Intrepid Investment Bankers, a leading middle-market investment bank and the advisory arm of global financial group MUFG, announced that it served as exclusive financial advisor to Sounding Board on its officially completed sale to BTS Group AB (Stockholm:BTSB), a leading global consultancy specializing in strategy execution, change, and people development.
Founded by Christine Tao and Lori Mazan in 2016, Sounding Board is a Silicon Valley based leadership development company that was created to bridge the gap found in current industry offerings, which either focus on less scalable one-on-one coaching or highly commoditized and automated training. Through deployment of its innovative software platform coupled with an experienced coaching network, Sounding Board helps manage the entire leader development lifecycle across various levels within organizations. Following the transaction, Sounding Board’s proprietary software platform will be rolled out across various BTS business units, and the addition of Sounding Board’s coach network will raise BTS’s total roster to 700 credentialled coaches with global reach.
“We appreciated the close partnership with Intrepid throughout the process. They felt like an extension of our team and provided timely, sage advice at pivotal decision points. They were very responsive and always available to help things move forward quickly,” said Christine Tao, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sounding Board. “Their knowledge and understanding of the leadership and coaching space was instrumental – we felt confident in their ability to accurately position Sounding Board’s business and unique differentiators.”
“When we met Christine, we knew Sounding Board was uniquely positioned with its differentiated platform for tech-enabled leadership development, said Jeff Becker, Managing Director and lead HCM banker in the Software & Services practice at Intrepid. “We are very happy to see the strategy we had mapped out with the company come to fruition and to assist them in closing a deal with their buyer of choice. This deal also represents Intrepid’s fifth Leadership/Talent Development transaction in the past two and a half years and additional evidence of our strong Human Capital Management franchise within our Software & Services banking group.”