Our Team
We are a family-led investment group that focused on optimizing the performance and accelerating the growth of other independently owned businesses.
Our team consists of industry professionals with a proven ability to accelerate the performance of our partnering companies.
Todd Siwak
Managing Partner
Todd is an accomplished business leader known for rapidly scaling and consolidating businesses across sectors. He brings a unique blend of strategic investments, commercial strategy, and innovative approaches to operations and logistics improvements.
As the former President and Chief Business Officer of Ferrero North America and CEO of Ferrara Candy Co., Todd oversaw more than $6 billion in integrations, acquisitions, and divestitures, as well as $300 million in capital expansion projects, leading these $3 billion revenue companies to top the confection category in organic growth. During his tenure as an Operating Partner at L Catterton, he successfully managed over half a dozen positive outcomes. Todd also co-founded Swiss Army Travel Gear (TRG Accessories), which was valued at over $150 million at the time of sale. His exceptional work was recognized in 2002 when he was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. With his experience and business acumen, Todd exemplifies entrepreneurial success.
Greg Siwak
Senior Advisor
Greg is a seasoned professional specializing in business operations, with a notable focus on healthcare operations, mergers, integrations, and cost optimization.
As the Co-Founder and CEO of CareVet, a thriving veterinary hospital network, Greg is steering the company toward 200 acquisitions in five years while achieving a remarkable cash-on-cash returns for investors. As an Operating Partner at L Catterton, he has guided numerous healthcare and pet-related organizations towards success, including driving a 500 percent revenue growth for Clear Choice, a leading dental implant company. Greg also co-founded Swiss Army Travel Gear (TRG Accessories), with revenue of $150 million at the time of sale. His extraordinary leadership and entrepreneurial accomplishments were recognized in 2002 and again in 2022 when he was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. With a proven track record in building and growing successful businesses, Greg embodies the spirit of entrepreneurial achievement.
Dong Zhao
Partner
Dong is an accomplished investment professional with extensive experience managing the full lifecycle of private equity investments. Most recently, Dong was Senior Vice President on the investment team at Providence Equity Partners, a growth-oriented private equity firm with over $35B capital commitments, focusing on investments in the media, communications, education, and technology sectors.
Dong was responsible for selecting and executing on new platform investments, partnering with portfolio company management teams in organic and inorganic value creation, and managing capital structure and exit considerations. Dong began his career in investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Dong received his MBA from Harvard Business School and Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College. He resides in St. Louis.
John Gallop
Partner
John is an adept leader with extensive experience in financial industry management, investment banking, and capital raising for multiple high-growth organizations. As the CEO of Intrinsic Edge Capital Management, a $1B long/short hedge fund, he oversaw a substantial growth of over 250%.
His previous roles include serving as the Head of Business Development and Investor Relations for Advisory Research, a multibillion-dollar investment firm later sold to Piper Jaffray, and as the Executive Vice President, Head of Investment Banking, and co-head of Equity Capital Markets at EVEREN Securities, which was sold to First Union (now Wells Fargo). John also brings to the table valuable insights from his tenure as a Managing Director at both Bear Stearns and Stifel Financial, where he worked with middle market and sponsor-backed companies within their investment banking divisions. His extensive experience, strategic approach, and leadership skills make him an influential figure in financial management.
Florencia Luchini-Baxter
Head of Talent Acquisition
As Head of Talent Acquisition, Florencia leads all executive recruiting efforts for Encore Management Group and its portfolio companies. She brings over 15 years of search firm and in-house executive recruiting experience from large scale, publicly traded companies. During her professional career at Korn Ferry, Capital One, and Amazon, she has placed hundreds of executives across a wide variety of functions and industries.
At Korn Ferry, Florencia was a member of the Financial Officers Practice and worked with CPG, Industrial Manufacturing, and Private Equity clients on search engagements across finance, treasury, audit, accounting, and investor relations functions. At Capital One, Florencia led business analysis, marketing, product, communications, legal, and HR engagements for the company’s Commercial Bank, Retail Bank, Card, and Financial Services lines of business. Further, she served as the head of recruiting for the Corporate Strategy group, an in-house counsel that defined the strategic roadmap for Capital One’s operations. During her time at Amazon, Florencia worked on the Human Resources executive recruiting team, executing search work across a myriad of HR roles for Amazon’s 55,000-person Human Resources organization. She is passionate about solving complex talent needs that help businesses thrive and grow, while providing impactful and engaging candidate experiences. Florencia is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis where she majored in Business. She is bilingual in Spanish and English, and resides in St. Louis.
Joe Pimmel
CFO
Over the past twenty years, Joe has served or led investments in over 150 privately held businesses, specializing in strategic finance, business building and fund management. He partners closely with ownership and guides capital planning, stakeholder alignment, and the construction of sound financial frameworks to help companies grow at scale.
As CFO for Encore, Joe leads all financial, operational and fund management efforts for the firm. Additionally, he also provides stability as a critical operating partner and thought leader for Encore’s portfolio companies in the areas of due diligence, post-closing integration, financial operations and team growth.
Prior to Encore, Joe was Managing Partner for Stadia Ventures, where he led strategy, fund operations, and investor relations for the firm. As a member of the firm’s investment committee, he oversaw investments in over 80 early-stage portfolio companies in sports technology and human performance while additionally serving as a key strategic resource for founders in areas such as fundraising, valuation and strategic planning. Prior to Stadia, Joe was a CFO for several early-stage businesses and served as a Senior Manager for RubinBrown, working with clients in the private equity, construction, and manufacturing industries.
Matt Miclea
COO
Matt Miclea has over 20 years of experience in building sustainable growth strategies and rapidly scaling businesses across sectors, including consumer healthcare, restaurants, retail, and manufacturing through a successful track record of Organizational Strategy, Ops Execution, and Executive Team Development.
Most recently, Mr. Miclea served as the Chief Operating Officer of dentalcorp, a publicly listed Canadian Dental Services Organization with over 550 dental practices. During his tenure he oversaw practice operations and organic growth strategy guiding the company through rapid expansion from 200 to nearly 600 practices in 5 years. He developed and executed on the Organization’s Operations Excellence approach that underpinned consistent, sustainable organic growth performance against the backdrop of significant pressures due to COVID. Despite these headwinds, Mr. Miclea successfully supported growth of the network to over $1.5 billion in revenue with an extended team of nearly 10,000 staff and clinicians across Canada including overseeing the company through one of the largest healthcare public offerings in the history of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).
Prior to joining dentalcorp, Mr. Miclea was a Principal at L Catterton, a private equity group dedicated to growing middle market companies and emerging high-growth enterprises. During his tenure, he worked across multiple portfolio companies with a focus on developing strategy, optimizing business outcomes and building effective management teams across multi-unit organizations in the healthcare, restaurant, and retail spaces.
Prior to L Catterton, Mr. Miclea held multiple leadership roles at McKinsey & Co, a leading Management Consulting Firm. There, he worked with multiple clients within the Firm’s Global Operations Practice, focusing on Operations Strategy, Supply Chain Optimization, Strategic Sourcing, Procurement, and Lean Six Sigma implementation. He worked with clients ranging from Consumer, Healthcare, and Industrial Sectors and specialized in Post-Merger Integration and Management.
Early in his career, Mr. Miclea held multiple Ops Leadership roles with Eaton Corporation and Rockwell Automation, two industry leading Fortune 500 Manufacturing Organizations, where he developed his passion and skill set in Strategy and Operations.
A native of Chicago, Illinois, Mr. Miclea received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
