Los Angeles, CA – May 9, 2011 – First Beverage Group today announced that it has hired Townsend Ziebold as Managing Partner. Ziebold will be responsible for further developing the Company’s investment banking practice, including its mergers and acquisitions advisory business.
“Townsend brings an unparalleled level of Wall Street deal making experience and a unique combination of M&A and private equity skills to our efforts to build a premier investment banking firm dedicated to the beverage industry,” said Bill Anderson, founder and CEO of First Beverage Group. “As Sean McLaren and John O’Connor have done for our distributor and importer M&A group, Townsend will bring a specialized focus on supplier M&A. Townsend will also play an important role in our private equity investments in early-stage beverage brands.”
Ziebold has over 25 years of experience in investment banking and private equity at The First Boston Corporation, Wasserstein Perella & Co., and Wasserstein & Co. He has completed over $40 billion in mergers and acquisitions advisory assignments, and as a principal investor over 30 private equity investments, ranging from leveraged buyouts and growth equity to venture capital. In this capacity, Ziebold was also a former director and non-executive chairman of Imax Corporation, a leading large-screen film projection company, and a former director of two other public companies, Collins & Aikman Corporation, a $2 billion automotive components company, and Maybelline, Inc., a leading mass market cosmetics manufacturer. He received his B.A. in Economics from Trinity College and his M.B.A. from the Stanford School of Business.
“I am very excited to be joining First Beverage Group,” said Ziebold. “The combination of its deep team of industry experts with its full range of products from early to mid-stage private equity, consulting, private placements and mergers and acquisitions advisory services, makes it a compelling platform to serve the needs of its beverage industry clients. I am looking forward to bringing my experience as both an investment banker and private equity investor to First Beverage to build one of the premier financial service firms servicing the beverage industry.”
Ziebold will head First Beverage’s New York office. He can be reached at townsend@firstbev.com.