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About HBP
Firm
Profile | Our Industry Focus |
Why HBP | Testimonials
HBP Professionals | HBP
Affiliates
A
Team of Experts
In addition to its
Professional Staff, as required, Health
Business Partners also brings to each transaction a tailored team of
knowledgeable nutrition and consumer healthcare industry experts and
executives with a breadth of experience. These often come from HBP's
Partner Companies. The HBP team collectively represents a diversity of
experience in merger and acquisition advisory, financial services,
banking, consulting, and management.
HBP Partner
Companies
HBP was founder of Health Strategy
Consulting, which it spun-off in 2001. HBP also owned Nutrition Business
Journal, which it sold to Penton Media (New Hope) in 2001. HBP is the
owner and co-host of The Newport Summit Executive Conference. HBP also
encouraged the formation of sister-firm Wellness Business Partners, a
private equity, investment banking and strategic guidance firm located
in Frankfurt, Germany, focused on the healthy living and active
lifestyle industries in the European market. We maintain very close
links with our family of companies, and team up as necessary to provide
the best, most knowledgeable service to our clients.
HBP Affiliates
In addition to its partner companies, HBP
maintains a close affiliate network of specialists in retailing,
distribution, science and IP, and regulatory issues, including; Natural
Products Consulting, IMAGINutrition and the LDI Group.
Bob Burke
Natural Products Consulting, founded and owned by Bob Burke, is
focused on the natural products industry and works with three major
classes of clients:
-
Large food and beverage companies identifying opportunities in
this explosive segment
-
Medium sized high growth natural products companies seeking to
optimize their opportunities
-
Start-ups and smaller companies who need to develop a sound
strategy and infrastructure to realize their potential
Natural Products Consulting provides assistance in strategic
planning, budgeting and pricing, developing sales and marketing plans,
broker selection and management, organizational development, strategic
options, export plans and sales reporting systems and analysis.
Natural Products Consulting has had the privilege of working with
exciting companies such as: Annie's Homegrown, Oregon Chai, ConAgra, OCP
Chocolate, Bagel Works, Putney Pasta, Kellogg's, General Mills, and
others.
Prior to consulting, Mr. Burke served as Vice President of Sales and
Corporate Development for Stonyfield Farm Yogurt. While at Stonyfield
Farm, he held the positions of Vice President of Marketing and Sales,
and Vice President of Sales and Corporate Development.
Loren
Israelsen
Loren Israelsen is president of the LDI Group, a consulting firm focused
exclusively on dietary supplements and phytomedicines. He heads a
worldwide network of consultants and experts to assist companies in
sourcing, developing and launching new products. Previously, Loren spent
10 years with Nature¹s Way Products, first as general counsel and later
as president.
While acting vice president of Strategic Development, he identified
and negotiated license agreements with Efamol Ltd., Madaus AG and Dr.
Willmar Schwabe GmbH to bring leading phytomedicines to the United
States. In 1992, Loren became executive director of the Utah Natural
Products Alliance, which was instrumental in development and passage of
the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994.
Göetz
Gerecke
 Göetz Gerecke is a founder and managing director of Wellness Business
Partners. Before founding WBP, he was a principal in the private
equity group of Compass Partners International in London. While there,
he focused on the natural products and leisure industries, reviewing
investment opportunities and leading the due diligence and financing
teams on potential transactions. These included the acquisition of a
global natural products retailer and a number of European health and
fitness club chains.
Göetz joined Compass as its first professional and helped build the
firm into a billion dollar private equity fund. Before joining Compass,
Göetz was a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in
London, an investment banker at Morgan Stanley in London, a finance
manager at Procter & Gamble in Frankfurt, and an analyst in private
equity at Granville Iberia in Barcelona. Göetz is fluent in English,
German, French and Spanish. He received a M.B.A. degree from Harvard
Business School and a B.Sc. Honors degree, magna cum laude, from the
European Business School in London.
Christian
Eckel
 C hristian
Eckel is a founder and managing director of Wellness Business
Partners. Before founding
WBP, he spent
eight years in investment banking in
Germany with BHF Bank and Deutsche Bank.
