HIGA

Failed

H.I.G. Acquisition Corp.

Raised
$325M
CIK
1823776
SPAC Ticker
HIGA.U
External link: SEC Filings

SPAC Team

Leadership

Brian Schwartz serves as our Chief Executive Officer and on our board of directors . We anticipate that Mr. Schwartz will become chairman of our board of directors prior to the closing of this offering. Mr. Schwartz is Co-President of H.I.G. Capital. He joined H.I.G. Capital in 1994. In his current position, along with Co-President Rick Rosen, he helps run the day-to-day operations of the firm and sits on the investment committees for all H.I.G. Capital funds. Prior to this role, Mr. Schwartz held a number of leadership positions at the firm, as well as having led the acquisition of 25 platform investments in a variety of industries. Prior to joining H.I.G. Capital, Mr. Schwartz worked in PepsiCo’s strategic planning group. His responsibilities included managing strategic acquisitions for PepsiCo and evaluating new business opportunities. Mr. Schwartz began his career with the investment banking firm of Dillon, Read and Co., where he split his time between the corporate finance group and certain private equity funds. Mr. Schwartz earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his B.S. with honors from the University of Pennsylvania. We believe Mr. Schwartz’s qualifications to serve on our board of directors include his substantial experience in building and managing businesses and in identifying and executing acquisition opportunities.

Rob Wolfson serves as our President and on our board of directors . Mr. Wolfson is an Executive Managing Director and the Head of the Advantage Fund, as well as the Head of U.S. Healthcare. Mr. Wolfson joined H.I.G. Capital in 2005. Prior to leading the Advantage Fund, Mr. Wolfson spent almost 12 years as a Managing Director leading transactions across multiple H.I.G. Capital strategies. Mr. Wolfson has worked with companies in a variety of industries, with a focus on healthcare, business services, and technology. In addition to the responsibilities mentioned above, Mr. Wolfson brings investment and operating experience across many industries. Prior to H.I.G. Capital, Mr. Wolfson was an executive at IPWireless, a wireless infrastructure provider. Mr. Wolfson began his career as a consultant with LEK Consulting, a leading worldwide strategy consulting firm where he worked with Fortune 500 companies, private equity firms and private equity portfolio companies. Mr. Wolfson earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Northwestern University. We believe Mr. Wolfson’s qualifications to serve on our board of directors include his extensive investment and management experience across a variety of industries.

Timur Akazhanov serves as our Chief Financial Officer. He is a Managing Director of the Advantage Fund, where he focuses on investing in telecommunications, media and technology sectors, as well as tech-enabled services sectors. Mr. Akazhanov has more than a decade of experience in private equity in a broad range of industries, including technology, services, education, industrials, media and healthcare. Prior to joining H.I.G. Capital, Mr. Akazhanov was a Managing Director in the Private Equity Group at Blackstone for seven years, and before that worked at Bain Capital and McKinsey and Company. Mr. Akazhanov earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker and a Ford scholar, and his A.B. in Economics, magna cum laude, from Harvard College.

Richard Siegel serves as our Vice President and General Counsel . He has been General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of H.I.G. Capital since 2005. He is responsible for all of the firm’s legal, regulatory and compliance matters worldwide. Prior to joining H.I.G. Capital, Mr. Siegel was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Ryder System, a Fortune 350 global transportation and logistics company, and General Counsel of a private investment firm headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Mr. Siegel began his legal career in the New York and Melbourne, Australia offices of Sullivan & Cromwell and served as a Judicial Clerk for Andrew G.T. Moore II, of the Delaware Supreme Court. Mr. Siegel received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center and earned a B.S. in Finance, magna cum laude, from the University of Maryland.

William E. Mitchell is a nominee for our board of directors . Mr. Mitchell is a founder and managing partner at Sequel Venture Partners, a position he has held since 2010. Mr. Mitchell is also a partner with Sage Partners, a consulting firm comprised of experienced senior executives specializing in corporate governance and venture acceleration. Prior to this, Mr. Mitchell was the chairman and chief executive officer of Arrow Electronics, a Fortune 125 company and a provider of distribution and supply chain services to the technology sector. Prior to his role at Arrow Electronics, Mr. Mitchell held senior executive roles at various technology companies. In the last five years, Mr. Mitchell was on the board of many publicly-traded companies, including Humana Inc., a healthcare company (2009-2019); Veritiv Corporation, an industrial packaging company (2014- 2020); Spansion, Inc., a flash memory supplier (2012-2016); Rogers Corp., a diversified provider of advanced materials solutions (1994-2017); and The Brown-Forman Corp (2009-2016), a manufacturer of adult alcoholic beverages. Mr. Mitchell is currently on the board of Trace3, a private IT and engineering company; and Clover Wireless, a provider of aftermarket services to the communications industry. Mr. Mitchell has served on various other public, private, for profit, and not for profit boards of directors in the past. Mr. Mitchell received his master of science in engineering from the University of Michigan and his B.S. in engineering from Princeton University. We believe Mr. Mitchell’s qualifications to serve on our board of directors include his over 30 years of executive leadership experience and over 20 years of experience as a board member of numerous public, private and non-profit companies, including experience chairing audit, nominating and compensation committees of those boards.

