History and Mission

The M&A Advisor is the organization that facilitates connections and recognizes achievement in the top performers of the M&A, turnaround and financing industries.

We identify, connect and differentiate high performers—the elite—and as a result enable them to:

• Be continually inspired to strive for excellence in their deal making craft and related conduct

• Be acknowledged for the difference they and their transactions make to industry and the world at large and

• Accelerate and systematize the process for closing higher quality deals.

Roger Aguinaldo is the founder and CEO of The M&A Advisor. Throughout his 22-year career, Aguinaldo has consummated over $5 billion of transactions. He is also a private equity investor, an advisor and consultant who focuses on the strategy of mergers and acquisitions for middle market and Fortune 1000 companies. Currently, he is a Managing Director at Forest Hills Capital Management, a private equity firm focused on the lower middle market.

Aguinaldo began his career at Merrill Lynch & Co. where he handled mergers and acquisitions of Fortune 500 companies and large financial institutions. Previously, Aguinaldo was Vice President of Vos, Gruppo & Capell, Inc., a boutique investment banking firm where he was actively involved in M&A transactions of e-commerce and direct marketing companies. Prior to that, Mr. Aguinaldo was a co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of The “No Movies” Video Company, a catalog marketer of instructional and educational videotapes and multimedia programs. As Chief Executive of this direct marketing company, Aguinaldo received a finalist award as Entrepreneur of the Year from New York University’s Stern School of Business in 1992.

In 1998, our founder Roger Aguinaldo began writing a subscription newsletter that focused solely on middle market professionals in the M&A Industry. In the US, the middle market drives 70% of the nation’s economy; however the professionals involved in the middle market deals garnered little coverage in major media. As the middle market was growing bigger and more diverse, he decided to get involved full time in publishing and networking. This marked the beginning of The M&A Advisor. In a span of six years, the company had expanded its customer and subscriber’s list to thousands and the proprietary database to over 35,000 professionals around the world.

Because M&A takes persistence, drive, imagination and courage to make a successful melding of corporate entities, it was only natural that the professionals and companies deserved our admiration. And, with this idea started The M&A Advisor Awards which recognizes and respects the achievements in the industry.

In 2002, the first year of the awards, we presented just two awards; today, we have four different awards programs with over 175 categories. "It feels really great to pay homage to extraordinary people and exceptional performances," said founder Roger Aguinaldo at the very first awards program. Every year, we also give a lifetime achievement award to deal makers who have demonstrated a “lifetime” of excellence. Just like the Hollywood Academy Awards has its “Oscar”, we are thankful for our M&A Advisor Awards.