He led the Healthcare/Chemicals Team at
BHF Bank specifically focused on natural
products and healthcare, and advised on the sale of Germany¹s market leader for dietary programs to a
major private equity firm.
Christian was an associate and
then M&A team head at Deutsche Bank subsidiary DGM in Frankfurt where
he helped
build and later led one of Germany¹s first M&A teams focusing on Mittelstand (owner-managed, small- and medium-sized companies) transactions. Christian
is fluent in English, German and French.
He completed the Executive Development Program (Banking) at INSEAD and received a
B.Sc. Honors degree from the European Business School in
Germany.
Danny Warshay
Danny Warshay is a co-founder of Health Business
Partners. He is now founder and Managnig Director of DEW Ventures. Danny has devoted
most of his career to building, managing and harvesting high-growth
entrepreneurial ventures. He sold Clearview Software, an applications
development company he helped start, to Apple Computer. He then
developed, ran and eventually sold Specialized Systems and Software to
Medline Industries. At Procter & Gamble, as a member of the Duncan
Hines Brand Management team, Danny managed the development and marketing
of new products. He then led the growth of Anchor Communications a
magazine and Internet publishing company which he sold in two
parts to A.H. Belo Corporation and Miller Publishing Group. Danny
received a B.A. in History, magna cum laude, from Brown University and a
M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He serves on several for-profit and
non-profit boards.
Thomas Aarts
Thomas Aarts is co-founder and Chairman of the Editorial Advisory
Board of Nutrition Business Journal (NBJ), a research, publishing and
consulting company serving the nutrition, natural products and
alternative health care industries. Mr. Aarts travels widely worldwide,
speaking on strategy and business trends in the nutrition industry, and
serves as chairman of several industry conferences.
Prior to starting Nutrition Business Journal, Mr. Aarts was Director
of New Ventures and a project manager for Environmental Business
International (EBI). Prior to EBI, he performed acquisition searches,
transaction support and market intelligence projects for Browning-Ferris
Industries. Mr. Aarts has also worked in consumer marketing for Johnson
& Johnson and management consulting for Mercer Management Consulting.
Anthony
Almada
Anthony Almada leads the IMAGINutrition think tank. He has
conducted, collaborated and published research studies in antioxidant
biochemistry, neuromuscular disease, and the effects of creatine on
metabolism, body composition, muscular performance, and HIV-associated
weight loss. Anthony has also directed R&D for two prominent nutritional
product companies and has vast experience in novel raw material
identification, sourcing and analytical validation, product development,
scientific marketing, and education. He is the co-founder and former
president of Experimental and Applied Sciences (EAS), the world¹s
largest sports nutrition company and the first to exploit intellectual
property on a broad scale. He has a B.Sc. degree in Physiology from CSU,
Long Beach and a M.Sc. in Nutritional and Exercise Biochemistry from UC,
Berkeley.
Tim
Avila
Tim Avila is senior innovation strategist with IMAGINutrition. He possesses a
strong understanding of natural products marketing, communications and
the integration of science and marketing in product development. A major
focus for the firm is the identification and development of natural
bioactives with large scale market potential. Prior to joining
Imaginutrition, Tim founded his own consulting business following his
employment at a successful alternative medicine, dietary supplement and
medical foods company where he was responsible for R&D and new
product marketing. Tim has concluded numerous projects for clients in
the market development and technology transfer areas resulting in highly
successful new consumer and ingredient product introductions.
Susan
Mensinger
Susan Mensinger has been active in the financial services industry
for more than 15 years. Her investment banking experience includes
controlled asset sales, financial advisory assignments, capital markets
transactions, project financing, recapitalizations and leveraged
buyouts. She is a founder of Boothe Capital Group, an investment
advisory firm specializing in transactions involving middle-market
companies. Previously she was a managing director in the Investment
Banking/Merchant Banking Group of Genesis Merchant Group Securities,
where she was instrumental in expanding the group from three to eight
professionals and completing seven public equity offerings, seven
financial advisory assignments and four private equity transactions.
