Our Leadership Team
Michael Wilk
Michael Wilk, Managing Partner of the Penn Valley Group, leverages his expertise in the capital markets and mergers & acquisitions to support PVG clients fund their operations and growth initiatives. His firsthand knowledge of the internal workings of lending institutions and capital-consuming corporations has made him an invaluable resource for PVG and its clients.
Prior to joining the Penn Valley Group in July 2006, Michael served as Vice President of Mergers & Acquisitions at Fiberlink, an $80 million endpoint security and remote access software and solutions company funded by Technology Crossover Ventures, Goldman Sachs and Edison Ventures. From 1997 through 2004, Michael was Vice President and Manager of Technology and Life Sciences Banking for Progress Bank (acquired by Comerica Bank). There, he focused on managing the origination, structuring and administration of senior and subordinated debt investments in the emerging-growth and middle-market segments of technology and life sciences markets in the Delaware Valley region, as well as enhancing the brand awareness of Progress Bank in the business community. Before joining Progress Bank, Michael served as Senior Vice President of Copelco/American Health Fund, a specialty finance company providing working capital to the health care industry. At PNC Bank in Philadelphia, he was a Vice President and Group Manager in the corporate banking line of business, serving various roles over a 12-year period. He specialized in acquisition finance for middle market manufacturing, distribution and services companies, structured financings for the equipment leasing and mortgage niches and project finance in the sports entertainment industry. Michael earned Bachelors of Science in both Finance and Accounting, and a Master of Science in Finance from Drexel University, where he also was a 4-year member of the varsity soccer team. He is an active member of the Association for Corporate Growth, Mid Atlantic Capital and the Eastern Technology Council.
Email: michael@pennvalleygroup.com
Don Mulhern
Don Mulhern, Lead Partner of PVG's Sales & Marketing Practice, brings a new dimension of credentials to organizations seeking to improve sales performance, marketing effectiveness and customer relationships. Don’s thirty-year career in Business Management, Marketing and Sales has been driven by a personal quest to lead and teach others to win in the marketplace through disciplined and repeatable customer-centric processes.
Don is widely acknowledged for his ability help organizations create strong and valuable relationships with customers that consistently outpace the competition. His success has been attributed to his keen listening and communications skills, his ability to translate organizational goals into actionable programs that produce measurable business results, and a strong process orientation. Prior to joining PVG, Don held several executive positions with Verizon where his experience includes sales and technical leadership, product management, merger integration, organizational planning and implementation, channel management, business development, sales training and client relationship management. In his sales and leadership roles, Don consistently produced extraordinary results through a hands-on account management and business development approach with both Fortune 100 and mid-market clients. As a Product Manager, Don developed and led a start-up product launch for a new subsidiary, building and executing a marketing plan that enabled over 200 sales professionals to penetrate the market and grow the product line into a profitable multi-million dollar business. Don received numerous awards, including the prestigious President's Club Award in both sales and marketing roles. Don earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics at Middlebury College where he also excelled at football and baseball. He holds several professional certifications in sales methodologies and training as well as technical disciplines and is an active member of the Mid-Atlantic Consultants' Network.
Email: dmulhern@pennvalleygroup.com
Joe Giordano
Joe Giordano, Lead Partner of Penn Valley Group's Operational Services Practice, brings our clients over 25 years of experience as a corporate executive, business owner and consulting partner with other executives. Joe's industry expertise and focus includes manufacturing/distribution, business services, technology services, health care and medical device, insurance services, energy and telecommunications.
Joe’s primary responsibilities include designing and implementing production-centric and process-centric strategies to improve asset utilization and productivity, increase throughput and yield, improve quality and compliance, reduce waste and downtime, increase revenue and improve profitability. Joe approaches each client with a hands-on approach utilizing exceptional strategic planning, assessment, implementation and cross-functional management skills and techniques to capture untapped economic potential within operating environments. This results-oriented approach utilizes various tools and proven diagnostic methodologies including Lean Manufacturing, Lean Enterprise, Six Sigma, Consultative Solution Selling and Short Interval Scheduling. Prior to joining Penn Valley Group, Joe was a Principal of Activo Partners and Performance Partnering LLC. He also served as a corporate officer in public companies and in executive management positions with Decision One, Bell Atlantic, Unisys Corp and RCA Service Company. Joe’s educational credentials include University of California at Los Angeles, The Wharton School and Villanova University. He is a certified black belt in Six Sigma. He is a member of the Turnaround Management Association and the Association for Corporate Growth.
