Gerard J. Leimkuhler – Managing Partner

Jerry is the Managing Partner and Chairman of Berwyn Capital Interests. He has extensive experience in managing and revitalizing troubled and under-performing companies and reducing or resourcing creditor exposure.

Jerry has a career of experience working in credit, analysis, and acquisition management in asset backed finance, including twenty years dedicated substantially to crisis management and restructuring work. He has substantial experience working with secured and unsecured creditors and investors in private and publicly held businesses, including those operating under bankruptcy protection. He has also served as the crisis/turnaround CEO, chairman or vice chairman of more than a dozen troubled companies.

Jerry’s experience also includes positions with clients in healthcare, chemical specialty, entertainment, mortgage secured lending and resort and community development and finance, including the Oxford Finance Companies, Inc., West Coast Entertainment Corporation, Glen Ivey Corporation and General Development Corporation. He represented the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation in the Trans World Airlines bankruptcy, has been a financial advisor to the United States Treasury Department and has consulted for the State of Florida Department of Land Development Regulation.

Jerry is a graduate of the School of Business at Temple University in Philadelphia. He served in the 157th Infantry Brigade active and reserves. He was also a member of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. He is a founding director and treasurer of the Turnaround Management Association (Philadelphia), a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Association for Corporate Growth and Private Investors Forum.

He has served as Municipal Planning Commission Chairman and Finance Board Chairman, each for fifteen years and as Financial Advisor to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

He is an MBA program lecturer and frequent panel member on crisis management and finance presentations. He has been guest speaker at conferences in the United States, Hong Kong, Taipei and London.

Gary M. Murphey, CPA, CTP – Senior Advisor

Gary is a Senior Advisor at Berwyn Capital Interests. He provides corporate restructuring and crisis management services to companies, creditors and trustees throughout the United States.

Gary has over 20 years of experience working in financial examinations, turnaround and corporate recovery services. Gary’s efforts have been directed at bankruptcy accounting, trustee assignments and turnaround management. Gary is engaged by companies, financial institutions, and creditor groups to assist in turnaround, economic and valuation issues related to financially distressed companies.

Gary has extensive experience in financial examinations and acquisition due diligence. He was a Director in the Corporate Restructuring practice at Arthur Andersen, LLP. Gary has served as an arbitrator and his testimony experience includes Federal Bankruptcy Courts in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, and arbitration hearings and mediations. He has also served as a Trustee of Chapter 11 Cases in the Middle District of Tennessee.

Gary is a graduate of the School of Business at The University of Tennessee and is a Certified Public Accountant and is one of fewer than several hundred Certified Turnaround Professionals in the United States. He is a member of the Turnaround Management Association, the American Bankruptcy Institute, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Georgia Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Dan Aboyan – Senior Advisor

Daniel Aboyan is a banking industry executive, with over 25 years of experience in the financial markets ranging from Corporate Banking, Investment Banking and Capital Markets. Mr. Aboyan spent his initial 23 years with CoreStates Financial Corporation and its successor, Wachovia. He managed various Corporate and Specialized Banking business units and served on the Bank’s Loan Committee. From 1995 through early 1998 Mr. Aboyan was Executive Vice President in charge of CoreStates Capital Markets where he consolidated various fragmented business units throughout the organization. At the time, he served as a member of the Senior Management group of CoreStates Bank, Chairman of CoreStates Securities Corporation, a member of the Board and Investment Committee of CoreStates Investment Advisors and a member of the CoreStates Enterprise Fund’s Investment Committee. Upon the consummation of the merger with Wachovia, Mr. Aboyan joined Wachovia Capital Markets Operating Committee in Charlotte, NC, managing certain business units and serving in an overall management capacity of the Capital Markets Group.

From 2000 to 2002, Mr. Aboyan, with four other individuals started a de novo wholesale banking operation for National City Bank, in Philadelphia, as Executive Vice President. After retiring for family related reasons in 2002, he became a senior advisor to Merion Partners II, a small business investment corporation in 2010. Mr. Aboyan graduated from Susquehanna University in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance.

Mary Bruno England – Senior Advisor

Mary focuses on providing controllership services for small to mid-size clients. She is a Certified Public Accountant with over 15 years experience in accounting, financial reporting, budgeting, tax compliance, financial analysis and modeling. Her experience includes development of business plans, accounting systems, internal controls, process management, forecasting and cash flow analysis.

Mary started her career at Arthur Andersen LLP, where she served as a senior auditor in the commercial audit division. She has also worked in various management roles for a global pharmaceutical company and more recently, served as controller for a private integrated real estate development firm active in owning, developing, constructing and managing multi-family rental, commercial, and industrial properties. In this role, Mary oversaw all accounting and finance operations, including setup and implementation of processes, procedures and controls for a new accounting system and new division. She also played in key role in obtaining construction loan financing commitments in high eight figures and was the key finance support on a high eight figure strategic sale of a multifamily property, consisting of several hundred units and amenities.

