Louis Dubuque, a managing director, board member and chief credit officer, works on formulating investment policy, identifying and closing new investments and managing the firm's debt portfolio. He also serves on the board of the government-guaranteed lending division of Advantage Capital. During his tenure with the firm, he has been instrumental in helping raise more than $800 million in capital and has been involved with more than 50 investments totaling in excess of $300 million.

Louis joined Advantage Capital after nine years at U.S. Bank, where he served as senior vice president. At U.S. Bank, he created and managed a $400 million subordinated debt fund and directed the capital markets division’s middle market group. Louis also spent six years as a commercial loan officer for JP Morgan Chase (formerly First Chicago/NBD Bank).

Louis holds an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis and a bachelor’s degree in accounting and business administration from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He is a certified public accountant. In recognition of his professional achievements and community involvement, he was named to the St. Louis Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list in 2003. Mr. Dubuque also serves on board of the CRUDEM Foundation.

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Jonathan Goldstein is an experienced investment executive with a background in venture capital, renewable energy and urban investing. He serves as a member of Advantage Capital’s investment committee and leads the firm’s tax credit syndication group. He is also a member of both the firm’s strategy council and the clean energy investment team. Prior to joining Advantage Capital in 2010, Jonathan served on the board at McCormack Baron Salazar, the leading urban revitalization firm in the country, overseeing the Project Finance group, the various private, governmental and community funding sources. He also oversaw MBS’s New Markets Tax Credit practice, including $210 million in allocations from the U.S. Treasury.

Jonathan founded Sunwheel Energy Partners, an affiliated firm specializing in solar energy programs. Since beginning his career as an attorney, clerking for a federal appellate judge and serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the Justice Department, he also helped found Taproot Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, where he sourced and structured investments in technology companies. He serves on the boards of Advantage Capital portfolio companies Nextility and SDBIC. He is a member of the Board and Executive Committee for the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition and on the board of Rise, a regional nonprofit dedicated to housing and urban revitalization. In 2012, he was named to the “Who’s Who in Energy List” by a coalition of regional Business Journals. He holds a J.D. from Washington University, where he graduated first in his class, and a bachelor’s degree from Yale.

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Sandra M. Moore is managing director and chief impact officer at Advantage Capital, a growth equity firm founded in 1992 with over $3.6 billion AUM.  The firm focuses on high growth and high wage business investing in communities where access to investment capital has historically been hard to find.  Sandra is a member of the Advantage Capital investment committee and a direct advisor to the diligence and structuring teams.

Sandra is also a member of the Advantage Capital fundraising team, which has brought in $225 million in capital during her four–year tenure. She has built the Advantage Capital Impact team, which creates data-driven initiatives to track and expedite portfolio growth, leads the communications and branding team and serves as the external-facing representative for Advantage Capital.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Sandra was the president of Urban Strategies, a national nonprofit corporation that works exclusively with for profit housing developers to rebuild distressed urban core communities using mix-finance, multi-family housing as the revitalization platform.

Sandra formerly served as the CEO of the Missouri Family Investment Trust, a public-private partnership entity leading Missouri’s multi-system reform efforts.  Prior to joining the Family Investment Trust, Sandra was senior vice president of St. Louis 2004, Inc., a region-wide effort, led by business, civic and political leaders, to transform the St. Louis regional economy and gear it for exponential growth in the 21st century.

She is the former director of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DOLIR), where she served as a member of then Governor Mel Carnahan’s cabinet, and a former administrative judge with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Sandra is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, MO.  She received her J.D. from the School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Sandra is committed to the growth, development and empowerment of people and the communities where they live.  She serves on several local and national boards and committees that work to strengthen the fiber of community, and she is a sought-after speaker and thought leader on these issues.

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Tom Bitting was one of the founding members of Advantage Capital’s renewable energy investment platform and currently leads the sourcing and underwriting for all of the fund’s solar project investments. In that capacity, he is responsible for structuring and underwriting transactions, performing due diligence, managing investments and seeking new opportunities to deploy fund capital effectively. Tom also serves as a member of the solar Investment Committee.

Prior to joining the firm, Tom served as a vice president in the commercial credit administration division of Pulaski Bank. In that role, he assessed investment risk, collaborated with lenders to develop customized financing options to best serve customer needs, and made loan approval decisions for new and existing customers. He served as a member of the bank’s Risk Management Committee and was responsible for monitoring and assessing a number of bank-wide loan portfolio and balance sheet metrics.

Tom received his MBA from Saint Louis University and his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Bucknell University.

