Tower Partners, a lower-middle market investment bank with a focus on family, founder, and entrepreneurial-led businesses, announced today that Ben Robinson has joined the firm as Managing Director.
Robinson will concentrate on mergers and acquisitions, private placements and strategic advisory, with a specialization in family business. Additionally, he will be a part of the executive team focusing on overall firm strategy and growth.
Throughout his career, Robinson has completed transactions exceeding $5 billion across multiple industries, representing both public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financings, and strategic advisory services. Having navigated his family’s business through a critical juncture and leading it through a restructuring and sale process, he brings great firsthand experience of the nuances within family businesses at strategically important inflection points.
“Ben brings more than 20 years of experience to Tower and is an expert at implementing strategy, structure, oversight, and support to provide organizations with a framework and platform for growth,” said Ervin M. Terwilliger, CEO and Managing Director of Tower Partners. “His extensive experience and track record in investment banking and operational leadership, coupled with his experience with the complexities of running a family-led business, will be invaluable assisting our clients navigating strategic business transactions.”
Robinson began his investment banking career at CIBC World Markets in the Consumer & Business Services Investment Banking Group, where he worked with Erik Endler, who today is Head of Mergers and Acquisitions and a Managing Director at Tower. At CIBC, Robinson later moved from an industry to a product focus, joining the Private Finance Group, where he was a member of a four-person team that raised more than $2 billion in capital through private debt and equity placements for clients.
In 2008, Robinson left banking to develop and launch the luxury direct-to-consumer and e-commerce brand, Robinson’s Prime Reserve, which was closely aligned with his family’s food distribution company. The brand received national recognition from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Esquire among others. He also developed strategic partnerships with Macy’s, Frontgate, Samuel Adams and Gilt Groupe.
After launching the direct-to-consumer brand and e-commerce business, Robinson took control of the broader family distribution business, which had reached a distressed level. During his leadership, he led a restructuring, refinancing and turnaround, to reposition the company as an attractive acquisition target that was ultimately sold in May 2019.
“Tower is a perfect fit,” Robinson said. “The firm and focus align with my investment banking and family business experience in a way that will allow me to focus on what I enjoy: providing strategic value to lower-middle market, family businesses. I find it exciting and admirable that Tower is providing the same skill set and advisory services as a large investment bank to a section of the market that does not typically get access to that expertise and process.”
Looking ahead, Robinson sees opportunities for Tower Partners. “The firm has great momentum, and its growth is fueled in part by the generational shift of baby boomers, which hold an approximate $7.4 trillion in private businesses. That represents approximately 12 million businesses. Of those businesses, almost half are family businesses. Many of them do not have succession plans or an engaged, interested second generation. These owners and founders are looking to retire and need liquidity for their retirements and/or want to see the businesses they have led, survive as their and their family’s legacy,” he said. “They need our services and we do it with a rigor and process that we believe maximizes value for them. ”
Robinson graduated with high honors from the University of Notre Dame with a BBA in Finance, receiving the Wall Street Journal Award. He also holds certifications for ESG Strategy from Harvard Business School and New York University Stern School of Business. He is the recipient of the James Beard Foundation Perry Award, and he has served on the board of the James Beard Foundation and other nonprofit organizations.
About Tower Partners
Headquartered in Columbia, MD, Tower Partners is the premier private investment bank servicing the lower middle market. Tower’s team has completed engagements with more than $15 billion in transaction value. It specializes in providing Wall Street level investment banking to the underserved lower middle market, with a concentration in family founder, and entrepreneurial-led businesses. The company has offices in Columbia and Denver. For more information see our https://www.towerpartners.com/.
