Spotlight - Vice President Natalie Bader

SPOTLIGHT: Q&A with East Wind VP Natalie Bader

Vice President Natalie Bader shares valuable insights on deal execution and her perspective on East Wind's unique qualities

Q: Which sector(s) and types of business do you focus on? I am a generalist here at East Wind, which I enjoy. It keeps things interesting to get exposure to all different types of business models. During my time at East Wind, I’ve covered companies in industries such as education, media, consumer & retail, and healthcare. Most of the clients I’ve worked with are earlier stage and often in their high-growth phase. It’s a really exciting time to get involved with the business. We are lucky to work with teams that are so motivated and energized about making a meaningful impact through their work. Q: What does your role at East Wind entail? As a Vice President at the firm, my role has a big focus on deal execution. I am responsible for liaising between our team at East Wind, our client, and the party on the other side of the transaction to make sure we have everything we need to get a deal done. A lot of my time at the beginning of a deal is spent preparing to launch our outreach process. This involves collaborating with our client to create marketing materials, pressure-test financial projections, and develop a list of the most compelling potential investors or buyers. Once we are in market, my role shifts to more of a focus on managing relationships with potential investors and buyers, addressing any information gaps, gathering additional materials as needed, and managing the expectations of all parties involved. Throughout this process, figuring out the right communication strategy with our clients is key. As this is often their first exposure to

Q: Could you start by telling us a bit about yourself and your career journey to date? I started my career at a boutique retail and sales consulting firm called The Seurat Group. Our clients were consumer packaged goods manufacturers, everything from emerging start up brands to the Fortune 500. It was a very data-driven role, I spent a lot of time analyzing retail sales data and consumer shopping data and ultimately we used that information to advise our clients on their go-to-market strategy, in store and online. After spending four years with Seurat, I decided that I wanted to pivot into the finance industry which is what led me to apply to business school. I got my full-time MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern and out of there started at Goldman Sachs in their industrials investment banking group. At Goldman, I spent three years advising industrial companies across multiple sectors on M&A transactions, capital raises, and other corporate actions. I was able to build up a really robust financial tool kit in a short period of time and gain exposure to a number of complex transactions. What drew me to East Wind following that experience was the opportunity to work with earlier stage companies. At a high level, the steps you take on a deal are more or less the same, but you get much deeper in the weeds of how a company actually operates when working in the lower middle market. This was exciting to me as a way to round out my M&A capabilities.

Natalie is originally from Boston and is a fan of all things New England (lobster, Cape Cod, the Patriots). She first moved to NYC for her undergraduate program at New York University where she majored in Urban Studies and minored in Business and Italian. After spending some time outside Chicago for business school, Natalie loves being nearer to her very big and close-knit family on the East coast. She spends a lot of her free time with them, mostly re-telling

old stories over her aunt’s legendary eggplant parm. When she gets time to herself, she enjoys reading (ask her about her book club).

SPOTLIGHT: Q&A with East Wind VP Natalie Bader

an M&A process, we want to make sure we are regularly providing updates and guidance through any complexities of the transaction. A big benefit of working at East Wind is being able to work so closely with our partners. They are true experts in the industry, so learning some of the more nuanced components of the negotiations and agreements directly from them has been a really unique experience. Q: As a vice president you often spearhead the execution effort. What are the key priorities when you think about successful deal execution? I’ve learned that you always need to be thinking one, or ideally several, steps ahead on the transaction. It’s important to anticipate what will be needed next in the process. A big part of our role is to help our clients package their data in a way that a potential investor or acquirer can easily digest and take away the key information they need in order to make a decision. I try to always think about what the next questions might be and how we can proactively be prepared to address them. Staying organized in this way allows for everyone to get what they need in short order, while creating the least amount of strain on the management team. Of course, there will always be things that come up that you weren’t expecting, that’s the nature of this job. But staying proactive always helps things remain as on pace and efficient as possible. Q: What are your views on the current market conditions and deal landscape? It is not news to anyone – investors have been cautious over the last couple of years. We’ve been clouded by high interest rates, fears of recession, growing inflation, geopolitical uncertainty, etc. There has been a big shift in prioritizing profitability and cash flow generation over top-line growth. This led to much lower M&A volumes, as the bar for attractive acquisition targets was very high. I think that has left us with a lot of pent-up demand, from both strategics and sponsors. We have had active dialogues with these parties throughout, and interest in M&A certainly remains robust. Especially if interest rates do begin to lower, I would expect we’ll see a pick-up in M&A activity,

particularly for sponsors who have been relatively quiet over the last year. We know they are sitting on near record levels of dry powder and are eager to put that capital to work. Q: What do you think sets East Wind apart from other firms? The team at East Wind works seamlessly together – it is a collaborative and supportive environment. We take pride in the fact that we are not siloed, we are able to leverage expertise and relationships across the firm in any given transaction, allowing us to get to the most positive outcome possible for our clients. We also work collaboratively with our clients to custom build a process that allows them to efficiently achieve their desired outcome. We are not bound to any cookie-cutter processes and are able to address any nuances that may arise as part of the transaction. Every deal presents its unique challenges, and our team has expertise in acting nimbly and quickly to find a solution. Q: What’s the most rewarding part of your job? I find it very rewarding to work directly with such exciting and innovative founders. This is an advantage of working with lower and middle market companies. I always love when we have an introductory call with a new client and get to hear the story of their company and the founder’s goals and motivations. It’s very inspiring to see the passion and determination that goes into building these businesses, and it’s meaningful to be able to play a part in achieving these goals. The transactions we work on are truly transformative for these founders, and as their advisors, it is really exciting to get to be a part of that entrepreneurial journey.

Growing up, Natalie was very passionate about music and trained in classical voice at the New England Conservatory. She continues to practice today with her keyboard at home.

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