Brian Cooke has a 30-year successful track record in M&A and PE with a passion for BD/deal origination in the consumer sector. He is currently originating proprietary acquisitions as BD/M&A Advisor to: Dessert Holdings (premium frozen desserts M&A platform with $1+ billion in sales) majority owned by Bain Capital ($185 billion AUM); Lakeview Farms (branded refrigerated foods M&A platform with $700+ million in sales) majority owned by CapVest (€7.5 billion AUM); and Natra (global private label chocolate products M&A platform with $700+ million in sales) majority owned by CapVest. He was previously a BD/M&A Advisor to: Sugar Foods Corp. (privately owned producer of salad, sandwich and pizza toppings and beverage enhancers with $800+ million in sales); Post Holdings Partnering Corp. ($345 million corporate SPAC) sponsored by Post Holdings, Inc. (CPG holding company with $5+ billion in sales; NYSE:POST); Give & Go Prepared Foods (sweet baked goods M&A platform with $800+ million in sales) majority owned by Mondelez International (global snacking company with $25+ billion in sales; NASDAQ:MDLZ); and 8th Avenue Food & Provisions (private label food M&A platform with $1+ billion in sales) majority owned by Post Holdings. He also previously originated proprietary investments in the consumer sector as head of Consumer BD for $3.6 billion Fund VIII and $460 million SPAC for Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL; PE firm that has raised more than $30 billion of equity capital). Prior to that he was managing director at TriArtisan Capital Partners where he originated and executed private equity investments alongside premier PE firms, family offices and sovereign wealth funds. Prior to that he co-founded and was CFO at Cofunds, the largest mutual fund investment platform in the UK with $75+ billion of assets under custody and 500+ employees. Before that he was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in NYC and M&A banker at Lehman Brothers in NYC and London where he executed billions of dollars of transactions. Brian holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, in Economics from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Dual citizenship (US/Ireland) and wife Lucinda also dual citizenship (US/New Zealand).