Mary is a Certified Public Accountant, who earned her Bachelor of Science in Accounting at LaSalle University. She also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Villanova University. Mary is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Charles M. Jacobson – Operating Partner

Charles (Chuck) is responsible for day-to-day operations of the firm and serves as service delivery coordinator for several of the firm’s largest clients. Since co-founding Berwyn Capital’s affiliate Pine Hill Group in 2007, Chuck has served as CFO/CAO/Controller of his public clients and has advised his clients on numerous M&A transactions and GAAP/SEC compliance and reporting matters. As a CPA with nearly 20 years experience, he has worked with both public and private companies in numerous industries, including communications, technology and manufacturing.
Immediately prior thereto, Chuck worked in private industry for ATX Communications, a telecommunications company, rising to Senior VP of Finance. He also spent a number of years in public accounting working for both BDO Seidman and Ernst & Young. Chuck started his professional career at a regional accounting firm where he performed audits on governmental agencies. Throughout his career, Chuck has been actively involved in major mergers & acquisitions as well as in-court (Chapter 11) and out-of-court restructurings. With in-depth experience in finance/accounting department operations, audits, IPO’s, SEC financial reporting, and post-acquisition integration, Chuck knows the challenges faced by businesses today.

Barry Smith – Operating Partner

Barry leads Berwyn Capital’s and affiliate Pine Hill Group’s Private Equity and M&A Services practice. In this role, Barry assists a select group of private equity clients with all aspects of their pre-closing business and financial due diligence. On a post-closing basis, Barry helps existing management in driving through the peak workload that always comes after closing a deal. He also provides sell-side financial advisory services to lower middle-market private companies to facilitate successful capital raising and liquidity events that maximize shareholder value. Beyond these services, Barry also manages the firm’s network of senior operating professionals and heads the investment committee for Pine Hill Group Partners, LLC, the firm’s direct co-investment and funds-to-funds vehicle.
Prior thereto, Barry spent five years as a principal investor at a Philadelphia-based PE firm where he was involved in all aspects of the firm’s platform and add-on investment processes. In addition to his transaction assessment and execution responsibilities, Barry served as CFO of the firm’s B2B and B2C portfolio companies. Barry’s experience includes eight years at Ernst & Young, primarily as a member of the firm’s Transaction Advisory Services, where he served many of the firm’s top private equity and strategic buyers. Barry is an active committee member for the Association for Corporate Growth – Philadelphia Chapter and volunteers for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Edward J. Sweeney – Operating Partner

Edward (Ed) leads Berwyn Capital’s and Pine Hill Group’s SEC and Financial Reporting practice. He is a seasoned finance executive and skilled accounting technician whose years of experience, particularly in the Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, Manufacturing, Real Estate and Home Building industries give him specialized expertise that is profoundly helpful to all clients, whether public, private, large or small. Ed’s background includes senior leadership experience in the areas of accounting and financial reporting, mergers and acquisitions, due diligence, pre and post merger integration, accounting operations management and procurement. Ed also has significant SEC experience, as both a registrant and an advisor for numerous clients, assisting them through all phases of SEC compliance from public offerings, registration statements, interim and annual financial reporting and SEC comment letter resolution.
Prior thereto, Ed spent over 7 years in various roles of increasing responsibility at Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ENDP), most recently as Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer. Before this, Ed was an Audit Senior Manager for 13 years at Ernst & Young LLP in Philadelphia.

E. Barry Smith – Operating Partner

E. Barry Smith (Barry) is a senior financial executive with diversified experience in both public and private sectors, particularly with technology firms. As Operating Partner of Berwyn Capital and Senior Director at Pine Hill Group, Barry is responsible for providing financial and operational support to clients. These services include interim CFO services, operational support & M&A assistance.
Prior thereto, Barry spent 3 years as CFO of Aria Systems, Inc., a VC-backed SaaS provider of billing and subscription management solutions and 3 years as CFO of Telkonet (AMEX: TKO), a market leading Clean Technology company. Throughout his numerous executive management positions, and namely as a Senior Financial Partner at Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE: SFE), a high-tech venture capital company, Barry provided pre-investment due diligence services and post investment portfolio company financial support. Barry’s background also includes Big Four public accounting experience with Deloitte & Touche.
Barry received his Bachelor of Science degree from LaSalle University and is a Certified Public Accountant. He is a member of the SIIA (Software & Information Industry Association), where he has served on the Finance Committee since 2007. Barry has also actively served on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Board of Education Finance Committee since 2006, and has been the Treasurer for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Philadelphia & Susquehanna Valley as well as a member of the Executive, Finance, Board Development & Fund Development Committees since 2009.

Jack Thomas Tomarchio – Senior Advisor

Jack brings over twenty-five years of experience in law, business and government to Berwyn Capital. He has worked as a commercial litigator and government affairs counsel in three national law firms, doing a diverse variety of legal work to include Resolution Trust Corporation litigation. He also founded and successfully led two consulting firms and worked for a number of years advising investors in numerous venture capital investments.

Jack has also worked at the highest levels of the US intelligence community where he was the Deputy Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis Operations. In that capacity he supervised the roll out and operation of federal intelligence activities in state and local intelligence fusion centers throughout the nation.

He is currently the President of Agoge Group, LLC, an operational consulting firm and serves on several corporate boards.
Jack is a cum laude graduate of Pennsylvania State University. He also holds his Juris Doctor from Vermont Law School, a Master of Government Administration from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College.