Brian T. Fitzpatrick, Founder, Chairman
Brian Fitzpatrick has over 40 years of managerial experience, the last 28 of which have been as CEO of companies requiring substantial restructuring and strategic re-engineering. Since 2002, Mr. Fitzpatrick has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bentley Laboratories, LLC, a formulating and outsource manufacturing firm serving the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Prior to Bentley, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Chromatics Color Sciences, a role he assumed upon orchestrating the successful sale of Gordon Laboratories, Inc., a Carson, California based formulator and manufacturer of cosmetics, hair care and other personal care products, in May 2000. Mr. Fitzpatrick had been the President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Gordon since April 1996. While under his direction, the company doubled in size and repositioned as a full service supplier of outsource services. Prior to Gordon, Mr. Fitzpatrick served as President of a service business and President, CEO of a high tech electronic manufacturing company. His earlier career included working for the Polaroid Corporation in its industrial marketing division. Mr. Fitzpatrick earned an M.B.A. from Adelphi University and a B.S. in marketing from Seton Hall University. He was formerly an adjunct professor in the graduate program at the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University.
Michael J. Fitzpatrick, Managing Director
Michael Fitzpatrick joined Wychwood Holdings in April 2022 and spearheads the firm's investment activities. Since joining, he built and expanded Wychwood’s portfolio by structuring and closing the firm's first seven investments, culminating in the firm’s first portfolio realization which delivered a 2.3x MOIC within two years. He also led three platform M&A transactions for Forge Signworks, contributing over $12 million in acquisitive revenue for Wychwood’s flagship portfolio company. Mr. Fitzpatrick continues to actively source new opportunities and deploy capital in alignment with Wychwood’s core mission. Prior to Wychwood, Mr. Fitzpatrick spent over a decade at Invesco Ltd., a leading global asset manager, where he served as an investment professional across the Private Equity, Private Debt, Distressed Debt, and Performing Senior Loans teams. He brings extensive experience investing across the capital structure of both small-to-mid-cap businesses and large corporations. Throughout his career, Mr. Fitzpatrick has served as an industry specialist in the Manufacturing & Industrials, Food & Beverage, Gaming, Metals & Mining, and Paper & Packaging sectors. Mr. Fitzpatrick holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a B.S. in Political Science from Syracuse University.
Michael B. Kessler, Advisor
Michael Kessler founded GFC in partnership with Landon Capital in 2020 to pursue a flexible investment strategy targeting control and non-control investments in growing companies with less than $5 million of EBITDA for buyouts, acquisition financing, liquidity events, organic growth initiatives and recapitalizations. Mr. Kessler started GFC after spending seven years at The Riverside Company, having joined in 2013 as a Partner and founding member of the Riverside Strategic Capital Fund, a fund targeting non-control structured debt and equity investments in companies with over $5 million of EBITDA. Prior to joining Riverside, Mr. Kessler was a Partner at Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) and a member of the firm’s investment committee. At VSS, Mr. Kessler was responsible for the origination, underwriting, structuring and management of portfolio investments in the VSS Structured Capital and Equity Funds. Prior to joining VSS in 2003, he worked for 17 years as an investment banker at CIBC World Markets, Oppenheimer & Co. (acquired by CIBC in 1997), Barclays Capital and Merrill Lynch. Mr. Kessler holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School, and a BA in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Kessler is currently a member of the board of iMemories LLC and 919 Marketing Company LLC, and has previously been a board member of numerous companies including Bentley Laboratories, LLC, Alcohol Monitoring Systems, Inc., Select International, Tax Credit Co., SHL, Market Strategies International, and TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communications.
Brian T. Fitzpatrick, Jr., Advisor
Brian Fitzpatrick joined Wychwood Holdings in April of 2022. Prior to Wychwood, Mr. Fitzpatrick worked for 20 years in the corporate interiors industry. While working exclusively in corporate interiors, Mr Fitzpatrick recognized a white space to provide clients with a one stop shop for their office renovations and buildouts. In 2016, Mr. Fitzpatrick founded MetSpace LLC which focused on small to mid-market companies. MetSpace became the first single source provider for build out of new office space. As a driven entrepreneur, Mr. Fitzpatrick identified a scalable business within his industry. In September of 2021 he uncovered an opportunity in the sign industry. He structured the first acquisition under Wychwood Holdings, Forge Signworks. Working on projects across the country, Forge Signworks offers high end design, build, and installation. Mr Fitzpatrick is currently CEO of Forge as they continue to grow organically and through acquisition. Mr. Fitzpatrick graduated from Seton Hall University in 2004. Mr Fitzpatrick is a Founder and Board Member of Aspiring Kindness which is a not-for-profit organization that supports Emergency Responders. He is also a Board Member of Team Walker which is a not-for-profit organization that provides support to improve the quality of life for children of Jersey City through academic programs.