John Adams

Co-Founder & Managing Director

John is a Founding Partner of CMD Global Partners.  Like each of the other Founding Partners of the firm, John previously was a Managing Director at XMS Capital Partners. Prior to his time at XMS, John spent 14 years at Lazard where he ran the Chicago Office / Midwest Investment Banking business, Global Private Equity and the Global Automotive group. He has extensive experience in China beginning in 2006 with the opening of Lazard’s Beijing office. Earlier, during 1986-1999, he was with Morgan Stanley in New York, Chicago and London where he ran the firm’s European M&A Business Development effort. Recently, he represented Icahn Enterprises in the $5.4 billion merger of Federal Mogul and Tenneco.  John has over 30+ years of experience in investment banking working across a number of industries in M&A, public and private financing, as well as restructuring (has completed 15 successful restructuring assignments).

John holds a B.S. from Truman State University (Summa Cum Laude) and an MBA from Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania (Director’s List). He is a US citizen with EU residency.

Kristin Allen

Managing Director

Kristin is a Managing Director at CMD Global Partners, where she leads the firm’s Telecom and Digital Infrastructure advisory franchise. She also covers broadcasting and outdoor advertising.

Prior to joining CMD, Kristin was a Managing Director and Co-Head of Digital Infrastructure at Greenhill & Co., a global M&A advisory boutique. Before Greenhill, she served as Co-Head of Digital Infrastructure at Solomon Partners. Kristin spent more than 30 years at Credit Suisse, where she was Vice Chair of Investment Banking and a Managing Director in the firm’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications group. During her tenure at Credit Suisse, she founded and built successful investment banking franchises in broadcasting and later in international cell towers. Kristin began her career as an Analyst in Morgan Stanley’s M&A Department prior to joining The First Boston Corporation, Credit Suisse’s predecessor.

Kristin has extensive client relationships across the data center, fiber, and tower sectors in the U.S. and internationally. Within the digital infrastructure sector, she has advised on M&A transactions and/or capital raises for companies including American Tower, SBA Communications, Crown Castle, AT&T, IHS Towers, Grupo TorreSur, Viom, Protelindo, Blue Sky Data Centers, TierPoint, and Suddenlink, among others. She also has deep relationships across the infrastructure fund, pension fund and private equity communities.

Kristin serves on the boards of two education-focused foundations: the Gordon A. Rich Memorial Foundation, which provides college education grants to students with demonstrated financial need whose parents work in the financial services industry, and the African Dream Academy Foundation, which built and continues to fund an elementary and high school in Liberia.

Kristin holds an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BA in Economics from Brown University. She was born and raised in Hastings, Nebraska, and currently lives and works in New York City.

Conor Barry

Co-Founder & Managing Director

Conor is a Managing Director and co-founder of CMD Global Partners. Conor has spent the entirety of his 20+year career in capital markets. Conor runs the European practice of CMD from Dublin where his main focus is on enabling clients to complete Trans-Atlantic transactions through superior execution and support. In addition, Conor has enormous experience dealing with entrepreneur or family-owned entities that are looking to transition to a new phase of growth via some form of PE or growth equity funding. Conor has a particular emphasis on the business services, healthcare and packaging sectors.

Conor began his career in the Equity Capital Markets division at Deutsche Bank in London, where he worked with Pan-European Hedge Funds and Institutions from 2001-2005. After Deutsche Bank and before joining the investment banking world with XMS Capital Partners, Conor was a co-founder of a private equity business in Ireland having raised and invested €350m of equity predominantly in property related transactions.

Conor holds a BSc degree in Finance from University College Cork and an MBS degree in Strategic Management from The Smurfit Graduate School of Business in Dublin.

Mark Bobek

Managing Director

Mark is a Managing Director with CMD Global Partners, residing in Hong Kong with a focus on covering Asia Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. Mark has held multiple senior leadership roles for treasury and corporate finance functions at multinational corporates who have a presence across Asia Pacific. Mark also serves as an independent director and provides advisory regarding M&A, strategy and treasury risk management across a number of businesses in the region.

Mark began his career as a Senior Analyst at Household International, and later joined Tupperware as its Chief Financial Officer in Asia Pacific. His experience in both senior leadership and advisory roles allows him to serve clients in the region across strategy, capital structure and M&A activities, where he has built a network of corporate and institutional clients.

Mark graduated from DePaul University with a Bachelor of Science in Financing and Marketing, and a Master of Management in Finance and Marketing from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.

Colin Brown

Director

Colin is a Director at CMD Global Partners, where he has played a pivotal role since joining the firm in January 2020. In his current position, Colin leads transaction execution teams across a diverse range of industries, including healthcare and industrial technology. Colin has also successfully sourced and led transactions across various sectors, such as healthcare, industrials, professional services and technology.

Colin began his career at Wells Fargo Securities, executing mergers, acquisitions and capital markets transactions. His early career also includes a tenure at BlackArch Partners, a boutique investment bank based in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he focused on sell-side M&A.

Colin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Chinese from Davidson College, where he graduated with honors. During his time at Davidson, he also played Division I football for the Wildcats.

Colin resides in Chicago and is passionate about fitness, sports, podcasts, reading and enjoying time with his family and friends. He is a board member of Highwind Impact Fund, a Chicago-based organization that provides grants to small and underrepresented non-profits.