Andreas Beroutsos is a nominee for our board of directors . Mr. Beroutsos is the Managing Director, Investments, and senior group executive for strategic new businesses at BW Group, a global maritime group involved in shipping, floating gas and offshore energy infrastructure and production, and clean energy, a position he has held since 2020. Mr. Beroutsos was a member of the board of OSX-listed BW LPG, an energy transportation company associated with the BW Group, from 2013 until 2020. In his 13 years as a private equity investor, Mr. Beroutsos has been a senior partner at HRS Management LLC, the private-equity focused family office of Apollo Investment Management’s co-founder; and the executive vice president and senior portfolio manager for private equity & infrastructure at Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ), a leading Canadian institutional investor that manages public and para-public pension plans and insurance programs. At CDPQ, Mr. Beroutsos served on the management committee, client committee, and cross-asset-class investment-risk committee; and was the chair of the private equity and infrastructure investment committees. Prior to CDPQ, Mr. Beroutsos led private investments at multi-strategy fund Eton Park Capital Management. Earlier in his career, Mr. Beroutsos spent 17 years at McKinsey & Co., where he became a senior partner, global leader of the private equity practice, co-leader of the financial institutions practice, head of global recruiting and member of the committee that elected the senior partners of the firm. Mr. Beroutsos has been a member of the board of directors of PetSmart, Inc., a pet supplies company, since 2015. In 2013, Mr. Beroutsos was selected by European and Greek authorities to serve on the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, overseeing the recapitalization of Greek banks. Additionally, Mr. Beroutsos has served on numerous corporate and non-profit boards. He holds M.B.A. and B.A. degrees, both with high distinction, from Harvard University. We believe Mr. Beroutsos will be a valuable member of our board due to his extensive experience as a board member of, and investor in, large companies and experience overseeing large portfolios of individual companies.

Christopher O’Connell is a nominee for our board of directors . Mr. O’Connell was most recently the president, chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of Waters Corporation, a publicly-traded company which develops, manufactures and distributes innovative analytical technologies, software and professional services for a broad range of life science, food & environmental and industrial customers globally, from 2015 until 2020. He currently is a senior advisor to Waters Corporation, a position he will hold until the end of 2020. Prior to this, Mr. O’Connell was an executive vice president and president of the restorative therapies group of Medtronic plc, a publicly-traded medical technology, services and solutions company. Mr. O’Connell served on Medtronic’s executive committee for nine years. Prior to his roles as executive vice president and president of the restorative therapies group, Mr. O’Connell held numerous other positions at Medtronic, where he spent 21 years of his career. Mr. O’Connell serves on two boards at Northwestern University and is also on the board of Ron Burton Training Village, a youth leadership and character training academy. Mr. O’Connell received his M.B.A. from Harvard University and B.A. from Northwestern University. We believe Mr. O’Connell will be a valuable member of our board due to his experience as a director and chief executive officer of a public company and due to his extensive executive leadership experience in different industries.

Sidney Taurel is a nominee for our board of directors . Mr. Taurel is the chairman of the board of Pearson plc, a provider of digital education products and services, where he is a member of the nomination & governance and remuneration committees, a position he has had since 2016. Mr. Taurel is also the chairman emeritus at Eli Lilly and Company, a pharmaceutical company, a position he has held since 2009. Mr. Taurel began working for Eli Lilly in 1971. He was named president of Eli Lilly International Corporation in 1986, executive vice president of the Pharmaceutical Division in 1991, executive vice president of Eli Lilly and Company in 1993, and president and chief operating officer in 1996. He was named chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company in 1998 and chairman in 1999. Mr. Taurel retired as chief executive officer in early 2008 and as chairman in late 2008. Mr. Taurel is a member of the board of International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), a computer company, a position he has held since 2001, where he is a member of the directors and corporate governance committee. In the last five years, Mr. Taurel was also on the board of the publicly traded company McGraw Hill Financial, Inc. (now S&P Global Inc.), a business and financial information company (1996-2016). Mr. Taurel also served as a senior advisor in the private equity and investment banking sector, has received three U.S. presidential committee appointments in the past and is an officer in the French Legion of Honor. Mr. Taurel is a member of the Board of Overseers at Columbia Business School. Mr. Taurel received his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and his undergraduate degree from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Paris, France. We believe Mr. Taurel will be a valuable member of our board due to his extensive executive leadership experience, experience as a chairman and member of boards of several public companies in diverse industries and experience with nomination and governance committees on public company boards.