Experience

Nick Leiby is a Co-Founder and Partner of Tremont Growth Partners. He is actively involved in all aspects of the firm’s operations and investment activities. Throughout his investing career, Nick has participated in more than 20 transactions across a variety of industries representing more than $500 million in aggregate value. He enjoys structuring transactions and collaborating with management teams on strategic initiatives.

Prior to co-founding TGP, Nick was a Partner at Weinberg Capital Group, a private investment firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. He was involved in all sourcing, executing, managing and exiting control investments in lower middle market businesses located throughout the U.S.

Earlier in his career, Nick was an investment professional with Resilience Capital Partners and Kirtland Capital Partners as well as member of the Consumer & Retail Investment Banking Group at KeyBanc Capital Markets. Nick began his career at Deloitte, where he earned his CPA.

Education

BBA in Accounting and Business Pre-Law from the Ohio University.
MBA from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Personal

Outside of work, Nick enjoys spending time with his wife and two young children. When not running around with family activities, Nick can be found exploring the Cleveland Metroparks, working on his golf game at the driving range, or watching sports with friends.

Contact Information

nleiby@tremontgrowth.com

Experience

Megan Horvath is a Co-Founder and Partner of Tremont Growth Partners. She is actively involved in all aspects of the firm’s operations and investment activities. Megan has over 20 years of experience in private equity, investment banking, and consulting. Over the course of her investment career, Megan has closed more than two dozen transactions across a variety of deal contexts and industries representing approximately $500 million in aggregate value.

Prior to co-founding TGP, Megan was a Partner at Steinbeck Investment Company, an independent sponsor. Her responsibilities included investment thesis creation, deal sourcing, investment evaluation, due diligence, deal execution, financing and portfolio oversight.

Prior to Steinbeck Investment Company, Megan was a Principal on the investment team at Resilience Capital Partners, a special situations private equity firm in Cleveland, Ohio. Megan was also a Director of Business Development at a technology and strategic advisory firm focused on pricing and commercial excellence. Megan began her career as in corporate and investment banking at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Education

BBA in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.

Personal

Outside of work, Megan enjoys spending time with her husband, two young sons and Great Dane as well as traveling and trying new restaurants.

Contact Information

mhorvath@tremontgrowth.com

Experience

Mike Foran is an Operating Partner at TGP, bringing more than 20 years of unique operational and M&A experiences to the platform. In this role, Mike focuses on partnering with management to drive execution of value creation initiatives as well as plays an integral role in supporting transaction execution.

In June 2024, Mike partnered with TGP founder Nick Leiby on the acquisition of Monitoring Control & Compliance, an environmental services company. In addition to his role at TGP, Mike is also the founder of Foran Capital, an independent investment firm in Cleveland that invests in operating businesses and real estate. Throughout his career, Mr. Foran has led four acquisitions and one successful exit. Prior to TGP & Foran Capital, Mr. Foran served as CEO of North Beach Holdings, a private investment holding company based in Cleveland, OH. Earlier in his career, Mike was co-founder and COO at Market Garden Brewery, where he built significant manufacturing and distribution capabilities.

He holds a B.S. from The Ohio State University.

Experience

John Ziss is a Managing Director of Business Development at Tremont Growth Partners where he is actively involved in the firm’s origination, investor relations, and portfolio management activities. John brings over 15 years of experience in executive leadership, M&A, and corporate finance, with a focus on privately-held, lower middle market businesses.

Prior to joining TGP, John was President of a Mid-Atlantic-based electric vehicle infrastructure company, where he led market entry and growth strategy, scaled operations, secured enterprise accounts, and raised capital. Previously, he ran an independent consulting practice advising lower middle-market companies and raising capital for real estate and venture capital investments.

Earlier in his career, John Executive held roles of increasing responsibility at Kurtz Bros., a leading waste-to-resource and bulk landscape manufacturing business. As an Executive Vice President, he led the Company’s M&A strategy and integration process, resulting in significant revenue growth. Previously he led the execution of complex financings, large-scale capital programs, and operational improvement initiatives served as Controller.

Education

BBA in Finance from Bowling Green State University MBA from the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame

Personal

Outside of work, John enjoys spending time with his family, studying and practicing self- development techniques, and playing guitar.

Experience

John Herman is a Strategic Partner and Advisor of TGP as well as Managing Partner of Herman Equity Partners (HEP), an investment firm backed by a deep network of high net-worth individuals and family offices. HEP supports TGP’s investing activities as a capital provider and advisor assisting with the development and execution of various value creation initiatives. Prior to forming TGP, Nick Leiby worked closely with John on several successful private equity investments both as colleagues and partners for several years.

