Mark Buchanan serves as managing director and head of ESOP Advisory in the Investment Banking group at Raymond James. Mark specializes in serving the unique objectives of family-, founder- and employee-owned companies. Mark has cultivated long-term relationships with privately held companies as well as several top-tier family offices, having completed numerous transactions across this network. Mark has developed extensive experienced in ESOP formation, recapitalization and sale transactions, M&A, private company ownership transition and capital raising in multiple industry verticals with an emphasis on industrial and professional services-end markets.
Mark previously served as vice chairman at Stout and completed multiple transactions during his tenure at the firm. Select transactions include serving as exclusive financial advisor and sole placement agent to Envision Radiology (100% ESOP) on their acquisition and financing of Rezolut; exclusive financial advisor to BDO USA (partial ESOP) on their ESOP formation & related financing transaction as well as their subsequent acquisition of Horne; exclusive financial advisor to Prairie Mechanical (100% ESOP) on the sale of their business to BCTS (a portfolio company of Investcorp); and exclusive advisor to A.Y. McDonald Industries (family owned) in their acquisition of JCM Industries, subsequent sale of their pumps division to Baker Manufacturing, as well as their asset acquisition and licensing agreement of the American Meter natural gas regulator product line from Honeywell.
Mark joined Stout from Macquarie Capital, where he served as managing director in the Investment Banking group. Notable transactions include successive engagements with West Monroe (100% ESOP), culminating in their recapitalization with MSD Partners; TranSystems (partial ESOP) on their recapitalization with Sentinel Partners; lead left arranger on The Pritzker Organization’s acquisition of STV Group (100% ESOP); acquisition and capital raise for Eastern Wholesale Fence (privately held); NPS on their corporate carve out (family owned); and financing for KBP Foods (family office owned).
Prior to Macquarie, Mark was a managing director at BMO Harris Bank, where he served as the group head of the national private company advisory team where he recruited, developed and led a team of professionals working across the BMO platform focused exclusively on advising privately held clients. Mark also played a key role in the integration of BMO’s acquisition of a middle market investment banking business (Greene, Holcomb & Fisher), resulting in multiple advisory engagements with privately held businesses.
Mark also previously served as director of M&A at Career Education Corporation and vice president in Investment Banking at Credit Suisse.