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Mitch Boyer is a senior analyst at Advantage Capital. As a member of the firm’s investment team, his primary responsibilities include helping underwrite new investments, performing due diligence and aiding in growth initiatives for the firm’s portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Mitch was at Commerce Bank where he worked as a commercial banking officer.

Mitch received his bachelor’s degree in finance from Indiana University Bloomington.

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Sarah Collier is a tax manager at Advantage Capital. In this role, Sarah services the firm’s leverage lending portfolio and manages income tax compliance for the firm’s entities and their associated federal and state tax filings.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Sarah was a Manager at the Insourced Solutions for Tax Group at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) where she reviewed tax returns, tax provisions, and tax account reconciliations for Bayer Corporation.

Sarah received her master’s in accounting from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and her bachelor’s in accounting from Truman State University. She is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Missouri.

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Clare Davies is a senior analyst at Advantage Capital. As a member of the syndication team, she is responsible for assisting with due diligence and transaction work for the firm’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit investments.

Prior to joining the firm, Clare served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia, where she led community economic development initiatives. Prior to Peace Corps, Clare worked in administrative and accounting roles at King Street Capital Management in New York City. 

Clare received her MBA from Washington University in St. Louis and her bachelor’s degree from New York University.

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Manny Davis is a senior analyst at Advantage Capital on the tax credit syndication team.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Manny worked as a staff auditor at Sikich, LLP, where he was a member of the not-for-profit team and was responsible for examining and building financial statements, testing the organization's internal controls, and drafting the audit opinion.

Manny received his bachelor's degree in accounting from Millikin University and is pursuing his MBA from University of Illinois - Springfield. He is also currently sitting for his CPA.

Jeff Grass is the Vice President of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement at Advantage Capital. He serves as strategic communications counselor to the leadership team and is responsible for defining, developing and deploying compelling content to educate, engage, influence and activate key stakeholders while furthering the firm’s mission.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Jeff served as a Global Director of Communications at Bayer Corporation where he led reputation management, issues management, employee engagement and marketing communications for one of the multinational life science company’s fastest-growing divisions. Before Bayer, he held several roles of increasing responsibility at Anheuser-Busch, most recently leading all business and internal communications for North America as Communications Director.

Jeff graduated from Webster University.

Kelly Jacobi is an analyst on the Partner Services team,where she focuses on asset management for Advantage Capital’s network ofpartner firms.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Kelly worked as theOperations Manager at Convergence Accounting, where she supervised taxpreparation workflow, processed payroll for a variety of clients, preparedbookkeeping, and managed accounts receivable.

Kelly holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Filmmakingfrom Stephens College. She is currently completing a Certificate of Proficiency in Accounting with Saint Louis Community College.

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David McNaught is a vice president at Advantage Capital. As a member of the firm’s investment team, he is responsible for underwriting new investments and monitoring portfolio companies. He joins Advantage Capital with more than 10 years of experience in public accounting and finance, previously holding roles of increasing responsibility at PricewaterhouseCoopers (Assurance), Ernst & Young (Transaction Advisory), and most recently, Clayton Capital Partners (M&A Advisory).

David earned his MBA from Washington University in St. Louis, a master’s in accounting from Texas A&M University, and a bachelor’s in business administration from Colorado State University where he graduated summa cum laude. Additionally, David is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA, inactive).

Grant Morhun is a senior analyst at Advantage Capital. As a member of the firm’s investment team, he focuses on sourcing investments, performing due diligence, structuring transactions and portfolio management.

Grant originally joined Advantage as an intern, supporting the sourcing team with identification of potential investments. Previously, he was an intern at First Bank of the Lake in Hanover, NH, where he underwrote Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) applications for S Corporations.

Grant received his bachelor’s in Business Administration from the University of New Hampshire.

Tom Schaefer is a senior vice president on the syndication team and is responsible for leading the underwriting and asset management functions of the group. His career has covered a wide range of responsibilities, including underwriting, lending and investing in both federal and state tax credits.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Tom was a SVP – Market Credit Officer with Busey Bank, where his duties included managing a team of underwriters and analysts, making loans collateralized by tax credits and managing the Bank’s Federal Tax Credit Investment portfolio.  Prior to Busey’s acquisition of Pulaski Bank, Tom was responsible for underwriting all tax credit transactions for Pulaski.  

Tom received his bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from University of Dayton and holds an MBA from Washington University.

Michelle Silies is vice president of tax credit compliance for Advantage Capital's syndication team. In this role, she is responsible for tax credit delivery and compliance, federal and state equity investments, and monitoring and drafting new state LIHTC legislation.

