

Steven Southwick
Verified Expert in Finance
Finance Expert
Salt Lake City, UT, United States
Toptal member since December 28, 2019
A Chicago Booth MBA graduate and CFA charter holder, Steve has worked as a financial analyst, investor, and entrepreneur across the US and Latin America. He was a top-tier investment banking M&A analyst (Barclays Capital) with investing experience in both private equity (Sorenson Capital) and private credit (THL Credit). In addition to developing an education startup, Steve advises clients on capital raising, financing, and M&A transactions.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Certification Highlights
Case Studies
Industry Expertise
- Education
- Software
- Financial Software
- Fintech
- Edtech
Other Expertise
- Capital Raising
- Due Diligence
- Financial Modeling
- Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
- Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
- Private Equity
Work Experience
CEO
Pointful Education
- Founded an education company that creates elective courses for online high schools, focused on new and emerging technologies.
- Managed a team of ten and all aspects of the business including strategy, marketing, curriculum development, and fundraising.
- Secured distribution contracts with independent schools, publishers, state charter schools, and international distributors.
- Raised both debt and equity seed-stage financing.
Director of Finance
Array
- Built and oversaw the finance and accounting departments.
- Executed, structured, and managed the integration of several acquisitions, including raising bank financing to support the acquisitions.
- Prepared annual budgets, financial models, investor presentations, and board materials.
Vice President
THL Credit
- Structured, underwrote, and monitored investments in senior/unitranche, second lien, mezzanine, and equity securities.
- Originated deal flow through a network of private equity sponsors, investment banks, intermediaries, and entrepreneurs.
- Developed and pursued industry theses in select verticals including education, consumer, digital media, and technology.
- Presented due diligence findings, investment recommendations, and portfolio updates to senior management weekly.
- Assisted internal/external counsel in drafting, reviewing and editing indications of interest, term sheets, and credit agreements.
Associate - Private Equity
Sorenson Capital
- Executed middle-market private equity transactions; tasks included screening, modeling, due diligence, and documentation.
- Prepared and presented materials to the credit committee for debt restructuring and workout situations.
- Assisted portfolio companies with post-investment strategic plans, developing performance metrics, and executing add-ons.
Investment Banking Analyst
Lehman Brothers/Barclays Capital
- Developed financial models to evaluate the valuation and capital structure impact of cross-border mergers, acquisitions, leverage buyouts, spin-offs, joint-ventures, and recapitalizations.
- Performed valuation of companies using discounted cash flow, accretion/dilution, leveraged buyout, purchase price ratio, ability-to-pay, sum-of-the-parts, comparable publicly traded company, and comparable transaction analyses.
- Created Prepared strategic advisory presentations, management presentations, board presentations, pitches, and internal committee memoranda.
- Ranked in the top tier of investment banking analyst class both first and second years; awarded third-year offer.
Other Experience
Education
Master's Degree in Business Administration
University of Chicago Booth School of Business - Chicago, Illinois
Bachelor's Degree in Finance
Brigham Young University - Provo, Utah
Certifications
CFA
CFA Institute
Skills
Finance
Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Financial Modeling, Private Credit, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Credit Analysis, Three-statement Modeling, Credit/Debt, Fundraising, Private Equity, Private Equity Valuation, Seed Fundraising, Due Diligence, Venture Debt, Mezzanine, Portfolio Analysis, Venture Funding, M&A Modeling, Leveraged Buyout Modeling, Capital Raising, Blockchain, M&A (Buy-side), Budgeting
Industry Expertise
Education Technology (Edtech), Technology, Consumer Products, Financial Services
Geographic Expertise
United States, Latin America (LATAM), Brazil, Mexico
Output Software
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint
Data & Analysis Software
Capital IQ
Other
Investments, Debt Financing, Due Diligence Consultant, Fintech, K-12 Education, Pitch Decks, Education, Operating Models, Funding Presentations, Business Administration, Finance, Distressed/Special Situations, Data Rooms
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