Ziebold Joins First Beverage Group as Managing Partner

First Beverage Group has hired Townsend Ziebold as a managing partner. Ziebold has more than 25 years of IB and PE experience at The First Boston Corp., Wasserstein Perella and Wasserstein & Co. Last month, Tom First, CEO of owater, joined First Beverge as co-managing director. Los Angeles-based First Beverage provides M&A advisory, private equity, strategic and operational consulting, as well as wealth management.

PRESS RELEASE

First Beverage Group today announced that it has hired Townsend Ziebold as Managing Partner. Ziebold will be responsible for further developing the Company’s investment banking practice, including its mergers and acquisitions advisory business.

“Townsend brings an unparalleled level of Wall Street deal making experience and a unique combination of M&A and private equity skills to our efforts to build a premier investment banking firm dedicated to the beverage industry,” said Bill Anderson, founder and CEO of First Beverage Group. “As Sean McLaren and John O’Connor have done for our distributor and importer M&A group, Townsend will bring a specialized focus on supplier M&A. Townsend will also play an important role in our private equity investments in early-stage beverage brands.”

Ziebold has over 25 years of experience in investment banking and private equity at The First Boston Corporation, Wasserstein Perella & Co., and Wasserstein & Co. He has completed over $40 billion in mergers and acquisitions advisory assignments, and as a principal investor over 30 private equity investments, ranging from leveraged buyouts and growth equity to venture capital. In this capacity, Ziebold was also a former director and non-executive chairman of Imax Corporation, a leading large-screen film projection company, and a former director of two other public companies, Collins & Aikman Corporation, a $2 billion automotive components company, and Maybelline, Inc., a leading mass market cosmetics manufacturer. He received his B.A. in Economics from Trinity College and his M.B.A. from the Stanford School of Business.

“I am very excited to be joining First Beverage Group,” said Ziebold. “The combination of its deep team of industry experts with its full range of products from early to mid-stage private equity, consulting, private placements and mergers and acquisitions advisory services, makes it a compelling platform to serve the needs of its beverage industry clients. I am looking forward to bringing my experience as both an investment banker and private equity investor to First Beverage to build one of the premier financial service firms servicing the beverage industry.”

Ziebold will head First Beverage’s New York office. He can be reached at townsend@firstbev.com.

About First Beverage Group

First Beverage Group is a full-service financial services firm dedicated exclusively to the beverage industry. First Beverage focuses on providing growth solutions to leading operators in all segments of the beverage industry through a comprehensive range of products, including private equity; M&A advisory; strategic and operational consulting; and real estate capital through sale-leasebacks and buy/build-to-suit transactions. Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Atlanta, Boston, New York, Portland, and St. Louis, the First Beverage team has over 200 years of experience in the beverage industry. For more information, please visit the company’s website, www.firstbev.com.