Joseph Durnford, the Chairman and Senior Managing Director at JD Merit, has successfully structured, negotiated, and completed over 150 M&A transactions with a total value of nearly $4 billion. Durnford’s insights on how to gain liquidity and maximize value from private company ownership are immense and are drawn from his experience serving as a director for both private and public companies.

Durnford holds the Series 24, 27, 7, 63 and 79 licenses. Durnford has been awarded Deal Maker of the Year, Deal Maker of the Decade, Deal of the Year by M&A Advisor magazine and is an M&A Advisor Hall of Fame Inductee. He was also one of the Top 200 Boutique Investment Bankers in the United States in 2012.

JD Merit CEO Craig Dickens is an experienced entrepreneur, certified M&A advisor, investment banker, and angel investor. He is responsible for creating a culture of boutique personalized service and for recruiting experienced and excellent people to build the JDM team. Mr. Dickens’ experience with virtually every kind of business dynamic allows him to best guide clients towards rapid growth, business optimization, and profitable exit.

Mr. Dickens serves on the management committee for CDI Global, JD Merit’s sister organization, which represents cross-border merger & acquisitions in over 30 countries globally. His access to world-class buyers and capital partners is an important part of the service the company provides for all JDM clients.

Nick DeVaney is an M&A advisor, investment banker, and entrepreneur. He has built multi-million dollar organizations, has implemented and executed systems and processes designed for rapid growth, and strives to deliver the best possible outcomes for his clients. Throughout his decade of experience, he has worked in industries from construction to technology. Holding Series 24, 62, and 63 licenses, DeVaney specializes in sell-side M&A, institutional and private debt, and equity placements, as well as helping high-growth and development companies to raise capital.

In his most important role, he enjoys raising his three kids with his wife Lauren.

Vice-Chairman of JD Merit & Company, Tracy Albert conducts the senior planning and strategic direction of JD Merit, including directing JD Merit`s expansion into several key industry verticals such as robotics, renewable energy, tech-enabled service, SaaS, and e-commerce/CPG. With 30 years of experience, he is considered one of the preeminent investment bankers on the West Coast.

At JD Merit, Albert is supported by a global team of senior-level transaction experts (Navy Seals) who actively assist him to respond immediately to the opportunities that arise through his network.

Albert created and founded Business Forums International (BFI), which he developed into a highly successful global business networking enterprise.

As Managing Director, David Wanetick provides clients with unique perspectives in articulating the value of their companies. His ability to communicate business strategy to our team and clients has resulted in great success. He is an expert in valuing intangible assets as he has valued thousands of patents and created the Certified Patent Valuation Analyst designation. As the author of Business Model Validation, Wanetick has a keen sense for explaining companies’ business models to investors and strategic acquirers. He has negotiated a wide variety of financial transactions and even authored The Strategic Negotiator and created The Institute for Strategic Negotiations.

Chris Barnes is a Managing Director at JD Merit with three decades of experience in investment banking, principal investing, and corporate development. He has successfully structured, negotiated, and closed over $1 billion in capital raises and $1 billion in M&A transactions.

Barnes has worked with a number of leading financial services firms including Lehman Brothers, Tucker Anthony Sutro, and Cleary Gull. He also successfully ran his own investment banking firm (Sarowdin Partners) for 10 years which focused on providing senior-level, Wall Street-quality investment banking services to companies at the lower end of the middle market.

Barnes holds the FINRA Series 7, 79, and 63 licenses.

Sean Ostrander is a Vice President with JD Merit and has been with the company since 2014. He has executed sell-side and buy-side transactions on over 20 closed transactions totaling over $500 million in enterprise value. His expertise includes financial analysis, valuation, deal structuring, data analysis, and market positioning across multiple verticals. He is also the in-house Excel shortcut wizard.

Previously he spent two years as an Account Manager with Corelytics, serving various technology and business services clients. Ostrander is a Series 79 and 63 Registered Representative and a Certified Mergers & Acquisitions Advisor (inactive).

Rahn Amitai has spent his career as an Investment Banker providing M&A, asset disposition, capital raise, and strategic advisory services to clients. His primary focus is M&A assignment execution and capital raises.

Prior to joining JD Merit, Rahn was Co-Founder of Sahale Global Advisors, a boutique investment bank focused on servicing smaller technology companies. Rahn’s primary focus was acting as clients’ trusted advisor, providing expert counsel on their best strategic choices, and efficiently and effectively transacting and executing on those oftentimes difficult and complicated decisions. Before that, he worked as an associate at a boutique consulting company where he was intimately involved in assignments in the semiconductor and advanced technology industries resulting in the closure of over $150,000,000 in deal value.

Rahn received a BA in Economics with honors from the University of Washington.

Jodi Roberts graduated with a Marketing degree from the University of Northern Iowa with a focus on sales and advertising. Since becoming certified in Pragmatic Marketing, Roberts has been a pioneer in implementing personas and customer segmentation in marketing automation. She was part of the beta team implementing personas into HubSpot and spoke at HubSpot’s national conference, INBOUND.

Roberts has led marketing in organizations from start-ups to fastest growing Inc. 500/5000 companies.

She enjoys drumming, loving on her two sons, and talking tech with her programmer husband. Roberts and her family enjoy Midwest living and call Des Moines, Iowa, home.

Erich Woermann is a first-year Analyst at JD Merit & Company. Erich initially joined as a spring intern and is now with the firm full-time. He is responsible for providing analytical support on Capital Offerings, Mergers and Acquisitions and other advisory services. Prior to JD Merit, Erich served as a Project Manager at a local Property Management company.

He graduated from the University of Washington Bothell School of Business and received a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance.

As JD Merit’s Office Manager, Mindy Bills is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day office operations and procedures of the firm. She has experience in supporting the executive team, maintaining financial records, managing vendors, and onboarding new hires. She is a highly analytical team player with excellent multitasking abilities and a flexible approach to managing competing priorities.

Bills leverages her extensive military background in training, planning, and operations to manage the office organization effectively and efficiently. Her strategic planning and operational experience are invaluable to JD Merit & Company in ensuring that our transaction team has the necessary support.