Values
"Centerfield has proven to be a valued partner to our business by delivering ideas and support that have aided our growth."
Ollie Martens, CEO
Centerfield Capital Partners was formed in 1998 by Tom Hiatt and Scott Lutzke, two experienced Indiana businessmen who have worked extensively with middle market companies. In 2001, Matt Hook and Faraz Abbasi joined the firm. In 2007, in conjunction with the formation of Centerfield Capital Partners II, LP, Mark Hollis, Michael Miller and Jill Margetts were added to the team.
Our team has more than 100 years of combined experience in operations, private equity, banking and law, and during that time, the principals have completed numerous transactions providing growth capital to middle market companies.
Tom Hiatt
Founding Partner
Bio
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Matt Hook
Partner
Bio
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Mark Hollis
Principal and Director of Business Development
Bio
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Jill Margetts
Principal
Bio
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Scott Lutzke
Founding Partner
Bio
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Faraz Abbasi
Partner
Bio
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Michael Miller
Principal
Bio
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Tom Hiatt, Founding Partner
Tom founded Centerfield Capital with Scott Lutzke in 1998. He has worked with entrepreneurial companies for more than 25 years. He has worked in private equity since 1986, has served as a director of a number of private and publicly held companies, including firms in the financial services, health care, manufacturing, information technology, business services and distribution industries. Tom serves on the Partnership's Investment Committee and as a board member of the following Centerfield portfolio companies: Aero Systems Engineering, Inc., and AXS Imaging, LLC.
Tom is the Chair of the Board of Governors of the Small Business Investors Alliance, a national industry association for middle market private equity funds. The Alliance was formerly known as the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies (NASBIC). Tom also serves as a director of Lake City Bank. (NASDAQ: LKFN)
Prior to co-founding Centerfield in 1998, Tom was a partner in two early stage venture partnerships. Before entering the private equity industry, Tom founded and served as President of Sungene Technologies Corporation, of Palo Alto, CA, a venture-backed technology company which employed molecular and cell biology to modify major field crops. He also held positions in strategic planning and marketing at Eli Lilly and Company, where he worked in the U.S. and Europe for five years. Immediately after graduate school, he worked for the Ford Foundation for three years, principally in Asia.
Tom graduated magna cum laude from Wabash College, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He also holds a M.Sc. from the Sloan School of Management of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in international management, where he served as Editor of the Sloan Management Review. He is also active in several non-profit organizations. He is the member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of the Indianapolis Museum of Art; Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of World Learning, Inc., and Chair of the Advisory Board of Grameen Indiana. He is also a Life Trustee of the Indiana Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. He has twice served as President of the Indiana Venture Club.
Scott Lutzke, Founding Partner
Scott founded Centerfield in 1998 with Tom Hiatt. He has more than 30 years of experience in private equity, investment banking, international banking and corporate banking. Scott has significant experience working with middle market businesses, structuring and leading debt and equity investments, raising debt and equity for corporate acquisitions and growth, and acting as an intermediary in mergers and acquisition transactions.
Scott currently serves on the Partnership’s Investment Committee and as a board member or observer of the following Centerfield portfolio companies: Cargo Airport Services, LLC; Dedicated Transport, LLC; Gabriel Performance Products, LLC; Roehm Marine, LLC; D.S. Brown, Inc.; and Wythe Will Tzetzo, LLC. In addition to his responsibilities sourcing and structuring transactions and monitoring portfolio companies, Scott is principally responsible for overseeing the management of Centerfield’s finances, including portfolio company valuations, investment funding and investor distribution strategies.
Prior to forming Centerfield, Scott headed several corporate banking divisions focused on providing financial services to over 300 lower and upper middle market corporate clients, representing a large number of manufacturing and service industries. Early in his career, his responsibilities included managing Indiana National Bank’s London office for several years where he was responsible for the bank’s corporate and bank clients in Western Europe. From 1989 through 1995, he established and led the Capital Markets Group for NBD Bank in Indiana, managing a team that grew to seven professionals. In this capacity, he and his team participated in a broad range of corporate finance transactions, including advising on more than 15 mergers and acquisitions, structuring more than 30 senior and mezzanine debt and equity placements, executing more than 50 interest rate swaps and derivative product transactions, and completing 35 corporate bond and note placements. Subsequently, at First Chicago Capital Markets, Scott served as First Vice President and Manager of Indiana Public Banking. This unit, which he organized to provide loan and bond financing to health care, governmental and educational institutions in the Midwest, achieved significant growth in financing commitments and underwritings under Scott’s leadership.
Scott holds an undergraduate degree in physics from Purdue University (1973), where he was inducted into the physics honors society, Sigma Pi Sigma, and an MBA in finance from Indiana University (1974), where he is a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society. He is past treasurer of the Bankers’ Association for Corporate Finance and a former member of the board of the Venture Club of Indiana.
