Our Team

NGP and its operating partners have extensive experience in management, corporate governance, strategic planning, finance, technology, operations, and employee benefits.  We bring to every transaction the critical skills necessary for success – creative problem solving, familiarity with technological innovations, technical expertise in structuring deals, and superior negotiating skills derived from our experience in business transactions involving tangible and intangible worth.  All of these skills lead to growth of your company and improving its value to the marketplace.  Our clients also rely on our marketing acumen, which can result in the appropriate presentation to new investors, potential merger or acquisition targets, or sale of the company and/or its proprietary technologies.

Our commitment to personal attention is paramount and as such our principals are actively involved in each transaction or task, resulting in outstanding results for our clients.

Please allow us an opportunity to  introduce our management, operating partners, and technology partners, along with our value-added business partners.

George P. Messina, Managing Director

Email: george@northstargp.com

Mr. Messina has more than thirty (30) years of managerial experience where in the past twenty (20) years has included the roles of  Chief Operating Officer and since 1992 as President and CEO.  During that time period he initiated and closed a  management purchase offer.  His first twenty (20) years has been spent managing the disciplines of : Applied Research,  Product Development, Manufacturing, Manufacturing  and Technical Operations, Marketing & Sales, Field Service, and Quality Assurance.  This experience was gained in the defense, aerospace, computer, semiconductor, process/measurement control and medical industries.  During his career he earned the reputation for being an aggressive, senior level manager with the ability to turn around difficult business situations, as well as dramatically improving the performance of a "going concern".   While a CEO,  Mr. Messina also developed and executed a strategic plan which included funding all of his business' M&A activity and involved identification, acquisition and assimilation those acquisitions.  He also acquired and developed core technologies, involving complex license agreements, to establish a strong competitive technical advantage.  Under his leadership, this $52M company was sold for a four (4) times multiple of its original purchase price.

In 2000, Mr. Messina founded The George Messina Group and in 2003 changed its name to NorthStar Growth Partners (NorthStar, NGP) to serve as a strategic partner providing value-building services to emerging and middle-market companies.  NorthStar establishes partnerships with technology startups, emerging and middle-market companies, focusing its financial resources and business development expertise to strengthen and grow the value of their partner companies.  NorthStar's philosophy is to become the "Strategic and Operational Right Hand of the CEO".  Its "get involved" style creates a team effort where senior management can perform their highest priority, the priority of running the business.  NorthStar works with its partner companies to grow successfully, develop and deploy new ideas, and in the process realize substantial profitable growth from this partnership and value-building effort.  Mr. Messina has personally invested, managed, and/or provided guidance in the custom engineering and automation industry, web-printing industry, consumer services, medical industry (devices, services, and nuclear pharmaceuticals), carbide tooling industry, chemical industry, information technologies, and the publishing industries.

During his career and since founding NorthStar Growth Partners, Mr. Messina's  involvement has been with companies ranging in size from start-up to $600M.  He has raised equity, debt and mezzanine financing, restructured trade or bank debt to avoid bankruptcy, restructured company cost structure, identified  and closed on strategic acquisitions, funding of those acquisitions, acquiring new technologies, developing world-wide distribution channels, and guided the sale of companies.   As a CEO, Mr. Messina was recognized by The Society for Life Science Professionals ( International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering, ISPE ) in their GMP Institute Hall of Fame as a recipient of the Top Management award which exemplifies consistent demonstration to the principals of Good Manufacturing Practice and Total Quality Management.  In addition he has forged relationships with universities domestically and abroad in the continued development and commercialization of technologies developed in the university environment.  His international experience also has included the founding of a joint venture in Shanghai, PRC, for the manufacture and distribution of medical device products throughout the far east.  Mr. Messina's network of business partners are experts in the areas of information technology (business retirement planning, financial planning, clinical information systems, hospital information systems, etc.) software, mechanical and electrical engineering, chemists, and finance.  The combination of these experts and NGP's skill set, along with the numerous relationships NGP has with capital markets, provides our clients with a suite of solutions to every complex business situation.

Currently Mr. Messina provides strategic leadership and operational direction as the acting Chairman of the Board and CEO of Advanced Engineered System's team.  He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Quality Assured Services, Inc .    He has also held past Board of Director seats for the Board for Drilcorp Energy Ltd. (Toronto exchange DCL.V),  The Brewer Company  and was  a past Chairman of the Board for Shanghai Burdick Medical Instrumentation Company (the joint venture he established in Shanghai, PRC).

