New Principal in Financial Services at Merit Harbor Group

TACOMA, Wash. - July 7, 2014 - PRLog -- Wednesday, June 18, 2014 – Merit Harbor Group, a regional M&A, investment banking, and advisory firm dedicated to helping CEO’s and entrepreneurs create, grow, optimize and capture their enterprise value, today announced the appointment of Steve Szirmai as a principal in the company’s advisory practice.

In his new role, Mr. Szirmai will leverage his extensive domestic and international finance and operations expertise and serve as a senior contributor to the company’s advisory practice. He will be based in Seattle.

Steve brings more than 25 years serving in the banking, leasing, and asset management industries as CFO, Treasurer and Division Financial Controller and Director of Worldwide Operations for corporations such as Chase Manhattan Bank (now JP Morgan Chase), HSBC, West LB, and Microsoft.

His expertise includes financial reporting, accounting, valuation, corporate strategy, structured finance and mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”), as well as bank Operations. Mr. Szirmai’ s experience includes providing consulting services to banks, asset management firms and independent and captive finance companies, to improve their financial reporting processes, value financial assets, analyze complex transactions and accounting issues, enhance internal controls, and evaluate bank regulatory capital.

Steve also assists firms who are looking to increase sales by offering financing through building a captive or vendor finance operations or syndication operation.

Furthermore, Mr. Szirmai's 20 years of experience working in international markets assists firms to add value in their international operations, as well as deep origination and international growth mandates, and helps firms expand their markets by helping them successfully "go international". He also has a keen understanding of the issues faced by business owners and entrepreneurs, having owned, and subsequently sold, a printing and signage business.

“I am thrilled to welcome Mr. Szirmai to our team. He has an excellent financial institutions background and will be our subject matter expert assisting Banking and financial services companies strategically further grow and expend their businesses both domestically and internationally”, said Craig Dickens CEO of Merit Harbor Group “Given Steve’s broad experience base in leasing and financing as well as operational expertise we see Steve greatly assisting both our consulting and capital clients in the sector.”

Steve brings his international and domestic expertise to the Financial Services, Corporate Banking, Mergers & Acquisitions, Intellectual Properties, and Technology industries, serving as Interim CFO, Interim COO, Board Advisor, Strategic Advisor, and CEO coach.

“I am excited to be working with the team at Merit Harbor Group and look forward to serving our clients to increase their enterprise value in an interim CFO, interim COO or banking advisory capacity,” said Steve. “I appreciate Merit Harbor Group’s approach to helping company owners create value and capture that value in an M&A Transaction. Access to capital remains challenging and working with Merit Harbor and lower middle market companies to create an investable corporate and finance structure will allow me to contribute mightily to my clients.”

Having received his MBA in Finance from the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business, Mr. Szirmai is multi-lingual; speaking fluent German, Hungarian, Spanish, and English. Steve has both worked and lived in international markets such as Hong Kong, Dusseldorf, Prague, Warsaw, Madrid and Moscow as well as in New York, Houston and Seattle.

About Merit Harbor Group
Merit Harbor Group, LLC is a regional M&A, investment banking and advisory firm dedicated to helping CEO’s and entrepreneurs create, grow, optimize and capture their enterprise value in an increasingly complex market. Operating in the pacific NW with offices in Seattle and Portland, Merit Harbor Group professionals work closely with clients to increase the company’s value and profitability as well as prepare them for an M&A event or raise growth capital to accelerate growth.  The firm concentrates on helping lower middle market companies from 10mm – 100mm in sales.  More information can be found at www.meritharborgroup.com