Matt Hook, Partner
Matt joined Centerfield in 2001, and has more than fifteen years of experience in private equity. Prior to Centerfield, Matt spent six years as Vice President and General Counsel of Hammond, Kennedy, Whitney & Company, Inc., a New York-based private equity firm specializing in management buyouts of manufacturing companies throughout the United States. Matt’s responsibilities included advising HKW and its portfolio companies in connection with acquisitions, capital formation and other significant corporate legal matters. Matt serves on the Partnership’s Investment Committee and as a board member or observer of the following Centerfield portfolio companies: Hunter’s Specialties, Inc.; Standard Locknut, LLC; Roehm Marine, LLC; TCI, LLC (d/b/a Trans-Coil); and Silbond Corporation.
Prior to his career in private equity, Matt spent five years as a corporate attorney at Ice Miller. Prior to becoming an attorney, he was a Certified Public Accountant with Ernst & Young and KPMG. While in public accounting, Matt provided auditing and financial consulting services primarily to clients in the healthcare industry.
Matt holds an undergraduate degree in accounting from Indiana University and a J.D. from the Indiana University School of Law, from which he graduated cum laude.
Faraz Abbasi, Partner
Faraz joined Centerfield in 2001, and has over ten years of experience in private equity. Faraz serves on the Partnership’s Investment Committee and as a board member or observer of the following Centerfield portfolio companies: A&D Environmental Services, Inc.; AXS Imaging, LLC; Backyard Products, LLC; Evriholder Products, LLC; SCT, Inc.; Thermafiber, Inc.; TCI, LLC (d/b/a Trans-Coil); and Fresh Food Concepts, LLC.
Prior to joining Centerfield, Faraz held sales and product development roles at Praxair and Rohm & Haas & Company. Mr. Abbasi participated in successful worldwide sales of greater than $10 million, was the lead researcher and developer of next generation consumables for the data storage and semiconductor industries and was awarded a patent in semiconductor processing.
Mr. Abbasi has been recognized as one of the “Forty under Forty” young leaders in Indianapolis and “Who’s Who in Finance” by the Indiana Business Journal. He was also the winner of Junior Achievement’s “Indy’s Best and Brightest” award for the banking and financial services category. He is an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, Finance and Venture Capital at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.
Mr. Abbasi is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, board member and past President of the Venture Club of Indiana, executive committee and board member of Fairbanks Hospital, board member of Butler University’s College of Business and Purdue University Technology Center. Mr. Abbasi is also a charter member of the Chicago chapter of Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs (OPEN).
Mr. Abbasi received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from University of Texas, and an MBA in finance from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.
Mark Hollis, Principal and Director of Business Development
Mark joined Centerfield in 2007. He leads the firm’s investment origination, marketing and public relations activities and assists in the evaluation, negotiation and structuring of investment opportunities.
Previously a Vice President with National City Bank, Mark has over ten years of commercial banking experience. The majority of his time at National City was served in business development and relationship management roles within the Corporate Banking Group. While at National City, Mark also gained experience in credit administration, private banking and wealth management.
Mark received his undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of Southern Indiana. He earned an MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, graduating with a double major in finance and venture and technology management and a member of Beta Gamma Sigma. Mark has passed the Series 7 license examination. Mark co-founded Young Professionals of Central Indiana (YPCI) which he twice served as President. In 2008 he was recognized as YPCI’s Young Professional of the Year. Mark is an Executive Committee member of ACG Indiana and chair of the organization’s Programming Committee. He participates in several community organizations.
Michael Miller, Principal
Michael joined Centerfield in 2007 and has eight years of experience in private equity and mergers and acquisitions. Michael’s responsibilities include sourcing, structuring, negotiating and executing investments and managing portfolio companies. Michael currently serves as a board member or observer of the following Centerfield portfolio companies: RIO Brands, LLC, Pipp Mobile Storage Systems, Inc., and Silbond Corporation.
Prior to joining Centerfield, Michael spent eight years at Eli Lilly and Company in a variety of financial and business development roles. Most recently, Michael worked in Lilly’s Corporate Strategy and Business Development group where he was actively involved in the firm’s mergers and acquisitions efforts. Michael also has experience with Johnson & Johnson, where he worked in the company’s licensing and acquisitions group, and Hatteras Venture Partners, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm based in Durham, North Carolina.
Michael holds an undergraduate degree in business administration and economics from Hanover College and an MBA in general management from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Indiana. Michael is actively involved in the community, including leadership roles with the boards of the Ronald McDonald House of Indiana and the Economic Club of Indiana.
Jill Margetts, Principal
Jill joined Centerfield in 2007. Her responsibilities include assisting with sourcing, evaluating, executing, and monitoring investments and supporting limited partner relationships.
Jill’s previous experience stems from the energy, medical device and nuclear fields. She most recently served as a business analyst at the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator in Carmel, Indiana. Jill previously worked as a process engineer for ETEX Corporation, a medical device company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in operations at the MIT Nuclear Reactor.
Jill holds an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a concentration in Spanish, and an MBA in finance from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Jill serves on the Kelley School of Business, Indianapolis, Women’s MBA Advisory Board and recently served as President of Young Professionals of Central Indiana. Jill is a member of the Stanley K. Lacy (SKL) Executive Leadership Series Class XXXV.
