Pete has over thirty years of merger & acquisition and corporate finance experience.  He founded Falls Capital in 1992, merged it in 2008 with Merkel & Associates, another Cleveland-based investment banking firm, and spun Falls Capital back out in 2017.  Falls Capital specializes in M&A transactions representing both sellers and buyers of  middle-market companies. 

Prior to Falls Capital, Pete was a Senior Vice President at Kemper Securities Inc. (now Wells Fargo Securities) in Cleveland where he handled mergers & acquisitions, public equity offerings, and debt placements.

Before Kemper Securities, Pete was with First Chicago (now J.P. Morgan Chase) where he originated and transacted M&A transactions of middle-market companies in the Midwest.  He was previously in the International Division based in Hong Kong where he was the business manager for First Chicago's Asia-Pacific region responsible for all administrative activities, strategic and financial planning, human resources, and real estate activities in seven countries.  He concurrently served as chief lending officer for CCIC Finance Ltd., a Hong Kong-based joint-venture merchant bank owned by First Chicago, Bank of China, and The Industrial Bank of Japan. CCIC specialized in industrial and real estate joint venture structuring and financing in China.  He joined First Chicago as the head of the Cleveland regional office where he was in charge of corporate lending in a three state area. 

Pete began his financial career with Irving Trust Company in New York (now Bank of New York Mellon) in computer operations before going into corporate lending. 

He holds a BS degree from Miami University and an MBA degree from Fordham University.  He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy.  Pete serves as a director of Eriez Magnetics, a worldwide leading manufacturer of magnetic separation equipment.