Email: jgiordano@pennvalleygroup.com
David Orischak
David Orischak, a Partner at Penn Valley Group, brings thirty years of experience in both corporate and entrepreneurial businesses. From strategy to planning to execution, Dave has an established track record of successfully growing businesses. His clients rely on his judgment and the practical application of his knowledge to assist with planning, funding and executing their business strategies.
Prior to joining Penn Valley Group, Dave established a successful business advisory practice located in Hilton Head Island, SC. This practice focused on providing a variety of transactional and advisory services to mid-market companies. Over the past two years, Dave helped clients land more than $50 million in growth and acquisition capital. Dave has been successfully raising capital for businesses since 1985 when he financed the growth capital for PC Concepts, a training and software development company he co-founded. Dave planned for and managed the execution of an aggressive growth strategy for PC Concepts that culminated with the sale of the company to Ziff-Davis in 1991. Much of Dave’s success is a direct result of his ability to draw on eight years of experience at IBM. While there, he worked in a number of progressively more responsible sales and marketing positions in the Philadelphia Region. In addition, Dave served as President of Environmental Plasma Arc Technology, where he completed the successful restructuring of company operations and brought the quarterly reporting to current status. This allowed the public company to regain trading rights on the NASDAQ. Dave earned a BS in Economics from Wilkes University and is a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon, an international honor society in Economics.
Email: dave@pennvalleygroup.com
Jay McCarthy
Jay McCarthy, Senior Director, Business Development, has more than 25 years experience managing the sales and business development initiatives for a variety of technology and professional services companies. Mr. McCarthy’s primary responsibilities include developing relationships with new and existing clients, assessing their needs and objectives and recommending the appropriate Penn Valley Group services and solutions.
Prior to joining Penn Valley Group, McCarthy spent the majority of his career working in a variety of sales and client management roles at Verizon Communications. His most recent assignment was as a Sales Director in the Global Enterprise Group, responsible for managing teams focused on relationship management of clients in the Banking, Chemical and Defense Contracting Industries. Prior assignments included sales management roles, sales engineering and account management. An astute technical sales professional, he has strong overall sales skills and is known for his ability to listen effectively to customer needs and becoming a strong advocate for the customer. Mr. McCarthy also opened the Philadelphia market for the data CLEC - ELI, giving him experience in the start-up world. For the past two years, Mr. McCarthy has been the Athletic Director at Holy Child Academy. Mr. McCarthy is a graduate of The William Penn Charter School. He earned a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from Lehigh University, where he was a member of the varsity basketball team. A passionate reader, he has just finished writing his first novel. He resides in Media, Pa with his wife, Diane, and their three children.
Email: jmccarthy@pennvalleygroup.com
Steve Zarrilli
Steve Zarrilli is the Co-Founder and an Advisor of the Penn Valley Group. In this role, he provides guidance to the operating partners of the firm in attracting new clients and developing enhanced service offerings. Throughout an active career, Steve has demonstrated an ability to successfully grow and manage a variety of entrepreneurial enterprises.
In addition to his Advisory role with the Penn Valley Group, Steve Zarrilli is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE:SFE), a growth capital provider headquartered in Wayne, PA. Steve has built a career spanning 30 years in a combination of CFO and CEO roles in both public and private companies, including serving as the CFO of Safeguard from 2008 to 2012. Steve spent the first 11 years of his career at Deloitte in Philadelphia.
Steve is also a director for several public and private enterprises including Nutrisystem, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRI) and Cadient, Inc. He is also the Chairman Emeritus of the Advisory Board for the Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia, Vice Chairman of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA, and a board member of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. Steve previously served on three other public company boards – US Interactive, Inc. (digital marketing) from 1999 to 2000, Progress Financial Corporation (banking/ financial services) from 2000 until its sale to Fleet Bank in 2004 and Clarient, Inc. (cancer diagnostics) from 2008 until its sale in 2010 to General Electric.
Steve is a frequent speaker on a variety of business topics including strategic management, capital markets, corporate governance and entrepreneurship. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of La Salle University, as well as the Chairman of the Advisory Board for La Salle’s Center for Entrepreneurship. In addition, Steve serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Corporate Governance of Drexel University’s LeBow School of Business, and a member of the Advisory Board on Executive Education for the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Steve graduated from La Salle University in Philadelphia in 1983, and completed the Advanced Management Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2010.
Email: szarrilli@safeguard.com
