Equiteq hires Jeff Becker as North America M&A leader

Equiteq, a London-headquartered investment bank focused on the consulting and IT services industries, has added Jeff Becker as its mergers and acquisitions leader for North America. Becker brings a quarter-century of investment banking experience to the role, and will be based in Equiteq’s New York office.

Founded in 2006, Equiteq helps consulting and IT firms grow for sale, and then achieve maximum value in the sale process. On the pre-sale growth side, the firm supports companies with strategic reviews and operational assessments, valuation, and prioritization and implementation of work streams based on identified operational strengths and exit objectives. On the sale side, Equiteq helps companies create the environment for a premium business valuation, attract a wide pool of interested buyers, and preserve business value through the due diligence and closing process.

The firm has offices in London, Paris, New York, Sydney, and Singapore.

Equiteq’s North America practice has experienced exceptional expansion in the last two years, according to CEO David Jorgensen, with the practice completing a record number of deals. Earlier this fall, the firm acted as exclusive financial advisor to management consultancy Caiman Consulting, which was sold to Sia Partners. In the summer, Equiteq was exclusive financial advisor to IT consultancy WGroup on its merger with Wavestone, and was exclusive financial advisor to tech consultancy RevUnit on its investment from Mountaingate Capital.

Kicking on from increasing demand for its services in the region, Equiteq has brought in Jeff Becker to serve as a managing director and North America M&A leader. During his 25 years in investment banking, Becker has focused on technology and software investment, closing more than 100 M&A and capital raising transactions for growth and mid-market companies.

“Equiteq is very pleased to have Jeff join our firm to lead our rapidly growing North American business and continue to strengthen our position as the leading global M&A practice for knowledge economy businesses,” Jorgensen said.

Prior to joining Equiteq, Becker served as managing director and co-head of technology investment banking at JEGI for five years, providing M&A, strategy, growth capital, and recapitalization advisory services to technology companies and their investors. Before that, he spent five years as partner and co-head of software investment banking at America’s Growth Capital.

Earlier in his career, Becker was co-head of software investment banking at JMP Securities, RBC Capital Markets, Robertson Stephens, and Cowen and Company. He holds an MBA in finance and accounting from NYU Stern School of Business and a BS in finance from Lehigh University College of Business.

“I am very excited to join Equiteq and help accelerate its growing market position across the US,” Becker said. “The firm is extremely well positioned for the future due to our focus on the knowledge economy and our integrated advisory, market intelligence, and banking transaction capabilities on a global scale. I look forward to adding to our strong domain expertise and helping orchestrate highly successful outcomes for our banking clients.”

Earlier this year, Equiteq added Sam Levy as a director in the New York M&A team.