Our advisory board

Ken Wanko | ESOP Strategies

Board expert. Investor. Operator. Financier.

Ken has, for the last 20 years, advocated equality and progress through the use of employee ownership as a positive economic construct.

Ken’s journey as an employee ownership zealot began at the investment banking firm, Houlihan Lokey. While there, Ken was a founding member of Houlihan’s ESOP Corporate Finance Group, providing expert-level guidance to companies, their boards and employee groups that wished to become employee-owned.

After his tenure at Houlihan, Ken spent 14 years at the 100% ESOP-owned investment company, Alliance Holdings. At Alliance, Ken was first Director of Acquisitions and then Chairman and CEO - Alliance was one of the largest ESOP-owned in the U.S., with more than 15,000 participants. Alliance’s unique, internally diversified approach to employee ownership has since been copied by several ESOP companies.

Currently, as Managing Director of SES ESOP Strategies, Ken advises companies, owners and other stakeholders on various corporate transactions, focusing on ESOP ownership transitions, M&A advisory and private capital raises. To accomplish this, Ken brings his breadth of experience as a former board member, business leader, and investor of many ESOP-owned businesses.

Ken’s professional career began as an engineer for Lockheed, where he designed software to manage the orbital analysis of the US Government’s surveillance satellite system.

Ken holds an MBA from Duke University, the Fuqua School of Business, and a B.S. from The University of Michigan, B.S., Aerospace Engineering.

Ken is a member of The ESOP Association and the National Center for Employee Ownership. Ken currently resides in the Aspen, Colorado area with his wife and two teenage daughters.

Richard Wolkowitz | FBCG

Board expert. Investor. Operator. Founder.

The Family Business Consulting Group is a valued resource for the global family enterprise community — and the advisors who serve them — to understand families’ multigenerational vision - Richard is a key member of the FBCG team., offering significant experience, overseeing the firm’s external growth, operations and key relationships.

Rich has been immersed in the family business field for over 25 years in a wide variety of professional, leadership, and management capacities working in and advising families. At a national law firm, he was focused on domestic and international business transactions, representing closely-held businesses and their respective executives and family-owned enterprises and their families, and leading the international law practice group.

Rich earlier served as a fiduciary for both a single-family office and a multi-family office with operating business portfolios in retail, finance, manufacturing, technology, insurance, wealth management, real estate and alternative investments. He served as consigliere to family office principals on their personal family matters, philanthropy, business structures, strategies, management, operations, investments, and culture-building.

Rich has served as trustee and on the boards of directors, advisory boards, and as interim CEO for growth companies, turnarounds and early-stage businesses. Rich earlier worked in The White House.

Richard has a Master of Laws (LLM) summa cum laude in International Transactions and Comparative Law from the Georgetown University Law Center, and, a Doctor of Law (JD) cum laude and Editor of the Law Review from Gonzaga University School of Law. Richard earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) with honors in Agriculture Economics from the University of Illinois – Champaign-Urbana. Member, Missouri State Bar and District of Columbia Bar. Elected to Creve Coeur City Council for 10 years - The St. Louis Business Journal named Rich a “40 under 40” in 2002. He is the father of three wildly successful, independent and outspoken daughters.

Michael Castleman

Board expert. Investor. Operator. Chairman.

Michael S. Castleman is a proven leader of transformations in strategic, operational and financial performance.  For more than 25 years, he has demonstrated a keen ability to assess and navigate complex situations, problem solve and deliver value creation.  Michael has deep experience with private equity and public markets, both as an operational leader and senior investor.  As a CEO, CFO, lead investor, and board member, he has executed a wide variety of corporate initiatives, including strategic repositioning, operational transformation, financial turnarounds, acquisitions and divestitures, and capital raising. 

Michael most recently served as CEO of CDI Corporation, the private-equity-backed successor company to NYSE-listed CDI Corp.  Initially as CFO and then as CEO, Michael led this $700+ million engineering and IT services company through a multi-faceted transformation, later steering the then publicly-traded company through a concurrent strategic alternatives process, shareholder activism, and financial turnaround, culminating in a successful take-private transaction.  Over his tenure as CEO, he returned the company to positive EBITDA, and led approximately $400 million in M&A transactions (both acquisitions and divestitures).

Prior to joining CDI, Michael was President of the Kenmore, Craftsman & DieHard Business Unit of Sears Holdings Corporation, the business unit responsible for these market-leading, iconic American brands - improving business operating profit by nearly 30%, delivering the unit’s highest profitability in more than 5 years despite a declining organic store base.

In addition to his role as an operating executive, Michael possesses extensive experience as a public and private equity investor.  He founded or co-founded two value-oriented / special situations funds, where he was a senior investment team member and also responsible for developing the firms’ business processes and infrastructure.  Michael also was Co-Founder and Co-Head of Lehman Brothers Venture Partners (“LBVP”), the primary venture capital affiliate of Lehman Brothers Inc., building from scratch to $900M+ of committed capital across four fund generations.  During his tenure with LBVP, Michael was responsible for the execution and/or sponsorship investments representing more than $330 million across 39 companies, generating an IRR greater than 60%, also, serving as a director or advisor to 18 boards of directors.

Michael received his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, Columbia University, graduating with honors in 1994.  He received his B.S. Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989.

Brett M. Johnson

Board expert. Investor. Founder. Chairman.

Mr. Johnson is a Founder and Partner of Fortuitous Partners, a diversified opportunity fund platform investing in professional sports anchored multi-asset real estate developments in opportunity zones, including the iconic Tidewater Landing development in Rhode Island. Mr. Johnson is the Co-Chairman of the Phoenix Rising Football Club, a professional soccer team, based in Phoenix, Arizona. Mr. Johnson has invested in real estate, manufacturing and consumer brands, including TerraCycle, Phoenix Rising FC, Helsingor FC, Thrasio, NYC Office Suites, Octagon Partners, and ArcherDX.

From 2015 to September 2016, Mr. Johnson was at Zealot Networks (www.zealotnetworks.com). Founded by Danny Zappin, who founded and sold Maker Studios to Disney for $950 million, Zealot Networks is a digital media company that comprises 18 portfolio companies and $150 million in revenue.

From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Johnson was the President of Targus, the leading global provider of mobile computing solutions with sales of $545 million - Mr. Johnson was instrumental in the sale to private equity in 2005 - Mr. Johnson continued to serve as an Executive Director on Targus’ board of directors until 2009.

From 2013 to 2015, Mr. Johnson was a member of the Board of Directors, and the Chairman of the Compensation Committee, at Blyth Inc. (NYSE: BTH). Blyth is a $1 billion direct to consumer sales company and leading designer and marketer of accessories for the home and health & wellness products. Blyth was acquired by the private equity firm, Carlyle, in November 2015.

Mr. Johnson is a Director of TerraCycle (www.terracycle.com).

Mr. Johnson is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (www.YPO.org) and earned a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a Masters of Business Administration from the Presidential/Key Executive program at Pepperdine University.

In 2014, Mr. Johnson graduated from the Harvard Business School’s President’s Leadership Program.

Mr. Johnson is a former member of the Board of Trustees for Choate Rosemary Hall and Senior Fellow in Entrepreneurship and a member of the Board of Visitors for the Graziadio School of Business at Pepperdine University.