Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation and Peapack-Gladstone Bank announce the strategic decision to expand the Bank’s corporate advisory and structured finance business under a new Investment Banking division. Eric H. Waser will lead this new group as Executive Vice President and Head of Investment Banking, effective immediately.
Over the past year, the corporate advisory group at Peapack-Gladstone Bank has demonstrated significant forward momentum and has become an integral component of the Bank’s future. This business, along with the Bank’s leveraged lending/structured finance business, enables the Bank and its wealth division, Peapack Private, to truly play the role of trusted advisor to privately owned middle-market companies, and is better suited as a stand-alone division designated as Investment Banking, which allows for a more concentrated effort.
As the head of Investment Banking, Eric, former Head of Commercial Banking at Peapack-Gladstone Bank, will now lead the Company’s focus on providing independent, unbiased and objective advice to middle-market companies and their owners. This includes merger and acquisition advisory support, evaluation and assistance with accessing alternative capital markets, evaluation of strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value, and customized structured finance based on asset-based and/or enterprise value.
“The opportunity to specifically focus our energy on the Investment Banking business is exciting,” commented Waser. He continued, “We’ve grown the team over the past year and feel this is the right time to connect the dots with our wealth brand, Peapack Private, and leverage this already successful business line to our high-end entrepreneurs and business owners.”
Kevin J. Bodnar, Senior Managing Director and Head of Corporate Advisory, and Patrick R. Brocker, Senior Managing Director and Head of Structured Finance, will lead this division with Eric, within their specialized areas, in complement to other disciplines within the Bank and Peapack Private. The team will formally assist with evaluating strategic alternatives for clients, assess debt capacity and appropriateness of debt and equity solutions, and evaluate alternatives to improve alignment of family and business objectives.
Bodnar is a seasoned financial executive with a proven track record in investment banking, private equity and commercial banking, with expertise in business development, strategic and financial advisory, transaction structuring, and executing mergers and acquisitions. He has executed over 75 middle-market transactions over the past 15 years across a variety of industries. He is Series 7, 63, 79 and 99 NASD licensed.
Brocker, a Peapack-Gladstone Bank employee since 2015, is responsible for on balance sheet cash flow, and asset-based and hybrid lending solutions for corporate and private equity sponsor transactions at the Bank. These include leveraged buyouts, management buyouts, dividend recapitalizations and bridge loans. He has more than 30 years of structuring creative financial solutions to help maximize the growth in enterprise value of corporate and private equity clients across all industries in the middle-market.