Phillip Wilhite

Phillip Wilhite is an Austin-based M&A advisor and investment banker who serves as a Director/Managing Director in the Austin office of Statesman Corporate Finance, LLC, and works as a sell-side M&A advisor at the affiliated firm Corporate Investment. His career spans more than 40 years, beginning in public accounting: he earned a BBA in Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin, became a Certified Public Accountant, and spent four years on the audit staff of Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers).

He then moved into operating roles, first serving as CFO of a regional construction firm before acquiring a small wholesale operation and growing it into what he describes as the fifth-largest distributor in his industry, serving the grocery trade across sixteen states — a business he later built and sold. That combination of operating, financial, and ownership experience underpins his advisory work.

Over roughly eleven-plus years of dedicated M&A work, Wilhite has closed transactions across manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, professional services, printing, and real estate/hospitality, with deals valued up to $50 million. He holds the industry's top credential, the Merger & Acquisition Master Intermediary (M&AMI) designation earned in 2005 (held by fewer than 100 professionals), along with the Certified Business Intermediary (CBI) designation, a Texas Real Estate Salesperson's License, and FINRA Series 7, 66, and 79 registrations (held through Statesman Corporate Finance).

A longtime (40+ year) Austin resident, Wilhite is an active member and speaker within the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA) and M&A Source, has chaired the M&A Expo committee, and serves on the board of The First Tee of Greater Austin. Note: while some investor-database aggregators (e.g., Foundersuite) tag him as an "angel investor," the primary and firm-sourced record describes his role as M&A advisory and investment banking rather than early-stage venture investing.

• Primary business is M&A advisory / investment banking, not seed-stage venture; he represents owners of established, profitable lower-middle-market companies in sales, acquisitions, and recapitalizations.
• Transaction sizes run up to ~$50 million in enterprise value.
• Sector comfort zones: manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, professional services, printing, and real estate/hospitality — sectors where he has direct deal experience.
• Approach is grounded in his own operator and CPA background ("former business owner," "Big 8" public accounting), emphasizing valuation rigor and strategic fit for owners planning an exit.
• Publicly described caveat: no verifiable evidence of a startup/angel portfolio or seed-round check-writing was found; the "Angel Investor / Seed Round" label in the stub appears to originate from third-party aggregators and is not corroborated by primary sources.