The Plain Dealer reports formation of Western Reserve Partners

August 21, 2004

The Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest newspaper, reported the formation of Western Reserve Partners as its lead story in the Business Section of Saturday, August, 21, 2004. The article was titled, “Ex-Employees of McDonald joining forces as competitor.”

The article reported that “Ralph Della Ratta Jr., the former head of investment banking at KeyCorp’s McDonald Investments, has started his own investment bank with a group of former McDonald employees. The new firm, called Western Reserve Partners LLC, is targeting midsize companies in the Midwest, western New York and western Pennsylvania. It plans to focus on the industrial, consumer and real estate sectors and provide a range of services that covers mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies and restructuring, and raising capital.”

Mr. Della Ratta is quoted as saying, “We want to get back to the roots of the old McDonald, to really go after that midmarket.” He says the firm can take advantage of the lack of investment banks in the region that serve midmarket companies by emphasizing personal service.

The article points out that “all twelve of Western Reserve Partners’ employees worked for McDonald at some point in their careers. It’s headed by five managing directors, including Della Ratta. The other four are: David Dunstan, McDonald’s former manager of retail and consumer products; Victor Faris, McDonald’s former manager of real estate; Mark Filippell, McDonald’s former manager of mergers and acquisitions; and Kenneth Hirsch, McDonald’s former manager of growth finance.”

The article goes on to explain that Western Reserve Partners is focusing on companies with sales in the range of $25 million to $500 million and already has a dozen deals in the works.

Mr. Hirsch is quoted as saying that the new firm “couldn’t have picked a better time to start. As business conditions improve, the M&A market is starting to take off. The other thing is, you look at the geographic coverage of the industrial Midwest, and some people have written it off. We think there’s tremendous opportunity here.”

Mr. Dunstan explains that he was drawn to Western Reserve Partners because of the entrepreneurial challenge. “We can really own and build something here. It’s hard to do that at a place like McDonald.”

The complete text of the August 21, 2004 article in The Plain Dealer can be found here.