Mr. Messina received his B.S. Electrical Engineering in 1972 from New Jersey Institute of Technology and has completed study towards his MBA at Western New England College, Wilbraham, Massachusetts.

Glenn H. Isensee, Senior Partner

Email: glenn@northstargp.com

Mr. Isensee has twenty-five (25) years of design and managerial experience in the areas of scientific and medical instrumentation.  During his career, responsibilities have included analog and digital design, project management, and as a VP of Technology of a $50M subsidiary of a $300M medical company, direct management of complete product lifecycles for multiple product lines, engineering research, manufacturing engineering, and quality assurance.   Mr. Isensee brings a unique management talent and understanding to the importance of "time to market" and "window of opportunity" and how risk management is a key to successful introduction of new technologies - all while meeting development costs and business cost-of-goods-sold goals.  He views  engineering productivity as important as the "creative "engineering talent used to achieve exceptional products and designs.  Having been responsible for several womb to tomb programs, Mr. Isensee also understands  the requirement for a melding of sales, marketing, engineering, manufacturing and customer requirements to achieve winning product specifications and introductions.  A real-life example of this expertise was evident when a new product was developed and deployed in less that eighteen (18) months, which resulted in a increase in marketshare from 40% to over 80%, while creating great pain for a U.S. Fortune 100 company which had introduced a new product manufactured off-shore.

Mr. Isensee joined NorthStar Growth Partners in 2002.  His technology experience expands NGP's services.   NorthStar establishes  partnerships with technology startups, emerging and middle-market companies, focusing its financial resources and business development expertise to strengthen and grow the value of their partner companies.  NorthStar works with its partner companies to grow successfully, develop and deploy new ideas, and in the process realize substantial profitable growth from this partnership and value-building effort.

As a senior partner with NorthStar Growth Partners, Mr. Isensee applies his business experience to all strategic and product development activities. He has been responsible and managed  efforts involving the Food and Drug Association, ISO-9000 and the European Union’s Medical Device Directive. He has created company wide project development methodologies for clinical applications, software, mechanical and electronic development which directly resulted in significant reduction in project costs, reduced delays and met both business and customer needs. Product excellence in design, cross-functional teams, management of multiple product lines,  attention to manufacturing methods, quality and team building are all achieved with a keen awareness of "time to market" importance and understanding tradeoffs needed for business profitability and growth.  His ability to strategically utilize technology skills and his managerial skill set for  a business advantage is exceptional.

Mr. Isensee  received an A.S. degree in Biomedical Electronics in 1976 and a  B.S. Electrical Engineering in 1980 from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Michael M. Caponetto, Senior Partner

Email: mike@northstargp.com

Mr. Caponetto has fourteen (14) years of investment banking experience with nationally recognized boutique investment banking firms.  As a key member of senior deal and management teams, his experience includes  originating, managing, and executing merger and acquisition transactions, capital raising, and strategic advisory assignments.  Prior to joining NorthStar Growth Partners, Mr. Caponetto had personal experience establishing business operations from the ground floor,  built deal teams, staffed operations, and led the development and evaluation of complete financial analyses required for successful money raise activities, recapitalizations, leveraged buyouts, and other merger & acquisition scenarios.  As a managing principal of the firm, Mr. Caponetto successfully set up and operated a Los Angeles based office for CBIZ Century Capital Group ( formerly Vine Street Partners, an independent middle market investment bank).  He personally oversaw the development of all documentation including new business "pitch" books, information memorandum, investor presentations and marketing presentations.  He is highly experienced in deal transactions, having personally participated in more than seventy (70) unique transactions in the food processing, healthcare/medical, consumer products, service and distribution industries. 

Mr. Caponetto most recently was Senior Principal of Triple Tree, LLC’s San Diego office, where he helped establish the firm’s West Coast presence and led transaction execution activities focused on technology, healthcare, and business services sectors.  In such capacity, he has reviewed the strategic alternatives for hundreds of family and entrepreneurial middle market businesses and larger corporations and has negotiated with numerous venture capital and private equity groups, lending institutions, and international, multi-national, and Fortune 100 companies on behalf of clients.  Mr. Caponetto also has cross-border and distressed transaction experience.

Mr. Caponetto received his Masters of Business Administration with concentrations in Finance and Accounting from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 1999 and his undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Redlands, Redlands, CA. in 1992.

