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SSAPartners

Private Equity Investment and Board Advisory

SSA Partners LLC is a private equity and board advisory firm bringing decades of hands-on operating and investment experience to help owners of privately held companies build value. Our work includes direct equity investment and partnership as well as board-level advisory focused on operational improvement, strategic planning, executive development, and exit planning.

Private Equity Investment

Board Advisory

Private Equity Investment

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Investment Philosophy

SSA Partners invests in companies with the potential for profitable growth. We look for businesses with strong management teams and opportunities for operational improvement. While we are not involved in day-to-day business activities, we work alongside management teams to implement strategic goals. We have found family-run businesses whose founders are ready to capture the value of their years-long investment are often opportunities well suited to our approach.

Market Leaders in Niche Industries

We invest only in companies that are leaders in niche and/or regional markets and demonstrate real growth potential, either organically or through acquisitions.

Partnership with Management

We back entrepreneurial leaders, and we encourage senior management to hold ownership positions in their companies. Our partnerships are built on integrity, shared incentives, and mutual respect.

Building Value

The initial investment is just the first step toward growing a company’s long-term value. We believe that this is achieved best by empowering the management and workforce through access to financial and strategic resources.

Stacked lumber on cantilever racks in a building products warehouse

Investment Criteria

Business Profile
Niche industrial, manufacturing, distribution, or service businesses with sustainable competitive advantages and identified growth opportunities
Revenue
Up to $150 million for initial acquisition
EBITDA
Greater than $3 million
Geography
United States and Canada
Industries
Industry agnostic with extensive experience in building products, precision manufactured parts and engineered solutions, industrial distribution, and specialty contracting services for the infrastructure and building industries
Outside Our Focus
Real estate, life sciences, and technology businesses exposed to obsolescence risk

For business owners, we offer quick decisions, transaction structures built around your personal and corporate goals, and strict confidentiality throughout the process.

Board Advisory

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  • Board Member Services

    Whether establishing a new private board of directors or joining an existing one, we bring independent, experienced perspective to your company. Our board involvement is focused on helping management drive continued business success, either through growth or by preparing the company for an eventual sale.

  • Strategic Planning

    Together with management, we develop detailed, actionable plans covering the next three years of your business addressing ownership goals, investment requirements, and personnel development.

  • Executive Coaching

    One-on-one coaching helps key members of your leadership team build the skills they will need to meet your company’s future demands.

  • Mergers & Acquisitions

    We support an acquisition strategy including target identification, due diligence, financing, and post-merger integration.

  • Artificial Intelligence

    We help management teams identify where artificial intelligence can improve operations and decision making and guide its practical adoption with the right security and governance.

Leadership

Distribution center with tall blue pallet racking and loading dock doors

Stephen S. Altman

Managing Partner

LinkedIn

For the past 35 years, Steve has worked with founder-owned manufacturing, business services, and industrial distribution companies to help them reach their growth potential.

Steve has been a private equity investor since 1998, with an emphasis on middle-market manufacturing and industrial service companies. To date, he has invested in transactions totaling $1.0 billion in enterprise value.

Prior to working as an investor, Steve worked for Masco Corporation and affiliates for ten years in a variety of operational, financial, and business development roles, primarily focused on turning around troubled manufacturing divisions. His last position at Masco was as President of an operating division. Steve also worked as a CPA for middle-market companies in the Boston office of Arthur Andersen.

Steve is a Managing Partner at Cornerstone Capital Partners (cstonecap.com), where he is currently a director of Global IFS, RidgeRock Retaining Walls, and Riviera Bronze MFG. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of Atlantic Plywood, Arch Aluminum and Glass, B-W-A Inc., Craftsmen Industries, CHI Overhead Doors, Eastern Vault, National Print Group, Nickerson Corp, RAD Technologies, and Zander Solutions.

As an investor and Board Member of companies across a variety of industries, Steve has been an interim CEO and CFO and has assisted company founders and management teams with strategic planning and budgeting, management development and recruiting, business development, mergers and acquisitions, operational improvements, capital raising, financial analysis, and P&L management.

Steve has acted as a fiduciary on all the Boards he has served, including many first-time Boards. Steve has developed governance requirements including the establishment of an Audit Committee, which Steve typically leads.

Steve received an MBA with Distinction from the University of Michigan and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Vermont with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. Steve is a CPA (inactive).

James P. Brennan

Operating Partner

LinkedIn

Jim is an accomplished international business leader with more than 35 years of experience in C-suite positions, as CEO or COO/President, at public and private equity-owned companies with revenue from $100 million to more than $1 billion.

He has extensive experience in precision manufacturing and assembly, natural chemicals, and heavy-side construction materials. The breadth of his operating experience spans domestic and international companies, at both the corporate and operating levels.

Education
MBA in Finance and Management, Duquesne University
BS in Chemical Engineering, Ohio University
Rows of rolled steel coils in a distribution warehouse

Contact

Whether you are exploring a private equity investment or looking for board-level guidance, we would like to hear from you.

Contact Us