Michelle brings extensive experience in facilitating tax credit financing and equity investments for developments across the county utilizing affordable housing and historic tax credits. Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Michelle held a position with UMB Bank in their commercial real estate affordable housing department, where was responsible for sourcing, underwriting and closing new client relationships in federal and state affordable housing tax credit transactions. Prior to joining UMB Bank, Michelle held several positions of increasing responsibility with U.S. Bank Community Development Corp. concentrating in affordable housing, historic and new market tax credit construction risk management and underwriting. Michelle's legal background specializes in real estate transactions and litigation, construction and development structuring, tax credit investments, and regulatory compliance.

Michelle received her J.D. from Saint Louis University School of Law and her bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Additionally, she has been actively engaged in the Missouri Workforce Housing Association and Commercial Real Estate Women - St. Louis.

Jonah Simpson is an analyst at Advantage Capital. As a member of the syndication team, he is responsible for asset management of affordable properties within the company’s portfolio.

Jonah interned for Advantage on two separate occasions prior to his joining the team, supporting the syndication business line in its efforts to provide access to affordable housing through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.

Jonah received his bachelor’s degree in business with a major in finance from Miami University.

Brendan Thompson is an associate at Advantage Capital. As a member of the investment team, he is responsible for screening potential investment opportunities, performing due diligence and monitoring portfolio companies.

Prior to joining the firm, Brendan worked as a senior financial analyst at Phillips Edison & Company, a grocery-anchored shopping center REIT, where he specialized in corporate finance.

Brendan received his bachelor’s degree in finance with a minor in economics from Xavier University.

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Joshua Tipton is a marketing specialist at Advantage Capital, where he focuses on marketing, advertising and creative services initiatives to support the firm's small business investment sourcing team.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Joshua worked as a project manager with Elite Aviation where he utilized his skills in web development, marketing strategy and data analysis to bolster revenue generation.

Joshua received his bachelor's degrees in Business Administration, International business with Spanish and Political Science from University of Tulsa, where he also minored in economics, philosophy and Spanish.

Anthony Billings is a senior vice president at Advantage Capital. As a member of the investment team, he focuses on portfolio management and the evaluation of new investment opportunities. Anthony’s primary responsibilities include monitoring the firm’s current investments, interfacing with portfolio companies to assess current and future capital needs and underwriting new opportunities to deploy firm capital effectively.

Prior to joining the firm, Anthony served as an associate and assistant vice president in the sponsor finance division of U.S. Bank where he worked primarily with private equity firms to evaluate the financial and business risks of potential new investments, while also monitoring an existing portfolio of loans to identify any issues or capital needs.

Anthony received his bachelor’s degree in business administration with a focus on finance from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

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Linda Clark is an executive assistant at Advantage Capital.

Linda plays a key role in the overall operations of the firm’s St. Louis office. She also provides project management support for the impact team and works directly with the firm’s chief impact officer to manage projects, timelines and deliverables. Prior to joining the firm, Linda worked in the non-profit industry. For the past 10 years she was at Urban Strategies, Inc., a community revitalization company, where she was the executive assistant to the president and the office manager for the corporate office. Her expansive administrative background also includes Saint Louis University and Coro Leadership Center.  

Linda holds a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. She is a past board president for the Nursery Foundation of St. Louis and the Urban League Block Unit Initiative.

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Kathy Cornell is a vice president of tax at Advantage Capital. She services the firm’s leverage lending portfolio and manages income tax compliance for the firm’s entities and their associated federal and state tax filings. She has a broad base of experience working in both public accounting and private industry with companies operating in multiple business sectors. Most recently, Kathy worked at Anheuser-Busch in the tax operations group where she helped to improve tax compliance processes and procedures. Kathy holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from McKendree College.

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Jeremy Degenhart is a senior advisor at Advantage Capital. Based in the St. Louis office, Jeremy has a wide range of responsibilities including screening deal flow, conducting due diligence, negotiating transactions, managing existing investments and developing exit opportunities. He is also responsible for leading efforts to source and evaluate commercial, municipal and utility solar projects. Selected current and prior investments led by Jeremy include: Veran Medical Technologies; Singulex; Kereos; Prioria Robotics; The Lawrence Group; Stereotaxis, which held an initial public offering in 2004 (NASDAQ:STXS); and DataTrade, which sold to Goldleaf Financial in 2007. Additionally, he is responsible for designing and analyzing new fundraising structures and facilitating their implementation.

Jeremy participated in several of the first New Markets Tax Credit transactions ever closed in 2003-2004, at the inception of the program. He has continued to lead the structuring and closing of such financing transactions for Advantage Capital ever since. To date, Jeremy has been involved in providing in excess of $175 million of capital for more than 20 businesses. He was the valedictorian of his undergraduate class at the John M. Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, receiving a bachelor’s degree in finance, economics and accounting in May 2000. He has also earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. Jeremy serves on the Board of Directors of the InvestMidwest Venture Capital Forum. He is a seasoned speaker, and he lectures on venture capital and private equity as an adjunct faculty member at the Olin Business School.