John H. Stewart, Operating Partner

Email: john@northstargp.com

In mid-2003, AES recognized that its market opportunities were expanding dramatically with the introduction of its new patent pending technologies.  The feedback AES was receiving from its customers praised AES's reliability and product performance.  As a result of these developing opportunities, AES sought out a partner that would strengthen its management team and provide additional financial resources to fund the explosive growth that AES was  experiencing.  In early 2004, AES became one of NorthStar Growth Partners' investment companies where NGP strengthened its management team and broadened its capabilities.  NGP's "get involved" style creates a team effort where senior management can perform their highest priority, the priority of running the business. 

Mr. Stewart found a desire to start his own company over nineteen (19) years ago.  As a one-employee company, Mr. Stewart enjoyed the challenges and freedoms needed to design top-shelf automation equipment.  After a successful startup period of nearly five (5) years, he changed the name of the company to Advanced Engineered Systems, Inc. to reflect a change in his product offering and an expansion in his business. With the addition of technical and manufacturing staff, AES could now undertake larger programs and offer substantial design service and in-house manufacturing capabilities to meet his customer's needs.  The success realized by the company as a result of this additional staffing, led Mr. Stewart to realize that by broadening his company's technical capabilities, it would allow AES to not only continue the growth of the company but to expand AES's market opportunities.  In 1994 AES decided to bring in-house mechanical engineering  and to expand AES's manufacturing staff, which again resulted in continued revenue growth.  As new opportunities developed, AES found itself successfully competing with much larger companies and providing solutions that in many cases exceeded its customer expectations.  Under Mr. Stewart's direction in late 2001, AES undertook a project to solve a technological problem in the pin-insertion industry.  Specifically the problem to be solved was how to repetitively achieve a ± 1mm hole-to-hole tolerance, while at the same time automating the pin-insertion process with little or no human intervention.  AES successfully developed the technology required to solve these specific customer demands.  This technology, which has a patent pending, has also demonstrated unsurpassed uptime (in one multi-unit application - 30 months and counting!) and Cpk (>1.67).  It's installation and successful deployment has set a new standard for custom automation equipment in the automotive industry.  Currently, the technology developed by AES in the automotive market is being deployed into new market applications and uses.  Mr. Stewart continues to develop new solutions and technologies for unique and demanding applications.

Before founding Advanced Engineered Systems, Mr. Stewart served on-board a nuclear powered submarine as a Navigation Electronics Technician and Navigation Center Supervisor.  During his service he served with the Special Projects division and took part in search and recovery operations for a Coast Guard vessel.  He later served as an electronics instructor at Great Lakes Naval Training Center.  After his military service he accepted a job at Gilman Engineering in Janesville, WI where he became a Controls Design Engineer.  While in this position, he worked on an automated assembly and test system for a major telecommunications company.  Mr. Stewart then accepted a job at Rockford Automation as a Control Systems Engineer.  While in this position he led the controls project management and software development effort in the successful development of: a filling and packaging machine for toothpaste pump canisters, an automated method to gauge and select gaskets for an air compressor pump (while in its assembly process), and an automated assembly and test system for medical tracheal tubes.

Michael M. Greenberg MD, Operating Partner

Email: michael@northstargp.com

Mr. Greenberg is the former Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Cedara ^™ Software Corp. (formerly ISG Technologies, Inc., now a Merge Healthcare company), a publicly traded software company focused on imaging and imaging workflow in healthcare. Cedara provided software for systems that acquire images from patients, systems that electronically distribute those images for diagnosis, and systems that use those images in guiding therapy. Cedara’s customers are original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and value added resellers (VARs) in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Mr. Greenberg joined  Cedara as its first medical product director during its start-up in 1987, was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer in 1988, and Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer in 1996.  Under his leadership, Cedara introduced pioneering technologies and business innovations, and the company grew from a local, 20-person, non-medical, hardware contract engineering company into a global, 300-person, healthcare, industrial software company with revenues of over $45 million. Mr. Greenberg presided over the development of the company's business model, technology and marketing strategy, financing, and Nasdaq IPO to position Cedara as the leading independent software provider of outsourced imaging software in healthcare. Michael built strategic partner alliances and long term relationships with major multinational healthcare companies, including Cerner, Hitachi, GE, Medtronic, Philips, Siemens, Toshiba, and Zeiss.

