John Honney - President - [email protected]
 

John founded JKH Enterprises in 2003 to lead middle market companies through financings, transactions and other corporate development activities. He brings to his clients a wealth of experience which he gained as a senior member of the Bank of Montreal’s Cdn$300 million middle market private equity fund. He is well versed in strategic planning, corporate governance and transaction execution.

John is also a Lecturer of Finance at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management where he teaches its “Venture Capital and Private Equity” course.

At the Bank of Montreal, he led multiple private equity investments and represented the fund at portfolio companies as a Board Member and Chairman of an Audit Committee. John ultimately managed the fund’s Chicago office and was an integral member of the fund, which invested more than $150 million in 6 companies, orchestrated multiple out-of-court restructurings, raised hundreds of millions of dollars of debt and led two successful senior management successions.

John began his career as a financial analyst in New York with Goldman Sachs & Co.’s Economics Research Group. Afterward, John joined Meadowcroft Associates, a boutique investment bank specializing in workouts and restructurings, where he advised unsecured creditor committees in Chapter 11 reorganizations, such as those of Eagle-Picher and National Gypsum. After earning his MBA at the Kellogg School of Management, John worked as a consultant to M&T Bank before joining the Bank of Montreal’s private equity fund. John has a B.A. cum laude from Middlebury College, where he wrote a thesis which was published in the journal "Economics Letters."

Scott Yates - Director - [email protected]
 

Scott Yates has over 20 years of M&A and professional management experience in the sporting goods, industrial supply, contract manufacturing and technology sectors. He brings to JKH Enterprises extensive knowledge about private businesses which he has gained in senior management positions with responsibility for sales, international business, operations, post-merger integration, strategic planning, restructuring, strategic sourcing and engineering.

Scott has hands-on M&A experience, having acquired out of bankruptcy a sporting goods manufacturer in partnership with private equity investors. Then, while serving as President and CEO, he guided the company through an add-on acquisition. He also has served as interim CEO of a private equity backed industrial supply company, with responsibility for transitioning management of the business away from the selling entrepreneur.

Scott has held senior management positions in a variety of industry leading companies operating in the electronic manufacturing (VisionTek), supply chain software (Ariba), receivables management (Outsourcing Solutions, Inc.) and management consulting (A.T. Kearney) industries. Additionally, he spent 5 years serving as an officer in the United States Navy, proudly a part of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.

Scott has consulted with companies across a wide spectrum of industries in North America, South America and Europe on issues ranging from top-line growth to operational cost-cutting, including during a recent engagement in which he led the turnaround of a thermoplastics manufacturer in the southeast.

Scott has an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, an MS in industrial engineering from Virginia Tech and a BE in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Elizabeth and three children, Margaux, Dorsey and Sam.