Team

David Jacquin

Founder and Managing Director

David Jacquin founded North Point in 2004 with the mission to create value for its clients by providing exceptional mergers and acquisitions services. Since its founding, North Point has become the leading M&A firm to the consumer industry. At North Point, David has represented many industry-leading brands including Landry’s, Jimmy John’s, Teavana, Starbucks, Peanuts by Schulz, Edible Arrangements, Fastsigns, Ideal Image, Jamba Juice, Nothing Bundt Cakes, and Realm Cellars.

David has spent over three decades of his career as an M&A banker. Prior to founding North Point, he led M&A divisions for each of Piper Jaffray & Co, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America/Montgomery Securities. Additionally, David practiced law with Cravath, Swaine and Moore in New York and London, where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions. He also worked as a consultant for Arthur Andersen and Company. David obtained a B.S. with honors from St. Louis University and earned his J.D. with honors from Georgetown University. He lives in Sonoma County, California with his wife Heidi and their two children, Hayley and Alec.

Matthew Kelly

Managing Director

Matt Kelly is a Partner and Managing Director having been with North Point since shortly after its founding in 2004. Matt is focused on the consumer sector, including restaurants, retail and consumer products and services. He has over 25 years of M&A and investment banking experience having spent the majority of his career prior to North Point at Deutsche Bank and Franklin Resources. Matt is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holder and has a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Matt lives in San Francisco with his wife Jessica and two children.

Alex Lee

Managing Director

Alex is a Managing Director at North Point with nearly 20 years of investing banking and M&A experience focused on the consumer sector. He joined North Point shortly after its founding. He began his career in investment banking at Adams, Harkness & Hill. Alex graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Economics and B.S. in Mathematics. He currently lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children.

Burt Yarkin

Managing Director

Burt Yarkin is a Managing Director at North Point with more than 25 years of experience in the franchising business and a history of growing strong businesses. Prior to joining North Point, Burt was Managing Director at The McLean Group where he led the Franchise and Consumer, Specialty Retail & Restaurant practices, advising global companies, franchisors and large multi-unit franchisees on mergers & acquisitions and capital formation. Prior to that, he held senior management positions with such well-known international brands as Cartridge World, Gymboree and 1-800-Flowers and spearheaded efforts to grow those brands globally. As CEO of Cartridge World, he oversaw the rapid growth of the brand and was instrumental in completing a large private equity transaction for the sale of the company. Burt graduated from Evergreen College with a B.A. in Political Science and Psychology. Burt and his wife Karen live in the San Francisco Bay area and have two daughters, Ilana and Sarah.

Cooper McKee

Managing Director

Cooper is a Managing Director at North Point with nearly 15 years of investment banking and M&A experience focused on the consumer sector. Prior to joining North Point in 2010, he began his career at JP Morgan. Cooper received his B.A. from Stanford University, where he was a member of the men’s soccer team. He currently lives in Sausalito with his wife and two children.

Geoff Flynn

Managing Director

Geoff Flynn is a Managing Director at North Point focused on the consumer sector. Prior to joining North Point, Geoff led the consumer group at Cowen and Company for over a decade and has been advising consumer companies for over 20 years at Cowen, Piper Jaffray, Thomas Weisel Partners and Montgomery Securities. Geoff earned his B.A. degree in Economics at Cornell University, and he lives in Kentfield with his wife Karyn and their three sons, Hunter, Harrison and Grayson.

Glen Clarke

Managing Director

Glen Clarke is a Managing Director and head of the Food & Beverage practice at North Point. Glen has 29 years of significant transaction and advisory experience providing general corporate finance and M&A advice primarily to food and beverage companies across a variety of industry verticals and formats. Prior to joining North Point, Glen was a Managing Director within Baird’s Consumer & Retail Group and led the firm's Food & Beverage practice. Glen joined Baird from KeyBanc Capital Markets where he was a Managing Director leading the firm's Food & Beverage Investment Banking practice. Before joining KeyBanc, Glen spent time at Duff and Phelps and with Brown Gibbons and Lang (BGL), where he was a Managing Director and Principal responsible for leading the firm's Food & Beverage investment banking practice. Prior to BGL, Glen spent 16 years at Bank of Montreal Harris Bank, where his last role was Managing Director and Head of the Diversified Food Group within their Investment Banking Group.

Glen received his M.B.A. from DePaul University and his Bachelor of Arts from Villanova University. Glen and his wife Kathleen live in Winnetka, Illinois where they raised their five children, Elizabeth, Harry, William, James and Grace.

Jason Abt

Managing Director

Jason Abt, with over 25 years of M&A experience, focuses on the winery and restaurant sectors and leads the firm’s winery practice. Prior to joining North Point in 2023, Jason was a Managing Director of Investment Banking at Houlihan Lokey where he led both the winery and restaurant practices for a decade. He also previously ran corporate development for The Vincraft Group, a TPG-funded investment group focused on the wine industry.

Jason has had the pleasure of working with many leading wineries, including Frank Family, Duckhorn, Far Niente, Heitz, Kosta Browne and Gary Farrell. Jason has also worked with many leading restaurant companies, including Chipotle, Perkins, Wingstop and NPCI (largest Pizza Hut and Wendy’s franchisee). Jason received an M.B.A. in Finance from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a B.S. degree in Finance at Arizona State University. Jason resides in San Francisco with his two awesome children, Annabelle and Ethan.

