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Brent Baxter
Senior Advisor
Brent is the Chief Executive Officer of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG).
The Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) supports the middle-market M&A community through events, print and digital media, industry education and numerous networking opportunities through our chapter network, which serves more than 60 local markets. ACG also recently acquired middle-market valuation database GF Data, which provides deal professionals with accurate and up-to-date information to value and assess middle-market businesses.
Brent joined Nolan in 2019, bringing over 25 years of sell side and buy side advisory experience from his relationships and transactions with privately-owned and family businesses, Fortune 500 corporations and leading private equity groups. To this point in his M&A career, Brent has closed over 200 transactions with an aggregate value of over $1 billion.
Brent is motivated by his passion for entrepreneurship, and sees his role advising buy side and sell side clients as a pleasure, and not as work. From his experience with business sellers, Brent has developed a deep understanding of business owners. He knows the importance of finding the right partner for an owner’s family and company legacy, while also helping them realize their lifelong financial goals. Through Brent’s buy side practice, he assists corporate acquirers in understanding their growth opportunities and also the non-monetary value drivers that are so important to sellers and vital to getting deals closed.
Brent is passionate about his leadership work with ACG, the Association for Corporate Growth. ACG is the leading global community for middle-market M&A deal-makers and business leaders focused on driving growth. He serves as the Immediate Past Chair of the ACG Global Board. In 2019, Brent co-chaired the first-ever Strategic Acquirer Summit, bringing together corporate development professionals for a program focused on strategic acquisitions. Along with Brent’s prominent leadership role with ACG Global, Patrick Nolan is the President of the ACG St. Louis Chapter, affirming Nolan’s strong commitment to the M&A community.
Prior to joining Nolan, Brent spent 18 years as Managing Director of a St. Louis independent investment bank. Earlier in his career, he was the CEO of a food manufacturing company that more than quadrupled its sales by making acquisitions in a period of just eight years. Brent earned his undergraduate degree at Allegheny College, followed by his MBA at the University of Pittsburgh. Additionally, he serves on the board of directors for several privately held companies.
Brent serves as a Board Member and Executive Committee Member for the University City Children’s Center (UCCC) and the LUME Institute. The UCCC is a non-profit, early childhood education center in St. Louis that for 50 years has served as a transformative model of quality early care and education. LUME, funded in part by the Bezos Family Foundation, is training thousands of early childhood educators in the support of emotional development of children and its work has been recognized by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.
Brent worked all through college in an Italian gourmet restaurant, which fostered a lifelong passion for cooking (and some level of dishwashing!). Brent also finds time to travel, read and exercise. Brent and his wife have 2 sons, and he works from Nolan’s St. Louis office.
“Promise Good – Deliver Great!” – Anonymous
