Global consulting firm J.S. Held, proudly celebrating 50 transformative years, acquired Stapleton Group and announces the creation of the Strategic Advisory practice under the leadership of Michael Jacoby, CTP. The Stapleton Group acquisition further strengthens J.S. Held’s restructuring capabilities, spanning bankruptcy, receiverships, turnarounds, ABCs, and other financial advisory services. Additionally, the acquisition adds specialized expertise in the real estate and agribusiness industries.

Founded in 2008, Stapleton Group, now a part of J.S. Held, is a full-service team of fiduciaries, financial advisors, turnaround experts, receivers, chief restructuring officers, and asset managers.  The team has earned a strong reputation for helping companies overcome challenging situations, maximizing the recovery of capital for creditors and investors, and helping to resolve disputes between shareholders.

The acquisition of Stapleton Group builds upon the corporate finance expertise of Senior Managing Director, Peter Davis’ team and J.S. Held’s 2023 acquisition of Phoenix Management and Phoenix-IB, an independent licensed broker-dealer under federal and state securities law. The experts will combine to create the J.S. Held Strategic Advisory group.

“We look forward to introducing the Stapleton Group experts to our clients and referral sources, who will find our expanded geographic footprint and service offerings attractive,” noted Senior Managing Director and new practice leader Michael E. Jacoby.

By joining J.S. Held, Stapleton Group clients now have access to more than 1,500 technical, scientific, financial, and strategic experts across five continents who provide specialized, complementary expertise in areas including dispute advisory; business enterprise, real estate, and intellectual property valuation; forensic accounting; capital projects advisory; compliance and regulatory consulting; business intelligence; ESG and sustainability consulting; environmental, health, and safety; political risk; M&A regulatory response; and cyber security, among others.

“Our fundamental goal since inception has been serving our clients’ best interests,” said Stapleton Group Founder and President, David Stapleton. “The time is right to broaden our capacity, capabilities, and market reach to continue to improve our client solutions, as well as to provide growth opportunities for our team members. We are excited about the opportunity to offer a single-source solution for distressed and high-growth companies with our new J.S. Held colleagues.”

“Similar to what attracted J.S. Held to Phoenix Management, Stapleton Group is comprised of tenured, entrepreneurial, and visionary leaders with an unwavering focus on finance and operations, helping clients maximize enterprise value,” added J.S. Held Chief Executive Officer, Jonathon Held.

“The addition of the Stapleton team further strengthens our expertise across many sectors, including agribusiness, real estate, construction, energy and power, manufacturing, retail, telecom, transportation, and others,” added new J.S. Held President and COO Lee Spirer.

Clearsight Advisors served as financial advisor to Stapleton Group in connection with the transaction.

Stapleton Group is now part of the dedicated and entrepreneurial team of experts who help transform J.S. Held.