About Buttonwood Group Advisors (“Buttonwood” or “BGA”)
Buttonwood offers investment advisory services to a group of private investment funds (the “Buttonwood Funds” or the “Fund”) that provide individual and institutional investors access to fast-growing, globally disruptive, pre IPO companies, as well as to opportunistic real estate transactions, for which it seeks a shorter period to liquidity than most traditional private equity funds.
Buttonwood’s investment structure allows investors to purchase membership interests with the opportunity to receive company shares post-IPO. Investment in each Fund series is specific to a single company at a specific valuation, rather than an investment in a blind pool or blended fund, which over time gives investors and their advisors the ability to build a custom portfolio of private equity.
Since its founding in 2011, Buttonwood has employed a follow-on investment strategy that begins with analyzing the portfolios of what BGA believes to be the top performing VC managers who have consistently performed on a long term basis. From these companies, Buttonwood overlays the following selection criteria:
- Company management team should have a proven track record of realizing shareholder value
- Company should possess a product or service disruptive to current applications in the market place
- Target market should have sufficient room for hyper-growth
- Price / sales and other purchase price ratios should be favorable based on recent exits and / or comparable public companies
Management Team
Joseph A. Alagna
Co-Manager, Founder
Joseph A. Alagna is the Managing Member and Founding Partner of Buttonwood Group Advisors LLC, founded in 2011. Mr. Alagna oversees all investment activity for the fund. Joe has three decades of experience in the financial markets, with particular emphasis on special situation equities, venture capital and secondary markets. The firm seeks to identify situations where it anticipates a catalyst will unlock value. Additionally, Mr. Alagna is the Chairman and CEO of Joseph Gunnar & Co. LLC, an SEC registered Broker-Dealer he founded in 1997.
Mr. Alagna resides on Long Island’s North Shore with his wife Michelle and 4 children. He and his wife support philanthropic endeavors benefiting programs that cater to under-served youth, medical research and animal preservation. Joe attended the University of Miami and received his Bachelor of Science degree from Long Island University, CW Post.
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Stephan A. Stein
Co-Manager, Founder
Stephan A. Stein is the Co-Manager and Founding Partner of Buttonwood Group Advisors LLC, founded in 2011. Mr. Stein oversees all transactional and business affairs of BGA. Stephan has more than 40 years of full spectrum debt, equity and merger/acquisition transaction and business management experience, initially as a practicing attorney in New York City, as a principal of emerging growth companies; and thereafter as an investment banker specializing in nano-cap and micro-cap companies. Additionally, Mr. Stein is the President and COO of Joseph Gunnar & Co. LLC, an SEC registered Broker-Dealer which he joined in 1999. Stephan received a Bachelor of Arts degree from The Ohio State University and a Juris Doctor degree from Vermont Law School.
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