Neil H. Powell serves as Senior Advisor to Kaufman & Company. From 2002 until he retired in 2004, Mr. Powell served as a partner of the private equity firm of Crescent Private Capital, a Small Business Investment Company, which he helped create and fund.
From 2000, when he retired from SPP Capital Partners LLC, Mr. Powell was engaged as private consultant to several small-to-medium sized businesses, including Milberg Factors, Inc., a New York City-based financial services company. Mr. Powell also advised several other private equity firms on their capital raises in addition to Crescent, including HO2 Capital Management, Dallas, TX.
In 1989 Mr. Powell founded SPP Capital Partners, a New York City-based private investment bank. He served as its Chairman and CEO before becoming a Senior Managing Partner in 1999 when the SPP management team completed a buyout of his shares and those of Hambro & Co., LTD, a public London-based merchant bank which, until its sale in 1998 was SPP’s 50% partner. Serving largely middle-market public and private companies, the firm advised on over $15 billion of external capital raised by its clients during his tenure.
From 1980 until departing to form SPP in 1989, Mr. Powell was managing director and head of private placements for Bankers Trust Company (later acquired by to Deutsch Bank). Under his leadership, Bankers Trust grew to become one of the top ten institutional placement agents. It was during this period Mr. Powell was elected to the Instutional Investor Magazine’s Hall of Fame as the industry’s leading private placement professional.
Mr. Powell worked for several organizations before joining Banker Trust, including Bank of America as its chief of private placements, the investment department of John Hancock, BankBoston and Chase Manhattan Bank.
Mr. Powell earned his B. A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA and presently sits on three not-for-profit organizations; Alliance Francaise de Westchester, the Bronx River Sound Shore Audubon Society and Choral Arts New England.