Mr. Staley has over 17 years of experience in finance, strategy, and management positions. Mr. Staley joined Meriturn's founding team in 2002, and is responsible for sourcing transactions, structuring, and ongoing portfolio company management, with particular emphasis on executing strategic initiatives and managing capital events within the portfolio. Mr. Staley is a member of the board of Prime Tanning.
Before joining Meriturn Partners in 2002, he served as the CFO and Vice President of Strategy for Axcellis, Inc., an early-stage application software developer in the security alarm and systems integration industries. At Axcellis, Franklin was responsible for all fundraising, financial management and strategic partnerships.
Prior to joining Axcellis, Mr. Staley was the turnaround CEO of a sports equipment company named KKS, Inc., where he executed a corporate turnaround that re-focused the Company's development efforts on higher margin services, longer-term sales contracts with a national purchaser, and higher volume sales, rather than box retail operations. In addition, he overhauled the billing, financial, and marketing operations of an affiliated health and wellness company. Today, both businesses are generating significant returns for their owners.
Prior to joining KKS, Mr. Staley was an Associate for SG Cowen Securities in its Technology Investment Banking Group, where he focused on IPOs, follow-on transactions, private placements, and mergers & acquisitions for small and mid-cap clients in multiple technology sectors. Mr. Staley was previously a financial analyst for Lehman Brothers in its Leveraged Finance and Restructuring Group, and a credit analyst for Chase Manhattan.
Mr. Staley earned a BA degree, cum laude, with special distinction in economics from Kenyon College and an MBA from The Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College, and serves as a Board Member for the Josephine B. & Allen P. Green Foundation.