Two Intrepid founders are celebrating a repeat appearance on the Los Angeles Business Journal’s “LA 500” special issue that is published annually highlighting Los Angeles’ most influential people in the business community.
According to the newspaper, LA is undergoing a transformation, “a period of palpable change that presents challenges and, more importantly, potential”. The people who comprise 2019’s “LA 500” are featured players in the city’s development. Their vision, energy, and resourcefulness help bring about change to the Los Angeles business community. The list profiles familiar names such as agriculture icons Lynda and Stewart Resnick, media titans Robert Iger and Kathleen Kennedy, architecture legend Frank Gehry, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, and billionaire health care mogul Patrick Soon-Shiong.
Ed Bagdasarian, CEO and Managing Director
Ed celebrates two years on the “LA 500” list. He assumed the role of CEO in 2014 and led the firm to become one of the largest specialty investment banks serving the middle market. In January of 2019, Intrepid became the investment banking arm of MUFG Union Bank, one of the largest and most respected commercial banks in the U.S. Ed looks forward to accelerating the growth of Intrepid and create a truly best of class financial advisory firm serving middle market companies throughout their life cycle, with the added resources and capabilities of its new platform.
BACKGROUND
Ed oversees merger and acquisition transactions. His three-decade investment-banking career includes deals in the consumer, health care, technology, manufacturing, industrial and business services sectors. He was one of the principal partners at Barrington Associates and helped grow the specialty investment bank before it was acquired by Wells Fargo Securities. His career also includes a stint as Vice President at First Global Securities Inc.
Jim Freedman, Chairman and Managing Director
Jim is no stranger to the “LA 500” as this marks his fourth year on the list. In January 2019, Intrepid was acquired by San Francisco-based MUFG Union Bank and Jim was an active participant in making the deal happen.
BACKGROUND
Jim is founding principal of Intrepid Investment Bankers, a specialty investment bank that provides mergers and acquisitions, capital-raising and strategic advisory services. He has more than 35 years of investment banking and corporate finance experience, and has served as the principal financial adviser in hundreds of capital raisings and M&A deals ranging in value from $20 million to more than $1 billion. In 1982, Freedman founded Barrington Associates, which Wells Fargo acquired in 2006. Prior to establishing Barrington, Jim was Vice President at Foothill Group, where he oversaw corporate development and commercial lending for California.