Kirk Otis

Kirk Otis serves as the Company’s chief financial officer, treasurer, and corporate secretary. Mr. Otis is a business leader with extensive experience developing and leading strategic initiatives including innovative financial operations, executing mergers and acquisitions, managing strategic corporate growth initiatives, working with venture capital and private equity funds and growth-oriented companies. Mr. Otis has completed over $13.5B in strategic transactions spanning 10 countries in North America, Europe, the mid-east, India, and Asia. He has experience supporting industrial companies including aerospace, steel, chemical, and oil field service firms, technology companies including software, network, and semiconductor firms, and medical focused companies including labs, equipment providers, and revenue cycle management firms. Mr. Otis serves as managing director of Merger Partners, Inc. which is focused on connecting entrepreneurs seeking funding to fund acquisitions, management teams seeking capital, and teams looking to fund a management buyout or an ESOP with private equity capital sources. Mr. Otis is leading Concertal Systems which is a web-based software platform focused on automating the front-end workflow of semiconductor chip design.

Mr. Otis started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLC (PwC) as a CPA (currently inactive) and progressed to a corporate finance role at LTV Corporation in Dallas where he focused on tax-advantaged financings and debt restructurings. He then led the financial operations division of LTV with $600 million of revenue. Mr. Otis moved to the network equipment industry in various corporate development roles for over 20 years at DSC Communications and Nortel Networks and completed over 50 transactions including acquisitions, mergers, divestitures, technology transfer and licensing and spin-outs taking businesses into new markets, new regions, and new products and services. He also managed Nortel Networks Ventures, which held over $200M of investments in 14 Venture Capital firms and 21 equity investments.

While leading venture capital backed TriLumina Corp.’s management team as CEO and Chairman of the Board, the company was named “Top Start Up” by Robert Bosch Venture Capital, New Mexico “Start-Up of the Year”, and “Top 10 Innovator in Automotive Electronics” by Fortune Magazine and Forrester, and was profiled by Gartner as a “Cool Vendor in Automotive Electronics” and was often mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and various industry trade magazines.

At Merger Partners Mr. Otis connects executive teams, management teams and companies seeking capital to execute on a strategic transaction with private equity capital sources, matching capital needs with investors. Mr. Otis is also a member of the Artificial Intelligence Board at Tech Titans under the Richardson Chamber of Commerce, the Directors Group of Business Navigators and a member of The Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance. Mr. Otis has had several board, board advisory and board observer roles including serving as CEO and board member of Concertal Systems, Inc. (a software platform for the development of silicon chip designs); board member of Actinium (a home health care network/roll-up acquisition corp.) and a board advisor to Neuro System FX, Inc. (brain health nutraceutical) and QALocate (precision location science and data curation, coordination and synchronization). He has formerly served as a board advisor or observer to Tango Networks, Inc., Battery Ventures, VantagePoint Venture Partners, StarTech Seed Fund, and Mesh Networks.

Kirk grew up in Ohio, has two children and three grandchildren. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University and a Master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University.