On Tuesday, July 1, Alumni Capital Network (“ACN”) participated as part of the investor group led by AIG Investments that acquired the Personal Communications Division (“PCD”) of UTStarcom, Inc.  PCD is a leading distributor of niche mobile devices (feature phones, smartphones, wireless data cards) and accessories, as well as a provider of value-added services to mobile device manufacturers and wireless carriers. 

James P. Honohan, ACN’s President and CEO, stated, “We are very excited to back an experienced management team in one of the largest value-added distributors of mobile devices for the wireless telecommunication market. “ 

Jeff Miller, ACN’s representative on PCD’s board, explained that, “We are prepared to utilize our unique network to help PCD achieve its objectives using the extensive experience developed over our careers at Accenture.”

“By including ACN as part of our investment group, we have increased the value-add that can be provided at both a strategic and operational level,” said Jonathan Stearns, Managing Director, who led the transaction team for AIG Investments.
ABOUT ALUMNI CAPITAL NETWORK

Alumni Capital Network is a New York-based private equity investment firm with resources located in many cities across the U.S., including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. The firm, which established a committed capital fund in 2007, is led by a group of former Accenture senior partners who had worked together for decades, and includes many former Accenture consulting colleagues and client executives among its ninety plus private investors.

The firm’s strategy is to invest knowledge capital along with financial capital in companies that offer the potential for significant value enhancement through strengthened operations and improved market positioning in combination with financial restructuring. Candidate companies originate from a variety of commercial sectors, with particular emphasis on consumer, industrial, financial, technology and services industries. Alumni Capital Network typically invests in partnership with management and may co-invest with like-minded investors, provided the ownership structure positions the firm with decision-making influence on the acquired company’s operations and strategies.

Alumni Capital Network’s capabilities are differentiated by the deep industry, functional and technical skills of its more than fifty active investors, who collectively have more than a thousand years of consulting, operations and financial experience. The firm’s network of resources includes experts in: marketing, sales, customer service, supply chain, logistics, manufacturing, finance, human resources, and information technology. These functional skills are complemented by industry insights accumulated through decades of experience working for leading companies, including high performing SMEs, within many major industry segments. Each of the firm’s managing directors has significant prior experience with private equity investments, including some who have been individual owners of companies.

Alumni Capital Network’s group of founders includes: Thomas K. Fox, Richard J. Golden, James P. Honohan, A. William Kapler, Jeffrey K. Miller and Walter G. Nollmann.

For more information on Alumni Capital Network, visit the company’s web-site at www.AlumniCapitalNetwork.com.

Alumni Capital Network is a unique private equity firm recently established by a team of former senior partners from Accenture who have worked together for decades. The majority of the fund’s investors are former colleagues or clients from the founders’ consulting careers. “Our unique investor network gives our firm a distinct edge”, claims co-founder Rick Golden, who leads the firm’s investor communication efforts: “More than half of our investors have agreed to play active roles in the sourcing, evaluation and realization of positive change – profitable growth as well as operational excellence – within the fund’s portfolio companies.”

Alumni Capital Network was founded with a commitment to the creation of value through performance improvement and has the resources to deliver on that goal. “With fifty experienced active investors prepared to take leadership roles in pre-deal evaluation and operational support of our portfolio companies, we epitomize the new model for PE firms,” says Jim Honohan, the firm’s CEO. “Our slogan ‘Equity.Expertise.Execution.’ encapsulates our comprehensive investment strategy,” Honohan explains. “Each of our investments will combine financial and knowledge capital with proven delivery capability.” While many private equity firms are content to play a limited oversight role via Board participation, Honohan says his firm’s experienced executives will become a positive force behind the management team of each portfolio company: “Our active investment approach will enable our portfolio companies to generate superior returns on equity by achieving exceptional performance gains.”

Other members of the management team reinforce the firm’s ability to execute this strategy. “We’re small, but differentiated by deep credentials for creating value,” asserts Tom Donahue, a Managing Director and twenty-year private equity veteran, who readily acknowledges that the firm’s experience base is what enticed him to sign on. “Plenty of firms talk about expertise, but how many can deploy fifty active partners with more than a thousand years of cumulative operations and financial experience? Since this skill set is in-house and geographically diverse, we are uniquely positioned to provide ‘hands on’ value to our portfolio companies.”
How will this approach play out in the marketplace? “Name an industry and business situation and we are likely to have multiple partners on board who have attacked the problem and produced positive payback,” says Bill Kapler, a founder who spent most of his thirty years at Accenture reengineering business processes and implementing solutions for high-tech and industrial products clients. “We have spent our careers creating value by improving business performance, growth and profitability at numerous companies,” Kapler adds.

Another founder, Walter Nollmann, makes a convincing case that the young firm’s expertise spans the entire value chain of most companies. “Our Network includes experts in marketing, sales, customer service, supply chain, logistics, manufacturing, finance, human resources, and information technology. These functional skills are complemented by industry insights accumulated through decades of experience working for leaders in many industries,” he says.

Paul Detlefs, a Managing Director based in Chicago, is convinced from first-hand experience that the same techniques proven to work in Fortune 500 companies can achieve spectacular results for middle market and small companies that Alumni Capital Network will target for investment: Detlefs served more than a hundred such companies while with Accenture. “The best news for our investors and future acquisitions is that results are achieved much faster in smaller enterprises,” he says, explaining that “Decision-making is faster and implementation can occur at lightning speed, compared to the slower-paced and more complex world of the Fortune 500.”

Alumni Capital Network’s ability to execute its value-added investment model has begun to impress outsiders as well, including potential co-investors who have been in discussions with the firm. One highly placed source within a major financial institution observed: “I’ve never seen a firm with a talent-to-equity ratio as high as ACN’s”, adding that that he looks forward to co-investing with the firm on opportunities that require additional capital.

Alumni Capital Network plans to target well-positioned companies in attractive growth sectors of consumer, industrial, financial, technology, and services industries, according to founder Tom Fox, who heads the firm’s Investment Committee. “Our focus on small to mid-sized companies with revenues in the $25-500 million range reflects our desire to gain sufficient control to make meaningful performance improvements within the first two years of our investment. We believe that we will be the preferred equity provider for these portfolio companies, once they understand the depth of our experience and our commitment to helping them build tangible long-term value,” Fox concludes.