Jake Sturdy assists companies with raising capital and mergers and acquisitions, with a focus on buy‐side and sell‐side transactions. Jake is a transaction expert, having executed transactions worth billions of dollars as a principal investor, member of management, or advisor.
Prior to Stone Carlie, Jake was a Senior Vice President with Thompson Street Capital Partners, a Saint Louis‐based private equity fund focused on making control investments in middle market companies with EBITDA exceeding $5 million. Jake was responsible for deal sourcing, transaction execution and portfolio company oversight. He completed two platform investments and closed two add‐on acquisitions, subsequently serving on the Board of both companies, Iron Data Solutions and Option 1 Nutrition Solutions.
Prior to Thompson Street, Jake was Vice President – Corporate Development at Cequel III, an investment and management company. Cequel primarily develops cable and telecommunications companies by taking minority equity positions and serving as the management team for growth‐oriented enterprises funded by sophisticated groups of debt and equity investors. The Corporate Development team is responsible for acquisitions, dispositions, and equity and debt transactions for the firm’s portfolio companies, AAT Communications and
Suddenlink Communications.
Before returning to Saint Louis to join the Cequel team, Jake worked in the corporate and leverage finance group at CIBC World Markets Corp. He began his career as a Certified Public Accountant with Stone Carlie & Company before earning his MBA at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in Saint Louis. Jake earned his BSBA in Accounting at Illinois College and resides in St. Louis with his wife and two sons.
Greg Porto – Managing Director
Greg Porto advises shareholders and management teams regarding raising capital, financial restructurings and mergers and acquisitions, with a particular focus on debt financing. He has assisted clients with raising debt and equity, mergers and acquisitions and operational and financial restructurings in a breadth of industries in the U.S., Europe and Asia. He is also a Senior Advisor with Ion Partners Investment Bankers in New York City and headed the firm’s Chicago office prior to joining Stone Carlie.
Greg’s previous experience includes serving as a Managing Director and Principal of Akin Bay Company, a New York City based investment bank where he completed numerous investment banking assignments in Asia and before that, eight years in the investment banking group at A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc. in St. Louis where he was a Managing Director focused on private placements, mergers and acquisitions, and public debt and equity offerings for middle market companies. He has run his own advisory firm, providing strategic, operational and financial consulting services to executives of middle market companies, has served as the CFO of Strike Holdings, LLC, a rapidly expanding New York City based entertainment company and as a Managing Partner of Four Star Hospitality Group, LLC, a branding, marketing and public relations agency in Chicago. He began his career in New York City in the investment banking group at Kidder, Peabody & Co., Inc.
Greg received his BA in Economics from Duke University and received his MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Heartland Alliance, a service based human rights organization in Chicago and resides in St. Louis with his wife.
Kevin is a Senior Member of Stone Carlie, an integrated management services company comprised of four independent businesses, which provide accounting and other financial services to middle-market companies. 