In 2003, Mr. Greenberg jointly founded Bourn Corporate Development  which emphasizes business development, corporate development, financing, due diligence,  guidance, executing strategic projects, and managing phases of company growth.  In 2004, he joined forces with NorthStar Growth Partners to expand and build upon providing these business consulting services to venture capitalists and potential start-up companies.  His business and technology experiences expands NGP's services and its management team capability.  As an operating partner with NorthStar Growth Partners,  Mr. Greenberg applies his leadership style and expertise in all aspects of business acumen - emphasizing strategic vision, tactical acumen, and interpersonal engagement.  His management style emphasizes communications, accountability, and organizational values which provides our clients opportunities to participate with NGP's  seasoned business veterans to learn new methods and techniques for operating their companies.

Mr. Greenberg received his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1981.  He proceeded to a neurosurgery residency at the University of Toronto, coincident with a postdoctoral research fellowship in biophysics awarded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health at the University of Toronto. Michael holds both U.S. and Canadian citizenship.  He is a co-inventor of a foundation patent "Probe-Correlated Viewing of Anatomical Image Data", and pioneered the global market for image-guided surgical equipment and applications, including software platforms, outsourcing  and middleware markets.  He presided over Cedara when it received  the "Canada Award for Business Excellence in Innovation".  His undergraduate Bachelor of Arts was received from Temple University.

Shlomit Dekel, Operating Partner

Email: shlomit@northstargp.com

Ms. Dekel was a versatile executive officer of Cedara ^™ Software Corp. (formerly ISG Technologies, Inc.), a publicly traded software company focused on imaging and imaging workflow in healthcare. Cedara provides software for systems that acquire images from patients, systems that electronically distribute those images for diagnosis, and systems that use those images in guiding therapy. As a general manager within Cedara, she was responsible for the P&L of a profitable unit with more than 100 employees in sales, marketing, and engineering.  She executed divisional turn-around, including wind-down, repositioning, retaining key personnel, auctioning intellectual property and assets for $3.5 million, building new technology and intellectual property, and re-launching in a new sector with new contracts worth $9 million.  She also has served as vice president of business development, as vice president of sales in the medical imaging and surgical device industries, and as business advisor to venture capitalists and technology companies.  Ms. Dekel has provided leadership in new market development, revenue generation, relationship building, and operational management in a publicly traded technology company, and was successful in building long-term alliances and multi-year recurring revenue contracts globally with multinational healthcare companies.  Among her achievements Ms. Dekel developed new outsourcing markets: diagnostic imaging, information technology, cardiology, radiotherapy, orthopedics, neurosurgery, launched new products and services including software applications, middleware platforms, turnkey systems, and custom engineering and, established new customers, including healthcare multinationals and hospitals, in Canada, US, Europe, and Asia.  Under her leadership her former company entered new markets by investment in and acquisition of niche companies, and by joint venture with her counsel.

James T. Harvey PhD, Technology Partner

Email:  jim@northstargp.com

Mr. Harvey has twenty (20) years of operational management experience in the area of scientific business operations.  During his career, responsibilities have included management of various laboratory operations in the nuclear and mixed waste operations support and environmental services.  He has held VP of Sales and VP of Operations positions in two technology start-up companies.  He was responsible for manufacturing operations in both start-up companies where a procurement system for manufacturing raw materials with JIT delivery to better balance cash flow was set up.  Mr. Harvey also established a moving average system to structure inventory to match product sales history -  increasing on-time delivery to greater than 95% for inventoried products.  He also determined several non-proprietary company products could be outsourced to improve gross margins of those products and set contracts in place with vendors for these services.  Additional duties included writing and implementing manuals for company policy including compensation and benefits, OSHA compliance, and quality assurance based on ISO-9000.  Given this experience, Mr. Harvey has developed quality assurance programs for compliance to Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy requirements.  He further directed environmental compliance for company activities and was responsible for complete regulatory review for several products manufactured by his employer to insure compliance with federal and state regulations.  Mr. Harvey has also managed the company’s intellectual property portfolio and has handled various human resources issues for both start-up companies.  He has managed major government contracts during his career and as a result of managing federal research and development contracts, he holds several patents as either sole inventor or co-inventor.  He also has extensive experience in laboratory facility planning and build-out.

Mr. Harvey joined NorthStar Growth Partners in 2004.  His technology and business experience in nuclear, environmental, and life science businesses expands NGP services and expertise.   NorthStar establishes partnerships with technology startups, emerging and middle-market companies, focusing its financial resources and business development expertise to strengthen and grow the value of their partner companies.  NorthStar works with its partner companies to grow successfully, develop and deploy new ideas, and in the process realize substantial profitable growth from this partnership and value-building effort.  As a Technology Partner with NorthStar Growth Partners, Mr. Harvey applies his scientific and business experience to various company activities. He serves on several ASTM subcommittees and has been co-writer on one ANSI standard for Laboratory Quality Assurance.