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Dayna Drennan is a compliance analyst at Advantage. As a member of the Syndication team, she is responsible for underwriting, asset management and performing due diligence.

Prior to joining the firm, Dayna spent the last four and a half years working in asset management and compliance at Sugar Creek Capital.

Dayna received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and holds a Housing Credit Certified Professional (HCCP) Certification.

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Beth Fore is a senior associate at Advantage Capital. In this role, her primary focus is asset management, where she monitors and tracks portfolios’ loan performance and compliance, prepares reports for management review and assists with new fund closings.

Immediately prior to joining the firm, Beth was a senior financial analyst for renewable energy projects at U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation. In this role, she managed and monitored over $1 billion of tax credit exposure. Beth designed policies, procedures and reporting methods to identify warning signs of potential nonperformance and presented findings to senior leadership. Prior to her five-year tenure at U.S. Bancorp, she was a commercial underwriter for Ally Bank.

Beth earned her MBA from Lindenwood University and her bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Central Missouri. She is a Big Sister through the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri and a council member of Sweet Celebrations.

Trey Garland is a senior associate at Advantage Capital. As a member of the investment team, he is involved in screening potential investment opportunities, performing due diligence and monitoring portfolio companies. Prior to joining the firm, Trey worked as an analyst in the Valuation and Litigation Services Group at RubinBrown LLP covering a wide range of industries including construction, M&D, real estate, professional services, agriculture and renewable energy.

Trey received his bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance from the University of Missouri.

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Jeffrey Gentsch serves as a venture partner for Advantage Capital and brings over 25 years of private equity investing experience to the firm. He is the founder of Gentsch Capital Partners, a middle market private equity firm. Previously, he was the partner responsible for the St. Louis office of Key Principal Partners, a middle market venture and growth capital equity firm, and a managing director of Harbour Group, a middle market buyout firm. Jeffrey’s early career included leverage buyout banking at Barclays Bank in New York and Continental Illinois Bank in Chicago.

Jeffrey received his MBA in finance from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis and his bachelor’s degree in Cellular Biology from the University of Kansas. His community involvement includes board roles at the Missouri Baptist Healthcare Foundation and chairman of the Washington University in St. Louis Alumni Board of Governors.

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Stephanie Hiatt joined Advantage Capital in 2018 as senior vice president. Ms. Hiatt focuses on origination, compliance and asset management of the firm’s Partner Services portfolio, which includes federal and state New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) loan funds and standalone transactions. Ms. Hiatt is a seasoned financial professional with more than 15 years of banking, investment, and finance experience, including 11 years facilitating investments in low-income communities, low-income housing, historic preservation and renewable energy.

Most recently, she was Director of Advisory Services at Dudley Ventures in Phoenix, AZ, where she led a team focused on raising and deploying capital utilizing federal tax credit programs, such as the NMTC Program, among others. During her tenure with Dudley, Ms. Hiatt was responsible for closing more than $750 million in NMTC investments in over 150 low-income community businesses. Ms. Hiatt also worked in the banking industry for Wells Fargo Bank and First Security Bank.

Ms. Hiatt received her bachelor of arts in political science from the University of Rochester, with a minor concentration in Italian language and culture.

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Sheri Lewis joined the syndication team as a paralegal in 2015. Ms. Barto supports the team’s efforts to syndicate tax credits, while maintaining relationships with tax credit buyers and investors.

Ms. Lewis has over 10 years of experience with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Prior to joining Advantage Capital, she served as a paralegal at Sugar Creek Capital, forming and maintaining entities in multiple states, drafting operating and partnership agreements and bylaws and maintaining responsibility for many other integral functions. She also has over 15 years of experience in the title insurance industry.

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Kari Niermann is a senior vice president on the investment team where she focuses on portfolio management, seeks new investment opportunities and interacts with portfolio companies to assess their current and future capital needs.  

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Kari served as an assistant vice president in the Leveraged Finance Group at U.S. Bank, where she was responsible for analyzing, underwriting and assisting in the structuring of syndicated leveraged senior debt transactions for business mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and capital expenditure purchases, as well as the management of a $350 million portfolio comprised of more than 20 clients. Earlier in her career, Kari worked as a commercial banking officer for BMO Harris, formerly Southwest Bank, where she managed a $25 million middle market portfolio of clients in a wide range of industries within the commercial and industrial sector.