John has a long successful track record over several decades as both an owner/operator and private equity investor-principal in the lower-middle corporate markets and real estate sectors. John’s career began as a childhood entrepreneur and developed after college when he founded Incentive Merchandising Corporation. This business grew over time to become a large promotional products business which was successfully sold to industry leader Halo Branded Solutions several years ago.

Education

B.S. School of Communication and Business: University of Miami

Personal

John has a long history of civic involvement in the Cleveland community, including as a past member of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, Jewish Family Service Association, Montefiore Home, Rose Centers for Aging Well, and leadership positions with Case Western Reserve University, University School, and currently is a member of the Board of Directors of Piano Cleveland.

John enjoys spending time with his wife, two dogs, and large extended family. Additionally, John has a great appreciation and interest in nature and the outdoors, animal welfare, classical and jazz music, and theater.

Experience

Bjorn Austraat is an award-winning and industry- recognized leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and innovation, with over two decades of extensive experience across high-tech, financial services, and telecommunications sectors. With a robust track record of driving transformative changes, Bjorn has successfully led initiatives in global businesses ranging from $10M to $95B, applying a continuous improvement approach to set and achieve strategic enterprise goals.

Bjorn is the CEO and Founder of Kinetic Cognition, a practitioner-led alliance of AI transformation experts who assist clients throughout all phases of their AI journey: from the earliest strategic visioning exercises through platform and user experience design to full-stack implementation.

Previously, he served as Senior Vice President and Head of AI Acceleration at Truist, where Bjorn led the AI & Analytics Accelerator (A3) team, pioneering policies, platforms, and end-to-end model development to fuel innovation and accelerate scalable solution deployments across the enterprise. His leadership extended to driving forward Generative AI initiatives, involving advanced patterns including Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), summarization, and code generation.

Prior to Truist, Bjorn held significant AI leadership roles at Wells Fargo and IBM and provided consultancy services to top-tier firms including Apple, AT&T, Microsoft, and Ford. His early career began as an interpreter and translator in Vienna, which laid the foundation for his capabilities in fostering effective communication and establishing productive relationships within diverse and complex environments.

Bjorn is a prolific and highly sought-after speaker, having delivered hundreds of executive and plenary presentations at major industry events. He holds an MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, an M.A. in Translation and Interpretation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and an M.A. in Conference Interpretation from the University of Vienna. His areas of expertise include applied predictive and generative AI, AI/ML platform strategy and acceleration, AI talent sourcing and retention, strategic innovation, change management, team building, and mentoring.

Experience

Kip has over 20 years in owning and operating marketing firms and other related businesses. It started with launching a start-up digital marketing agency in 2003 that was acquired in 2022. Along the way he has acquired and exited marketing research, creative services, digital marketing and several small marketing firms that were run independently or integrated to create efficiencies. He also has owned, operated and exited several commercial property companies and other service based businesses.

Experience

David Garson is an accomplished Sales and Operations Executive with almost 20 years’ experience driving high-performance business solutions for clients. As a trusted advisor to business owners, David champions best practices across growth strategies, industry challenges, and operational excellence. He drives an entrepreneurial mindset across dynamic environments to determine transformative business solutions. His unwavering commitment to clients allows him to skillfully discern the complex needs business owners face today.

Education

David received his BS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Economics, and his MBA from DePaul University in Chicago with a focus on Finance and Entrepreneurship. He also completed an M&A Executive Program at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Experience

Robert Northrop is currently the Vice President of Distributor Operations for Arrow, International, a Platinum Equity owned business in the charity gaming space. Additionally, Northrop serves on the boards of private equity owned Drake Waterfowl, and Tallan, Inc. Prior to his current position, Northrop was the Chief Operating Officer of INSIGHT2PROFIT, a private equity owned boutique consulting firm that advised private equity owned businesses on optimizing pricing of their products and services. He has also served as an Operating Partner for Resilience Capital Partners, where in that capacity he held interim C-level roles for portfolio companies, most notably as the Chief Executive Officer for Affinity Apparel. Post business school, Northrop started his career at McKinsey and Company, where he rose to Associate Partner, advising companies in the basic materials industries.

Education

Holds an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia and a BS from Northwestern University.

Experience

Jeff is a Co-Founder and Principal of Revelate Advisory, which provides strategic planning and implementation services to small and medium size businesses. Prior to Revelate, Jeff was Chief Operating Officer of Apple Growth Partners and was a founding partner at Cleveland Research Company where he served as Chief Operating Officer and Director of Research.

Education

Jeff received his BBA from The College of William & Mary and his MBA from Case Western Reserve University.

Experience

Jay is a Co-Founder and Principal of Revelate Advisory, which provides strategic planning and implementation services to small and medium size businesses. Prior to Revelate, Jay was a founding partner at Cleveland Research Company where he served as President of Market Research. Jay started his career as an award- winning Wall Street analyst and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences.

Education

Jay received his BA from Wheaton College.