An M&A and Strategic Finance Advisor
An M&A and Strategic Finance Advisor
Overview
Read our overview to learn how we transitioned from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Corporate Management to a performance-oriented Advisory Boutique that upholds a Triple Bottom Line philosophy for our clients and local communities.
Services
We provide buy-side and sell-side M&A and strategic finance, which includes pre-transaction positioning, Board advisory, and outsourced corporate development.
Acquisitions
This primarily concerns the interests of our M&A buy-side clients and secondarily relates to our executives-in-residence network and merchant banking initiatives. (Password required.)
Blogentary
We present actionable ideas regarding M&A, finance, business, capital markets, technology, and digressions. You may subscribe via form or RSS, and follow our LinkedIn page.
Our Backstory
Humble Beginnings
Back in the early 2000’s, our co-founders formed a coalition to provide execution support to senior bankers who left their respective Wall Street firms. At the time, these arrangements were informal and moonlighting in nature. However, one of our co-founders – Joe – took the entrepreneurial leap and assumed the heavy lifting to form Coventry League and create a unique management structure and operating foundation based on a Triple Bottom Line perspective – of profits, people, and environment – that is often lacking in high finance and many organizations.
During the formative years, Joe’s main role was actually managing the equivalent of a small hedge fund. It achieved stellar results (>40% annualized) over one business cycle and Great Recession, ranking the performance in the top 1% of competitors.
He found that the experiences in investing, operating companies, and providing M&A advisory are complementary and provide a meaningful competitive advantage in any of those disciplines when objective performance and principles matter.
Emergence of the Craftsman
Like our many Amish neighbors in Northeast Ohio, we take pride in our work: Quality. Integrity. Transparency.
And, as fellow artisans ourselves, we ply our trade outside the walls of Big Business and make a living from our craftsmanship and knowledge. In essence, we are a blend of “Brains and Brawn”—the latter in the form of work ethic and technology. We also channel the spirit of the motto of Dave’s store, the Vinyl Café: “We May Not Be Big, But We Are Small.”
So, in contrast to a template-oriented institutional approach, Coventry League embraces this artisan technique to its craft—one based on skills, relationships, and intrepid entrepreneurialism—while still managing to draw upon the experiences and connections developed at companies from Main Street and the Fortune 100 to Wall Street and Silicon Valley.
As a result, Coventry League is uniquely qualified to provide tailored services to boards of directors, owners, and management teams (see Services). The firm also can engage as a principal and acquire a company using a bootstrapped structure and then manage and further develop it in a sustainable and profitable manner (see Acquisitions).
Meet Our Co-founder
Joe Kane
Co-founder & Managing Director
Joe's Bio
Joe, pictured here at Mosquito Lake State Park in Cortland, Ohio in September 2024, grew up in this same small town in Northeast Ohio. He enjoyed the great outdoors, pets and animals, and athletics. After college, he began his career as an industrial engineer and cost accountant at, essentially, a $150 million holding company of outdoor sporting gear. He was involved with several acquisitions including turnarounds.
He progressed in his career by moving into corporate finance and business development at a $1.5 billion building materials company (steel/aggregates/cement) and a $30+ billion global food & beverage company, The Coca-Cola Company. He then went to graduate school at the University of Notre Dame while performing interim work at Huron Capital Partners, a $1.8 billion buy-and-build investment firm. After graduation, he joined the French bank Société Générale/SG Cowen & Company in its global structured finance group followed by the technology investment banking group of Wedbush Morgan.
Team's Diverse Talents
The team members of Coventry League have decades of experience in operations, investment banking, direct investments, and business development.
They have worked on operating improvements and turnaround efforts of acquired companies, addressed marketing and business development activities for existing and newly created products, advised on structured debt financing for non-investment grade companies, and provided corporate finance and M&A advisory services to emerging growth companies primarily in the technology sectors.
In their spare time, they enjoy trail running, bicycling, organic community gardening, and volunteering. Some also serve—or have served—on the boards of directors of nonprofit companies including an early-stage 501(c)(3) nonprofit company, which has a purpose to provide career development opportunities and teach essential workplace skills to teenagers from marginalized communities while encouraging bicycling as a practical, healthy means of transportation.
None of the team members have let their schooling interfere with their education, to paraphrase Mark Twain.
Driving Results
Like veteran taxi cab drivers in NYC, we navigate treacherous terrain in a congested and competitive environment.
And, by the end of the ride, we deliver the results on time and within budget.
