Advisors, Inc and Frank Evans, of Evans and Associates, co-authored the second edition of the book, Valuation for M&A: Building Value in Private.
2009 Thought Leader
William J. Hass
CEO, Teamwork Technologies
Mr. Hass, co-author of The Private Equity Edge: How Private Equity Players and the World’s Top Companies Build Value and Wealth, is an expert on helping companies build value.
2009 Thought Leader
Shepherd G. Pryor IV
Managing Director, Board Resources
Mr. Pryor, co-author of The Private Equity Edge: How Private Equity Players and the World’s Top Companies Build Value and Wealth, is an expert on helping companies build value.
2009 Thought Leader
Dr. Arthur Laffer
Founder & CEO, Laffer Associates
Dr. Laffer was honored as the first Thought Leader of the Year Award for his book, The Private Equity Edge: How Private Equity Players and the World’s Top Companies Build Value and Wealth along with co-authors William J. Hass and Shepherd G. Pryor IV.