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Mike de Windt

Mike de Windt

Managing Director of Strategic Advisory at Carleton McKenna & Company; 30-year private equity veteran specializing in middle-market manufacturing and business services.

Jul 15, 2026

20:06
right
20:06
well and you bring something up you know you you referenced having a board you know most closely held companies i would say 80 to 90 percent particularly if they're family-owned either don't have a board or they have a board that is you know family members or other kind of inside trusted advisors and and they don't truly function in a board capacity around um not necessarily from a fiduciary perspective, because that generally isn't the case unless there are minority shareholders or broad family shareholders.
20:49
It really is about bringing people to the table that have perspectives and skill sets that can help direct the company, influence decision-making, all within the realm of how are we creating shareholder value? That's why we're here.
21:09
I mean, it's, it, you know, it's somewhat sounds, it sounds a little trite shareholder value, but that's what creates opportunities and growth and capacity to, you know, take on new ideas, right? You know, if you have a healthy growing business with, you know, a scalable organization and the and a relatively deep bench.
21:36
I guess no one ever has a fully deep bench of first-round draft picks, but a deep enough bench that you can take on new ideas, which, you know, then you get a flywheel going that can really create momentum in a business.
21:51
But you have to do the hard work, as you mentioned earlier, of laying the proper foundation.
21:57
And, you know, I was going to comment on this.

18 MINS LATER

39:31
Where do you typically see the lowest hanging fruit when you first engage with the business?

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