Bio

Rocky Pontikes is a managing director in Mesirow Financial’s Investment Banking group. In this capacity, he is responsible for new business development across several core industry concentrations and coverage of the group’s financial sponsor relationships. Since joining Mesirow Financial in June 2001, Rocky has led a variety of corporate finance engagements involving mergers and acquisitions, private equity and debt financings, corporate restructurings (in- and out-of-court), special committee representations, board advisories and fairness opinions. His assignments have included work in business, human capital, tech-enabled and marketing services, consumer products, IT services, distribution, food and beverage, diversified manufacturing / industrials and packaging organizations. Rocky has played an integral role in many notable M&A and capital markets transactions across numerous industries with aggregate transaction value of over $10 billion. He has led several industry award-winning transactions in recent years, including the $220 million sale of Wheeler Bros., Inc., a fourth generation family-owned business, to VSE Corporation and the sale of Wausau Paper Corp.’s specialty paper division to KPS Capital Partners LP in conjunction with its simultaneous merger with Thilmany Paper. Prior to joining Mesirow Financial, Rocky was an investment banker in the global investment banking division at Merrill Lynch & Co., providing corporate finance, merger and acquisition, and public and private capital advisory services to middle-market and growth-oriented companies. In 2012, Rocky was named a winner of The M&A Advisor 40 Under 40 Awards for the central region. He is an active member of The Association for Corporate Growth and Turnaround Management Association as well as Broader Urban Involvement and Leadership Development, Inc. (B.U.I.L.D.), Development Council. Rocky earned a BS from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds FINRA Series 7, 63 and 79 licenses.