The Alta Group announced that James R. Jackson, Jr. has been promoted to managing director to lead the consultancy’s merger & acquisition advisory practice in the United States, while Bruce Kropschot will continue as a senior managing director supporting client engagements. Also working with Jackson is Patricia M. Voorhees, a director, who helped facilitate a number of M&As for Alta clients in recent years and, earlier in her career, for GE Capital.

Alta’s M&A team was involved in four equipment leasing and finance industry transactions that closed in 2016: Connext Financial’s acquisition by Engs Commercial Finance Co.; Atalaya Capital Management’s acquisition of CG Commercial Finance; BofI Federal Bank’s acquisition of equipment leases and certain operations of Pacific Western Equipment Finance; and Liberty Financial Group’s acquisition by Navitas Credit Corp. 

Based on transactions currently under a letter of intent, Kropschot reported that 2017 is expected to be an even more active year for acquisitions.

“Jim has played an important role in many of our recent M&A client engagements. With 30 years of executive expertise in equipment leasing, M&A and turnaround management, he has well earned his new leadership position,” Kropschot said. “After 31 years of M&A advisory experience during which we completed over 300 client projects, I have decided that it is time for me to step down from the leadership role.  However, I will continue to work with Jim and Patricia serving Alta’s M&A advisory clients.”

Prior to joining Alta, Jackson was senior vice president and chief financial officer of MicroFinancial Incorporated, a publicly held micro-ticket equipment finance company, where he helped spearhead the company’s turnaround from an after-tax loss of $22.1 million in 2002, to net income of $9.8 million in 2013 and was instrumental in selling the company at a significant premium in January 2015. Earlier, Jackson was a co-founder and vice president of finance for a startup technology leasing company for Deutsche Financial Services. Prior to joining Deutsche, he held several positions at AT&T Capital in Framingham, MA, including serving as the manager of business planning and financial point person for all proposed M&A activity.

“I am excited about the opportunity to lead the merger and acquisition advisory practice for The Alta Group.  Bruce’s equipment financing industry knowledge and expertise have proven invaluable to me over the past year and I will continue to rely upon his sound advice and experience as I transition to my new role,” Jackson commented.