Michael Ackrell

Michael "Mike" Ackrell is the founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the board of Ackrell Capital, LLC, a San Francisco–based independent investment bank he established in 2003. The firm is a FINRA/SIPC-registered broker-dealer providing M&A advisory, private placement, and corporate-development services to middle-market and emerging-growth companies, with a focus on consumer, technology, digital, and hemp/cannabis industries. Per the firm, its bankers have completed more than $50 billion in transactions across their careers.

Before founding Ackrell Capital, Mike was Senior Managing Director in charge of ABN AMRO's U.S. Technology Investment Banking Group in San Francisco. Prior to ABN AMRO, he ran investment banking at WR Hambrecht+Co, a San Francisco merchant bank specializing in the technology sector. Earlier, he worked at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) in New York, Menlo Park, and San Francisco as a Senior Vice President in the Technology Investment Banking Group, beginning his career there in 1988. He has significant experience in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and merchant banking.

Mike holds a B.S. in Economics (summa cum laude), with majors in Finance and Accounting, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a registered securities professional (FINRA CRD #1890054).

In more recent years, Ackrell extended his platform into public-markets sponsorship. In 2020 he served as Chairman of Ackrell SPAC Partners I Co. (Nasdaq: ACKIT), a blank-check company targeting branded fast-moving consumer goods, which raised an upsized $138 million IPO. The SPAC later pursued a ~$900 million combination with Blackstone Products; the deal became the subject of litigation (SPAC Recovery Co., of which Ackrell was chairman, filed suit against Blackstone Products and others). Ackrell Capital has also published widely cited "Cannabis Investment Report" research (2016 and 2018 editions) and has advised cannabis/hemp businesses.

• Dual role: Ackrell operates primarily through his investment bank (M&A advisory, private placements, capital raising) but has also acted personally as an angel investor putting personal capital into promising companies in exchange for equity.
• Sector emphasis: Consumer / branded consumer goods, technology, digital & media, and cannabis/hemp — reflecting both the bank's advisory practice and his SPAC's stated focus on branded fast-moving consumer goods.
• Stage: Early/seed-stage angel checks personally; growth-stage and public-transition (SPAC/de-SPAC, private placements) at the firm level.
• Company profile: Middle-market and emerging-growth companies that can benefit from institutional capital-raising, M&A, or a path to public markets.
• What earns a "yes": Given his investment-banking background, expect emphasis on real business fundamentals, defensible economics, and a credible path to scale/liquidity (M&A or public listing) rather than pure early-stage moonshots.