Ryan J. Clark
Ryan Clark is an entrepreneur, former college athlete, and one of the most prolific Business Brokers and Mergers & Acquisitions Intermediaries in the nation. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in Finance at The University of Nevada Las Vegas, Ryan joined Citigroup as a Senior Financial Planner for high-net-worth individuals and gained considerable experience in corporate retirement planning, investment management, insurance, and estate planning.
In 2003 he joined his childhood friends in launching The Veld Group. Since its founding, and due in large part to Ryan’s contributions, The Veld Group and Veld Mergers and Acquisitions has completed over 350 formal and 5,000+ informal business valuations and orchestrated over 1,000 sell-side transactions with an 80%+ success rate versus the 30% industry standard.
Ryan attributes his extraordinary business success to his support network which includes his family and friends, his early entrepreneurial experience and to the discipline he developed as a lifelong athlete. This discipline, coupled with the wisdom he has gained over a 20-year career has propelled him to the top of the brokerage industry where he believes “grace complements achievement”.
Ryan is a Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor (CM&AA) with the Alliance of Mergers & Acquisitions Advisors and a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) with the Exit Planning Institute. Ryan is highly active in ProVisors, a community for professional trusted-advisors, where he is on the Executive Committee. Ryan was named one of the USA’s leading M&A Experts by Finance Monthly Magazine in their 2022 Global Awards Edition.
Robert A. Rodriguez
Robert Rodriguez
Robert Rodriguez is a Certified Public Accountant (C.P.A.) as well as a licensed California Real Estate Broker with 20+ years of experience selling, acquiring, merging, valuating and consulting businesses. Mr. Rodriguez received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from the University of San Diego (U.S.D.), where he was a key contributor to his fraternal organization’s community outreach program. Mr. Rodriguez’s career began as a mortgage loan officer at Wells Fargo Bank, where he implemented and managed their Spanish Loan Hotline, one of the first of its kind. Mr. Rodriguez left Wells Fargo to join Howard Publications, where he began his accounting career.
Robert ultimately became Howard Publications Assistant Controller, where he managed the financial reporting for 18 newspapers, 4 domestic natural gas trading divisions, and the Eastern European natural gas exploration division. At Howard Publications, he coordinated the acquisition of a $25 million publishing subsidiary in Washington, led the forensic investigation of a $1.2 billion natural gas trading operation (and, prior to the Enron scandal, discovered similarly fraudulent accounting practices), and consulted on various natural gas trading, transportation and exploration engagements in the U.S., Canada, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. Upon Howard Publications $400M sale, Mr. Rodriguez joined National Retail Partners where he managed a $400 million commercial property portfolio for California Public Employment Retirement System – the largest public pension fund in the U.S. (CalPERS).
In 2003, Robert launched Integrity Valuations and Business Consulting (“Integrity”) in San Diego, California. Integrity specialized in providing small and mid-size businesses with accounting, tax, valuation and consulting studies related to growth strategies, tax planning, and the implementation of cost management and efficiency programs. Within months of implementation, Integrity managed the investment and financial divisions for some of San Diego’s most successful hospitality groups. Mr. Rodriguez was also responsible for the creation and management of a variety of syndicated investment groups, all of which raised capital for the acquisition of commercial and private investments.
While maintaining an active presence as an intermediary and business valuator, Mr. Rodriguez launched a Hong Kong based travel start-up designed for the mainland Chinese marketplace in 2014. After completed a valuation project, Mr. Rodriguez accepted an interim CFO position at an innovative equipment manufacturing company. Shortly thereafter, Robert accepted a similar CFO position at a local apparel manufacturing label. Robert possesses the ability to seamlessly shift between his roles as an interim CFO, business valuator, consultant and intermediary without pause, and assist clients in Spanish or English.
Michael A. Wildeveld
Michael Wildeveld
Michael Wildeveld, a high school valedictorian, holds a B.A. in Economics from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Michael is active in leading Merger & Acquisition, Exit Planning and Business Valuation industry organizations, is a M&A Master Intermediary (M&AMI), an expert witness, and a member of the National Association of Certified Business Valuators and Analysts (NACVA), the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) and ProVisors. He holds the following certifications – Mergers and Acquisitions Professional (CM&AP), M&A Advisor (CM&AA), Business Intermediary (CBI), Business Broker (CBB) and Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA).
Michael started Value-Line Maintenance at 18 and turned it into a 35-employee enterprise within a year. Following college, he gained blue chip experience with best-in-class employers. He worked in finance for American Airlines, internal audit for ARCO/BP, business development for Virgin Entertainment, and strategic planning and buy-side mergers and acquisitions for both G.E. Capital Aviation and Universal Pictures. Mr. Wildeveld consulted for Jordan’s Queen Noor, government of Jordan and El Salvador, Fred Alger Investment Management and The Landmine Survivors’ Network, a NGO winning non-profit. Michael has carried out projects in 19 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.
Mr. Wildeveld launched The Veld Business Advisory Group in 2002 with his best friends since age 14. Though it began as a consulting and valuation firm, he launched their business brokerage in 2004 and later their boutique mergers and acquisitions practice to address the substantial challenges that clients with less than $20 ml in enterprise value faced when going to market. Since then, the companies have performed over 300 formal and 5,000 informal business valuations, orchestrated over 1,000 sell-side transactions and achieved an 80%+ success rate versus the 30% industry standard.
Michael is passionate about cultivating disruptive concepts and regularly engages in innovative, business service and product launches, acquisitions and roll-ups where value may be created or valuation multiples arbitraged. He has accomplished this in the food manufacturing, printing, health and beauty services, hospitality and financial services industries.
Michael has made television appearances on NBC’s Business Spotlight, CBS’s Great Day Live, Warner Media’s CW Network, Bloomberg TV, and Kevin Harrington’s (one of Shark Tank’s original sharks) show “Get Down to Business” that showcases entrepreneurs and business innovators. Michael makes regular appearances on podcasts and radio shows such as Entrepreneur.com and Remarkable Radio’s “Business Innovators Spotlight.” Michael has been quoted in Forbes and the Los Angeles Business Journal and was featured on the cover of Financial Services Review. He has spoken to a variety of audiences at events, is a contributing author to “Business Selling Insights Vol. 2” and “Exit Smart,” and has authored “Exit On Your Terms – Expert Hacks to Get More, Keep More, and Beat Private Equity at their own Game” which is due out in 2023. Michael has completed a marathon yet remains a struggling golfer. On his quest to explore the world he has visited all 7 continents and 136 countries and counting.
