Team
JC Watts Jr. | Michael D. Bluestein
| Linda G. Roach | Miguel U. Lambert
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JC Watts Jr.
Senior Partner |
Prior to founding Oakcrest in 2006, Mr. Watts has been the chairman of the J.C. Watts Companies, a corporate and government affairs consulting firm that he founded in 2002. Mr. Watts and his management team provide strategic focus and program leadership to the firm’s business engagements, alliances and initiatives. Through this role, Mr. Watts serves as an advisor to a number of leading businesses including John Deere, Wells Fargo, NASCAR and AT&T.
Mr. Watts has served as a corporate director since 2003 for several large publicly-traded corporations, including Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Clear Channel Communications, Dillard’s Department Stores, and Terex Corporation. He expects to remain on only two public company boards going forward. He is a regular weekly analyst on CNN and writes a twice monthly column for more than a dozen newspapers.
Mr. Watts was elected to the U.S. Congress from the fourth district of Oklahoma in 1994. In 1998, he was elected by his peers to the fourth-ranking leadership position, Conference Chairman, in the majority party in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a Member of Congress, Mr. Watts served for eight years on the House Armed Services Committee. He authored legislation to create, and then he later served on, the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. He also served on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, as well as the House Banking Committee. He led two congressional trade missions to Africa. He co-authored the American Community Renewal and New Markets Act, which President Clinton signed into law in 2000. He also developed legislation with Congressman John Lewis to establish a Smithsonian Museum of African-American History. Mr. Watts earned a BA degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma. He is also Chairman of the J.C. and Frankie Watts Foundation and serves on the board of The Boy Scouts of America.
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Michael Bluestein
Partner |
Mr. Bluestein joined Oakcrest in 2007. He brings eight years of private equity experience from Winston Partners Group, a lower middle market buyout and growth investor in Northern Virginia. He joined Winston in 1999 as a member of the general partner, prior to the firm raising its first institutional fund. Winston Partners Group managed $140 million in direct private equity investments. During his tenure at Winston Partners Group, Michael led or co-led many of the firm's private equity investments. He served on six portfolio company boards and advised several others. His sectors of experience include building products, niche manufacturing, outsourced business services, healthcare services and consumer products. Before joining Winston Partners Group, Mr. Bluestein spent five years as an investment banker at First Union and PaineWebber advising on M&A and capital markets transactions. Mr. Bluestein received a BA degree in Political Science from the University of Virginia and earned an MBA in Strategic Management and Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Linda G. Roach
Partner |
Ms. Roach joined Oakcrest in 2007. Previously, Ms. Roach was a Senior Vice President with Pacesetter Capital Group, a Texas based firm managing a family of funds totaling over $200 million in assets under management. Ms. Roach was at Pacesetter for over ten years where she was primarily responsible for sourcing and structuring lower middle market deals in the areas of manufacturing, services and media. Ms. Roach played a lead or co-lead role in many of the firm's investments and she served as a director, observer or officer on five portfolio company boards. Ms. Roach joined Pacesetter following seven years at Bank of America where she was a Vice President in the bank’s corporate finance division in both general industry and specialized industry groups. Ms. Roach holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
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Miguel U. Lambert
Vice President |
Mr. Lambert joined Oakcrest in June 2007. Prior to joining Oakcrest, Mr. Lambert was an Associate at CapitalSource Finance, a commercial finance firm providing senior and junior capital to small and mid-sized companies. In 2003, he joined CapitalSource's Corporate Finance group where he partnered with private equity and leveraged buyout firms to deliver senior, mezzanine, and equity financing. During his tenure at CapitalSource, Mr. Lambert reviewed and structured a significant number of transactions in the consumer goods, distribution, niche manufacturing, direct marketing, consulting and petrochemical sectors. Prior to CapitalSource, Mr. Lambert was an investment banking financial analyst in the Automotive and Chemical Group at Salomon Smith Barney (Citigroup). Mr. Lambert earned a BSBA degree in finance from Georgetown University.
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