Kari received her bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in finance from Saint Louis University.

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Rachel Robards serves as a senior associate on the firm’s syndication group, for which she is responsible for due diligence and transaction work for our state-based Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) investments.

Rachel brings more than 20 years of real estate, legal and development experience, the last 13 of which were spent working on LIHTC and Historic Tax Credit (HTC) projects. Prior to joining the firm, she worked for many years in corporate real estate departments and a law firm, where she gained a wealth of knowledge in due diligence, real estate transactions, multifamily housing and the LIHTC and HTC programs. Most recently, she served as the director of acquisitions for Bruce Development Company, where she worked on all aspects of commercial and multi-family real estate development.

Rachel received her bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Webster University and earned a paralegal studies certificate.

Greg Schwarztrauber is principal on the tax team at Advantage Capital. As part of the tax team, he focuses on tax issues facing the firm’s investment funds and performs tax and financial analysis in connection with new transactions, existing funds and exit opportunities. Greg brings over 25 years of varied tax experience to the firm. Prior to joining Advantage Capital, he served as the chief financial officer at Green Street Development, one of the largest real estate development companies in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Before Green Street, he served as the senior director, tax research and planning at Anheuser-Busch and senior manager with KPMG LLP’s tax practice.

Greg received his MBA from Washington University’s Olin School of Business, a Master of Science in Taxation from the University of Illinois and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Southern Illinois University. He is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Missouri, a member of the AICPA, and the Missouri Society of CPA’s.

Nick Tyler Smith is a senior marketing manager at Advantage Capital, where he focuses on internal and external marketing, advertising and creative services initiatives supporting the firm's small business investment, expansion and fundraising, renewable energy, and affordable housing business lines.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Nick worked at ARCO National Construction as a creative services specialist where he leveraged his skills in art and design to create compelling collateral to communicate the company’s value proposition. He was also owner and manager of his own photography business for five years.

In addition to his role at Advantage Capital, Nick is a mentor to young entrepreneurs across the country and participates in several entrepreneurship and professional development focused speaking engagements every year.

Nick received his bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing and a minor in psychology from Illinois College, and has earned the designation of Professional Certified Marketer from the American Marketing Association.

Alex Stepanek is an associate at Advantage Capital. As a member of the national expansion and fundraising teams, he focuses on the firm’s economic development, public policy and public finance initiatives at the state and local level.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Alex was the director of program development for a national nonprofit leadership organization based in Richmond, VA, where he was responsible for heading multiple growth initiatives for the organization.  

Alex received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Northern Iowa.

Joe Stosberg is a communications manager at Advantage Capital. As a member of the firm’s impact team, he focuses on developing internal and external communications and marketing initiatives for the firm.

Prior to Advantage Capital, Joe worked on the Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus’ communications staff before joining St. Louis marketing agency, Scorch where he focused on content creation and strategy for top brands such as Microsoft, LinkedIn and TIAA.

Joe holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and a master’s degree in international studies from the University of San Francisco.

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Matthew Switzer is a vice president at Advantage Capital. As a member of the firm’s investment team, he is responsible for underwriting new investments and monitoring portfolio companies.  

Matthew is a Chartered Financial Analyst with Series 6, 7 and 63 licenses. Prior to joining Advantage Capital, he spent four years at UMB Bank in Kansas City. He also served as a regional client consultant for Chiron Investment Management, LLC and was an internal wholesaler for American Century Investments.

Matthew received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Missouri.

Adam Tignor is a senior tax associate at Advantage Capital. In his role, Adam is responsible for preparing CAPCO partnership tax returns and supplementary tax schedules, as well as performing technical research.

Prior to joining the firm, Adan worked for Stifel Financial’s corporate tax department where he was responsible for preparing federal and state tax returns, as well as handling tax compliance issues in the financial services industry.

Adam received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Truman State University and his master’s degree in accounting with an emphasis in tax from Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville.

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Madison Triplett is a senior analyst at Advantage Capital. As a member of the firm’s investment team, her primary responsibilities include helping underwrite new investments, quarterly reporting and aiding in growth initiatives for the firm’s portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Advantage Capital, Madison was at Midwest Regional Bank where she worked as a commercial credit analyst.

Madison received her bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in finance from Southeast Missouri State University.

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Benjamin Warning is a vice president at Advantage Capital. In this role, he identifies and screens potential new investment opportunities, performs due diligence, and negotiates and closes transactions, in addition to managing existing investments. He is primarily focused on investments made by Advantage Capital Agribusiness Partners.

Benjamin received his bachelor’s degrees in Finance and Banking, Economics and Real Estate from the University of Missouri—Columbia, where he graduated cum laude.

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