Prior to this, she was a vice president with Salomon Brothers and a
financial analyst at J.P. Morgan. She received her A.B. from Stanford
University and M.B.A. and J.D. degrees from the Stanford Graduate School
of Business and Stanford Law School, respectively. She is a member of
the California State Bar Association.
Patrick
Rea
Patrick Rea is a financial analyst for Nutrition Business Journal,
one of Health Business Partners' investment portfolio companies. Patrick
is responsible for financial analysis as well as assisting with the
editorial structure and content of NBJ. He also maintains a number of
proprietary databases that track the financial performance and merger
and acquisition activity of companies involved in the Natural Products
industry.
Continuing at a consulting level, Patrick previously
worked for Health Business Partners as a financial analyst. While at HBP
he participated in the sale of a small bath and aromatherapy products
company, a mid-sized dietary supplement company and a raw material
supplier.
Patrick received a B.A. in Organizational and Behavior
Management and Geological Sciences from Brown University.
David
Mixer
 Dave Mixer is a co-founder of Health Business
Partners and a co-founder of Columbia Capital Corporation. He is also
general partner of Point Judith Capital, LLC. He has been responsible
for numerous merger and acquisition transactions and has assumed a lead
role in the creation, funding, and management of several
companies. Involved in the financial advisory and private equity
industry since forming Columbia Capital Corporation in 1987, Dave's
prior experience was in the communications industry when he worked in
corporate planning for AT&T and as president of Providence Journal
Cellular. Dave earned a B.A. from Union College in Schenectady, NY and a
M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Bob Anderson
Bob Anderson is the founder of Sustainable Strategies, a team of
knowledge and experienced advisors in food and agriculture, providing
strategic services to the organic industry. Until 2000, he was president
of Walnut Acres Organic Farms (acquired by The Hain Celestial Group),
one of the founding and most respected organic foods businesses in the
United States. Bob is currently a strategic advisor to organic
agricultural initiatives and organic industry projects, as well as to
the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service and US State Department. Bob has 35
years of hands-on experience in all facets of organic agriculture,
organic food production, processing, marketing, and retailing, as well
as leadership experience in the development of national organic policy,
standards and organic certification.
Bob is a recognized authority on organic farming, organic processing
organic foods, organic certification and international trade. He serves
on the United States Secretary of Agriculture as an advisor for organic
agriculture and International Trade and served as the chairman of the
National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). Bob is the first organic
industry representative appointed to the Foreign Agriculture Service -
Agriculture Trade Advisory Committee (ATAC) and was recently appointed
to the new Food Processing ATAC. He is a former director and past
President of the Organic Trade Association. During the comment periods
for the Proposed National Organic Rules he was a primary spokesperson
for the NOSB and the organic industry.
Ian Newton
 Ian
is the founder of Ceres Consulting, based in Markham, Ontario, Canada,
which specializes in business and product development in the health and
nutrition sector. Ian actively participates in many areas of human
nutrition and is a member of the Council for Responsible Nutrition,
American Oil Chemists Society and Institute of Food Technologists. He
also holds several Boards of Director’s and advisory positions in health
orientated companies, and nutrition related Institutions and media.
Prior to Ceres Consulting, Ian joined Hoffmann-La Roche in 1979 holding
a variety of positions including Group Director, Human Nutrition,
Canada, he moved to the USA and following the acquisition of the Vitamin
Division by DSM Nutritional Products became Director of Business
Development and Regulatory Affairs. He was responsible for the
development of various nutrients, polyunsaturated fatty acids and new
ingredients. He also directed public information programs for vitamins
and polyunsaturated fatty acids as a resource for health professionals,
academics and the media. Ian was active in providing scientific
nutritional information and a frequent speaker at nutrition symposia
addressing various topics in functional foods, supplements and human
health. He has also published on the dietary and nutritional aspects of
vitamins, long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids and nutraceuticals in a
variety of scientific journals.
Ian Newton was born and received his education in New Zealand, where he
graduated with Science Degrees in Botany and Zoology. Following
post-graduate research in New Zealand he relocated to Canada to commence
a commercial career in crop science.
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