Board of Advisors
W. W. Walker (Chet)
Mr. Walker founded Bank of America Capital Investors in 1993. Capital Investors is the private equity investment arm of Bank of America and focuses on buyouts, recapitalizations, and growth capital financings. Over a ten year span, Capital Investors invested approximately $1.4 billion in more than 100 equity and mezzanine transactions. Mr. Walker was the managing partner until his retirement in 2002.
Mr. Walker received a Bachelor in Business Administration degree from Emory University and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
H. Hiter Harris III (Hiter)
Mr. Harris co-founded Harris Williams & Co. in 1991 as a national investment banking firm focusing on mergers and acquisitions. Since the firm’s founding in 1991, Mr. Harris has led Harris Williams & Co. to become one of the largest and most influential independent mergers and acquisitions boutiques in the country. Mr. Harris has over 16 years of transactional experience focused in middle-market mergers and acquisitions assignments and has directed over 100 transactions during his career.
Mr. Harris earned a B.S. in Mathematics and Economics from Hampden-Sydney College, cum laude, and earned a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, with distinction.
W. J. Branch (Bill)
Mr. Branch has extensive experience in manufacturing, business to business marketing and private equity transactions. He is the former Chairman and CEO of Masland Industries, a $600 million designer and manufacturer of components for the automotive industry. In 1990, with Bain Capital, he led the acquisition of Masland in a leveraged transaction and three years later took the company public providing a 7X return for investors. After negotiating the public merger of Masland into Lear Corp in 1996, Branch became Chief Executive Officer of Precision Fabrics Group, a privately held specialty textile company.
Early in 2005 Branch assisted Charlesbank Capital Partners in the purchase of Grain Systems Inc., the world’s largest producer of grain storage and conditioning systems. As interim CEO, he led a transition team following the acquisition and now serves as Chairman of the Board.
Mr. Branch is a graduate of the University of Maryland and veteran of the USAF.