Joshua C. Cascade

The Blackstone Group, Inc. provides marketing research services. It provides custom market research services for clients in industries as consumer packaged goods, financial services, healthcare and technology. The firm's clients include eBay, Harris Bank and Pfizer. The company was founded by Ashref A. Hashim in 1987 and is headquartered in Chicago, IL.

Wellspring seeks to invest in companies with strong, defensible business franchises where the opportunity exists to significantly improve profitability and cash flow.Potential investments should possess one or more of the following characteristics: have strong brand identity or market position; the likelihood for improved productivity or cost reductions through restructuring, reorganizing or redeploying capital into core businesses; and are capable of generating a recurring revenue stream and relatively stable and predictable cash flow with the potential for long-term growth.Wellspring specializes in the following areas: (1) buyouts of private companies, acquisitions of divisions or subsidiaries of public companies and going-private transactions (2) partnering with entrepreneurs to provide capital and strategic guidance for expansion (3) purchasing equity from shareholders of family-owned businesses for financial planning needs and (4) acquiring companies or divisions of larger companies out of bankruptcy or restructuring.Wellspring completes transactions ranging from $50 million to as much as $2 billion in total value. They evaluate and complete acquisition opportunities across a broad range of industries.Wellspring typically does not make investments in telecommunications, high technology, real estate and commodity-based businesses.

Odyssey Investment Partners (OIP) seeks to identify and invest in established middle-market companies in industries or markets that are poised to benefit from economic changes, secular trends, regulatory changes or market dislocations. The firm typically makes majority, control-oriented investments in established middle-market companies in the following industries: (1) industrial manufacturing (2) business and insurance services (3) aerospace/defense products and services (4) route-based businesses (5) supply chain management (6) energy products and services and (7) rental businesses. The firm seeks to invest in companies with existing management teams. Their objective is to transform middle-market businesses into larger companies with industry-leading market shares and operating margins. OIP makes investments in the form of leveraged acquisitions, growth financings and recapitalizations.