Upcycling Opportunities in the Food Industry

Paul Mariani is a managing director with Mesirow Investment Banking, where he leads the group’s food, beverage and agribusiness practice. He is responsible for developing key sector-relevant relationships, originating transactions, leading deal teams throughout the transaction process, and providing advisory services to the firm’s food, beverage and agribusiness clients.

Paul has 20+ years of experience as an investment banker with expertise in mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”), capital formation transactions (both public and private equity, and debt), and financial restructurings. Over the course of his career, he has advised clients on more than 80 M&A and corporate finance engagements.

Over the course of his career, Paul has focused primarily on the food value chain with a particular expertise advising agribusiness, baking and milling, and branded and private label packaged food companies, distributors and wholesalers, ingredients processors, growers, restaurants, and retail grocery chains. Clients have included Fortune 500 publicly-traded companies, privately-held/family-owned businesses and private equity firms.

Prior to joining Mesirow, Paul co-established KPMG’s U.S. food and beverage corporate finance practice. Prior to KPMG, he was a partner at Brown Gibbons Lang & Co. and he began his investment banking career in Chicago with BofA Securities.

Paul currently serves on the board of Naturally Chicago, an organization focused on shaping and growing the natural and good food ecosystem. He’s also on the board of advisors for Doughnuttery, a NY-based fast casual restaurant franchisor and foodservice operator.

Paul earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and his Master of Business Administration from the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. He holds FINRA Series 7, 24, 63 and 79 licenses.

Eric Markin is a Director with Mesirow Investment Banking. He is responsible for assisting with business development and leading the day-to-day transaction execution process across the food, beverage and agribusiness industries, with an emphasis on sustainable business models. His transaction experience spans a wide range of other industries as well, including aerospace and defense, B2B services, consumer and retail, distribution and supply chain, paper, plastics and packaging and technology, among others.

Previously, Eric was a Vice President at Mesirow Consulting, LLC, where he provided financial advisory services to companies and their creditors in restructurings and turnarounds. He also was involved in a number of high-profile litigation support / exert testimony assignments. Prior to joining Mesirow, he began his career at HFR Asset Management.

Eric served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala.

Eric earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin and a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He holds FINRA Series 63 and 79 licenses.

Angie Crone is a leader in food systems sustainability and redesign. Working as a change agent with top global brands to implement environmental and social impact programs, she is spearheading a movement that offers tangible solutions to address food loss and waste challenges in supply chains. She is currently the Interim CEO of the Upcycled Food Association where she champions upcycling - the process of converting food by-products that would otherwise not get to human consumption into a new ingredient or edible food product through value-added processing - as one of the most critical solutions to breaking the resource waste cycle and mitigating the climate crisis. Angie brings 10+ years of nonprofit program design and brand development experience. She has worked with mission-driven companies like Prather Ranch, Numi Organic Tea, and Imperfect Foods. Previously, she led the CPG team at Fair Trade USA where she led the first fair trade certification in the US dairy industry. Angie holds a BS in Environmental Science from Shepherd University, and an MPA in Environmental Science and Policy from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.