Mr. Harvey received a B.S. degree in Chemistry in 1971 from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1977 from the University of Arkansas.  He has also served as an officer in the USAF.

"Building Value Through Strong Governance"

Ronald J. Kral MBA, CPA, CMA, Business Partner

Email: rkral@candelasolutions.com

Mr. Kral has seventeen (17) years of senior leadership experience working with boards and management teams to enhance performance through strong governance, internal controls, and technology. He knows the audit and consulting arenas well having assisted over two hundred clients with Big-4 and local CPA firms. Mr. Kral is currently the Founding Partner of Candela Solutions, LLC, a public accounting firm based in Madison, Wisconsin. Candela Solutions is not a traditional, full-service, CPA firm. Instead, Candela Solutions is focused on building value through robust governance processes and team dynamics. This includes governance structures, internal auditing, technology, strategic planning, and change management. Candela Solutions invites you to learn more about these essential building blocks to performance improvement at www.candelasolutions.com.

Prior to forming Candela Solutions, Mr. Kral was the lead executive over Wisconsin’s lottery business for GTECH, a public corporation traded on the NYSE. With GTECH, he directed a team of 48 employees and corporate-wide resources in providing transaction processing, 24/7 call center services, customized software, lottery terminals, supplies, and field support to the Wisconsin Lottery. Previously, Mr. Kral was a Principal Consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), responsible for the firm’s government business development, project management, and staff recruitment activities in Southern California. He directed a variety of activities including performance audits, management controls, governance, and internal audits. Mr. Kral began his public accounting and consulting career with a California CPA firm where he eventually oversaw its statewide consulting practice as a Managing Director. He led a diverse range of projects pertaining to change management, operational effectiveness, strategic planning, compliance, performance measurement, and financial auditing. He is a nationally recognized speaker lecturing on governance, business ethics, internal controls, performance improvement and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (including COSO, COBIT, NYSE rules and SEC regulations) to professional groups and businesses.

Candela Solutions is recognized as a thought-leader within several national governance and internal audit organizations due to their specialized focus in these areas. Specifically, Mr. Kral has led full day seminars on SEC reporting requirements and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Act) to hundreds of board members, CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, and internal auditors across the country. Unlike many lecturers on Sarbanes-Oxley, he has spoken on the comprehensive nature of Sarbanes-Oxley, including the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (Title I), auditor independence (Title II), corporate responsibility (Title III), enhanced financial disclosures (Title IV), and the remaining titles of the Act. He believes that many sections, including 302, 404, 409 and 906, are closely aligned with governance and the heart of internal control systems. Best practices of the Act can and should be leveraged to add business value rather than simply focused on compliance. Candela Solutions also works with private companies and non-profit organizations to apply the Act’s best practices.

Mr. Kral is a member of the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants), FEI (Financial Executives International), IMA (Institute of Management Accountants), ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association) and WICPA (Wisconsin Institute of Certified Public Accountants). He is a Director of FEI’s Milwaukee Chapter and holds an MBA from Arizona State University (1987) and a BBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1983).

Bill Boyd, Business Partner

Mr. Boyd began his insurance career with The Prudential in 1973. He worked as a direct sales agent for 3 years before advancing into the position of Development Manager. As a Development Manager he recruited and trained agents in life and group health. In 1979, Mr. Boyd took a position with Wisconsin Physicians Service (WPS) in Madison Wisconsin as a sales representative where he worked with small and large group clients. In 1983 Mr. Boyd was promoted to Sales Training and Development Director responsible for implementing a corporate wide sales training program. In 1985, Mr. Boyd was promoted to Director of East Coast operations, working with health plans, PPO Networks, and agencies in Washington D. C., Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and Illinois. In 1993, Mr. Boyd was hired as the Marketing Director and later promoted to Vice President of Sales and Marketing for McNerney-Heintz, a health system development company in Elgin, Illinois. At that time McNerney-Heintz was contracted to design and implement the MercyCare HMO program and Mr. Boyd was put in charge of the sales and marketing. In 1996 Mr. Boyd decided to join his wife and business partner to build their own future in Boyd Consulting Group Inc. To learn more visit their website at http://www.boydcg.com.

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