Jay Sonner

Managing Director

Jay is a Managing Director at North Point focused on the consumer sector. Prior to joining North Point as an associate in 2010, Jay was an attorney for a large international law firm in London, held two federal judicial clerkships and worked on a trading floor from London, Spain and China. He and his wife Jacquelyn currently live in New York with their two daughters, Soleil and Imogen. Jay earned his B.A. from the College of Charleston and J.D. from UC Hastings College of the Law.

Laura Provenzale

Managing Director

Laura joined North Point in 2018 from William Blair, where she was a Partner and Managing Director in the Consumer and Retail Investment Banking Group and Head of the Restaurant Investment Banking Practice. Laura has nearly 30 years of experience advising and executing transactions for leading consumer and retail companies at such investment banks as JP Morgan, Banc of America Securities, William Blair, Raymond James and WR Hambrecht. Laura earned her B.A. degree in Accounting at Lehigh University and her M.B.A. at Fordham University.

Margaret Montague

Managing Director

Margaret (Meg) Montague is a Managing Director at North Point and has over 25 years of investment banking experience and has completed over 60 assignments across a broad range of industries with a particular focus on franchise and multi-unit concepts, consumer, and healthcare. Prior to joining North Point, Meg was a Managing Director at The McLean Group and helped lead a practice that worked exclusively with franchisors and multi-unit franchisees and was the most active practice supporting Planet Fitness with 12 deals closed since 2013. Prior to that, she was a Director at Fidus Partners and Edgeview Partners providing merger & acquisition advisory services. Meg started her career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley in New York City. She received a B.S. with a concentration in Finance from the McIntire School at the University of Virginia and a M.B.A. from Darden at the University of Virginia. Meg was named to the 2020 Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A. She lives in Charlotte with her husband John and children, Mary Charles and Thayer.

Matthew Rovelli

Managing Director

Matt Rovelli is a Managing Director at North Point focused on the food & beverage, wellness & nutrition, and active lifestyle sectors. Prior to joining North Point, Matt was a Managing Director in the consumer group at Cowen and Company and has been advising companies for over 20 years at Cowen, Dahlman Rose, and Bear Stearns.

Matt earned his M.B.A. from the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University where he was a Jones Scholar and his B.A. from Colgate University with a concentration in Economics. He lives in Houston with his wife Meghan and their two children, Dylan and Jake.

Murray Huneke

Managing Director

Murray Huneke is focused on the wellness and consumer sectors, and leads the firm’s cannabis practice. Murray has spent over three decades as a consumer banker. Prior to North Point, he led and grew the investment banking Consumer groups for several firms including Piper Jaffray and Banc of America/Montgomery Securities. Additionally, Murray was co-head of Investment Banking at Piper Jaffray.

Murray has represented many industry leading companies including Tilray, AYR, Curio, Barteca, Shake Shack, The Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Chang’s, and Outback Steakhouse. He obtained his B.A. from Stanford University and earned his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. He lives in San Francisco with his wife Susan, and they have two daughters, Caitlin and Kate.

Nathan Kafer

Managing Director

Nathan is a Managing Director at North Point with over 10 years of investment banking and M&A experience focused on the consumer sector, including restaurants, retail, food and beverage, and consumer products and services. Prior to joining North Point in 2012, Nathan received his B.S. from Regis University, where he was a member of the men’s soccer team. He currently lives in Marin County with his wife Ashley and their two children, Mathis and McKenna.

Peter Hunt

Managing Director

Peter Hunt is a Managing Director at North Point and is responsible for the firm’s Healthcare practice. He has over 25 years of M&A and investment banking experience having worked previously for firms including J.P. Morgan & Co., Bank of America/Montgomery Securities and JMP Securities. During his career, Peter has completed over $15 billion in M&A transactions.

Peter earned his Masters of Business Administration from Columbia University and his B.S. from Washington & Lee University, where he served on the Williams School of Commerce Board of Advisors for 10 years. Peter and his wife Meg have three children, Greg, Emily and Olivia. Peter is an avid fly fisherman and golfer. He is the author of “Structuring Mergers & Acquisitions: A Guide to Creating Shareholder Value.”

Rana DiOrio

Managing Director

Rana DiOrio joined North Point at its inception in 2004, left in 2008 to found and build two purpose-driven children’s media companies, and rejoined the firm in 2020. She is an intrepid force for empowerment and positive change. As a corporate and securities attorney at Pillsbury Madison & Sutro and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and a tech-sector investment banker at Alex. Brown & Sons, Merrill Lynch, and Banc of America Securities, Rana has guided the strategy and catalyzed the financial, operational, and cultural growth of organizations for 29 years. Rana earned an A.B. with honors from Duke University and a J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law. She lives in San Francisco, California with her three children, Ryan, Alex and Beckett.

Richard Mendelson

Managing Director

Richard Mendelson is a Managing Director focusing on the wine industry. He is a winemaker and grape grower himself as well a wine lawyer and director of the Wine Law and Policy Program at UC Berkeley.

As a real estate broker and banker, Richard has represented Araujo Estate, Far Niente Wine Estates, Harlan Estate, Grace Family Vineyards, Heitz Cellars, Joseph Phelps Vineyards, Ovid, and Swanson Vineyards, among others. Richard joined North Point in 2019 after working at Houlihan Lokey and FMV Capital.

Richard is a graduate of Harvard College, Oxford University, and Stanford Law School. He has authored three books on wine. Richard and his wife Marilyn reside in Napa.

Senior Director Team

"I founded North Point over 18 years ago with the mission of providing exceptional advisory services in a highly personalized way. Our commitment to this original purpose remains as strong today as ever, and we will not rest until your optimal outcome is achieved."

David Jacquin, Founder and Senior Director

David Jacquin

Frounder and Senior Director