Access Holdings, a Baltimore-based mid-market investment firm specialising in a purposeful buy-and-build investment approach, has added three new team members who will play key roles in further developing Access’s digital origination and portfolio monitoring capabilities.
Matt Johl, George Shipley, and Ellen Kirk Jarosinski will join Steve Chang and Merritt Davis in applying digital tools and capabilities to drive lead generation and performance management across the Access portfolio.
“I’m thrilled to now have four digital experts on our team who can help our firm and our portfolio companies embrace and apply digital tools and technology to drive growth,” says Access Holdings Partner Steve Chang. “We are committed to continuously improving our ability to source, underwrite and execute attractive deals, and digital lead generation capabilities will be a critical part of this.”
Johl joins Access Holdings as the Chief Data Officer, overseeing and executing the firm’s build-out of data-centric platforms, performance visualisation and analysis. Johl has more than 13 years of experience developing and building digital platforms at YourCause, a SaaS-based CSRconnect platform that helps engage employees in volunteering and giving initiatives. During his tenure at YourCause, Johl designed platforms that processed more than $500 million in payments for 120,000 non-profits worldwide.
Shipley joins Access as the Principal of Digital Origination, where he will play a key role in sourcing and originating new investments for Access and its portfolio companies. George has more than 20 years of experience in sales and marketing, corporate finance, and M&A. He spent the past 13 years working with some of the largest companies in the education industry, including Sylvan Learning, Laurate Education, and Navitas.
Jarosinski joins Access as a Business Development Representative. Jarosinski was previously a Senior Associate for the management consulting firm CVP (Customer Value Partners), where she was the project lead on their Medicare spending beneficiary program. A Baltimore area native, Jarosinski graduated from William and Mary in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in public policy.
Access has been building out its digital capabilities since 2019 with the Access Lead Lab (ALL) launch and more recently, the Pulse Initiative. The ALL provides a contemporary, digitally enabled way to increase the volume and velocity of partner opportunities for Access and its portfolio companies. The Pulse Initiative provides structured, real-time information about customers, competitors and business operations to help portfolio companies see more quickly and act to improve performance. This type of visibility proves valuable given the challenges introduced by Covid-19 and the continued expansion of Access’s portfolio companies.
Access portfolio companies are already benefiting from these contemporary digital capabilities.
“Because of the Access Lead Laboratory, we’ve successfully applied new digital tools and processes that have dramatically increased the number and velocity of partner and acquisition opportunities we are pursuing and closing at Regency,” says Scott Buttz, President and COO of Regency Pet Aftercare Services.
“Organisational efficiency is important to us and digital tools are helping us gain real-time frontline visibility to critical customer feedback. The information provided by the Pulse Initiative is critical to enabling our team to make better business decisions,” says Christian Seem, COO of CWON (Car Wash Owners Network).
