People

Mary has over 25 years of investment banking experience within the food industry specializing in financial restructurings, recapitalizations, turnarounds, private and public placements of debt and equity capital and providing corporate finance and strategic advisory services. She has been the advisor on more than 200 recapitalizations, placements, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures representing total consideration in excess of $15 billion. Mary is a founding partner of Lakeshore Food Advisors, LLC which is a boutique investment banking firm focused exclusively on the agribusiness and food space. Previous to Lakeshore, Mary worked for a variety of companies all in the food sector. She was a partner at The Food Partners, a boutique investment firm specializing in the retail and wholesale sectors of the food industry. She was chair of the board and interim chief executive officer at Associated Grocers, Inc. of Seattle, a $1 billion cooperative grocery wholesaler. She was chief financial officer at Imperial Sugar Company (OTCBB: IPSU), the largest refined sugar supplier in the United States, and helped the company grow through acquisitions from $400 million to $2 billion in sales. Mary was a managing director at Bank of Montreal/Harris Bank's Food Group specializing in input, manufacturing, processing, distribution and retail companies.

Mary has a B.A. from Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana and a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

She can be reached at mburke@lakeshorefoodadvisors.com or 312-348-7081.

Bill has been involved in the Food & Agribusiness industry over 35 years with extensive experience advising clients on over $30 billion in transactions. Prior to the origination of Lakeshore in early 2009, Bill was responsible for establishing and managing Wells Fargo Securities Investment Banking business in the Food & Agribusiness sector. From 1984 to 2005, Bill worked for Harris Bancorp, serving the last 12 years as an Executive Vice President with responsibility for building the Investment & Corporate Bank in the food sector from a regional to national franchise.

Bill has advised clients on strategic and financial alternatives, all forms of capital formation including high grade, high yield, equity, and equity-linked financing and mergers & acquisitions. He has extensive experience advising clients across the entire food chain from fertilizer, chemical, feed & seed companies to diversified food, protein, baking, dairy, fruit & vegetable, wholesale distribution, and retail grocer organizations. A highly accomplished leader, Bill has served as a keynote speaker at over 30 Food & Agribusiness conferences. Author of the weekly Food Stock Report, he served as President of the Food Management Association, and a Distinguished Fellow of the International Agribusiness Management Association, with leadership in many industry trade organizations.

Bill received a B.S. from the University of Illinois and a M.B.A. from the University of Hartford, in addition to being a frequent participant in the Harvard Business School Executive Education's Agribusiness Seminar.

He can be reached at wwhipple@lakeshorefoodadvisors.com or 312-348-7076.