5 DECADES OF WORKING WITH FOUNDER-BACKED BUSINESSES
CEO & Founding Partner
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Texas Lutheran University
CEO & Founding Partner
Justin grew up in Klamath Falls, Oregon. After receiving his BA at Texas Lutheran University, he joined The Miner Corporation. There he served as CIO, where he led several transformational initiatives in the forklift leasing, inspection, repair and planned maintenance segment. He also served as President of Miner National Services – a brand independent, asset light company serving the Fortune 500 across North America. Under Justin’s leadership, Miner National was recognized five times by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing privately-held companies in America.
Justin is the CEO and a founding partner of SideKick Operators. Justin is involved in other platform companies, where he supports key technology initiatives, mergers and acquisitions, marketing, human resources, and corporate development.
Justin was selected as one of the leading business professionals in San Antonio having been listed on the Business Journal’s Top 40 under 40. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for San Antonio Sports and is a past Vice Chair of The Kids Sports Network.
Founding Partner
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Texas A&M University
Founding Partner
Phil grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast fishing with his father where he developed a passion for the world’s oceans. This interest led him to Texas A&M University where he graduated with a degree in Ocean Engineering. Following graduation and a stint in a family business, Phil launched The Miner Corporation, a leading national provider of mission-critical services for material handling equipment. The company’s 2,000 employees serve more than 300 of the Fortune 500 and has been recognized as one of the top 500 fastest-growing private companies in America by Inc. Magazine.
Today, Phil is a founding partner of SideKick Operators, a strategic firm investing in mission critical services companies. SideKick joins in partnership with business leaders to build national brand reputations through operational excellence. Phil also serves on the advisory board for the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship at the Mays Business School, the Chancellor’s Century Council at the Texas A&M University System and is a member of the Board of Directors at Summit Companies and Oscar W. Larson.
VP of Operational Excellence
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Texas A&M University
VP of Operational Excellence
Chris Galvan grew up in Katy, Texas. After graduating from Texas A&M University with a degree in Business Management, Chris joined the Miner Corporation. Chris served 22 years with the company and after working his way up the ladder, he led Miner’s mobile tech operations and the company’s National Customer Service Center.
Chris led multi-state teams to consistently deliver high performance results. He co-founded the start up of Miner’s first branch office in Phoenix, Arizona. This greenfield expansion required a dedication to systems, process, employee and culture development. He later became active in the integration of Miner’s add-on acquisitions. Chris also previously served as the COO of Shafer Services – an HVAC services firm, where his role was to help fuel growth while gaining operational efficiencies.
Chris is now the Vice President of Operational Excellence at SideKick Operators. Chris brings an ability to analyze and execute improvements to mobile tech operations with a focus on customer service and employee safety.
Chris was recognized by The Business Journal as one of the 40 Under 40 Rising Stars. He and his wife of 15 years, Julie, have two daughters Mya and Katelyn. They enjoy their children’s interests in music and youth sports. He and his family are active supporters of the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Enterprise Architect
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American Intercontinental University
Enterprise Architect
Clay grew up in South Texas, where he developed a strong sense of curiosity and drive to solve problems. Clay began his technology journey in his early teens – offering web presence, networking and IT hardware solutions to small businesses in the San Antonio area. After some time in a family business, Clay decided to pursue a career in software engineering where he focused on web development and Salesforce. Clay has been a part of numerous high performing engineering and delivery teams in the health, retail, convenient store, non-profit, and service professional industries – including CornerStore, Valero, HEB, Salesforce.org, Salesforce, and the Miner Corporation.
Clay is now an Enterprise Architect at SideKick Operators. He focuses on platform transformation, change management design and implementation that focuses on quickly discovering and delivering the true needs of the end users. His drive is to enable a sustainable and adaptable environment that will continue to deliver and innovate useful, measurable, and transparent software.
Clay lives in the PNW with his wonderful wife and two daughters. Clay and his family love to hike, camp, and explore when not working on DIY projects at their home.
Vice President
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The University of Texas at Austin MBA
Texas A&M University BBA in Finance
Vice President
Scott was born and raised in Houston, Texas. Scott attended Texas A&M University where he earned his BBA in Finance. After Texas A&M, Scott joined Citigroup, where he worked on middle market industrial and energy leverage finance transactions and financings. After Citi, Scott spent three years serving as an Associate at WhiteStar Asset Management, where he evaluated high yield credit investments in a multitude of industry verticals. Scott then attended The University of Texas at Austin, earning his MBA focusing on strategy and entrepreneurship. Post-MBA, Scott worked within Houlihan Lokey’s restructuring practice, advising clients on distressed M&A, capital structure reorganization, and bankruptcy processes.
Scott now serves as Vice President at SideKick Operators. Scott is responsible for sourcing, identifying, and evaluating potential investment opportunities in addition to co-operating new platform investments.
Scott has a passion for coaching, continuing education, college sports, and Texas history. Having grown up, attended college and built a successful career in Texas, Scott is deeply committed to giving back and helping to build businesses in his own back yard.
Strategic Partner
University of Arizona
Strategic Partner
Greg grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona and attended the University of Arizona in Tucson. He has 20+ years of experience in working with financial sponsors including Charterhouse Group of New York and General Catalyst Partners of Boston. Greg has partnered with nationally recognized entrepreneurs, supporting them as they build their organizations into national brands. Past partnerships include Oak Leaf Waste Management, CLEARResult and Miner National Service.
Greg is now a Strategic Partner with SideKick Operators where his primary focus is identifying and investing in emerging growth companies within mission critical repair, maintenance, inspection, and testing industries. Greg and his wife Leigh live in Hermosa Beach, California with their son Jack and dog Bo.
Strategic Partner
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Fordham University
Strategic Partner
Vincent Hartnett is the founder of Key Tides, advising and investing in entrepreneurial transportation and logistics businesses. He was previously the President of Penske Logistics, a unit of Penske Transportation Services, which is a partnership of Penske Corporation, a privately held company based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and Penske Automotive Group and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. He was also Senior Vice-President of Penske Truck Leasing, a premier supplier of truck leasing and maintenance services through more than 1,000 locations in North America.
At Penske Logistics, he developed market focus on more complex supply chains especially for multi-national corporations. Product offerings include dedicated fleet operations, distribution center management, carrier management and international freight forwarding. For the largest customers, Penske also served as lead logistics supplier, organizing activities of other third-party logistics suppliers. His responsibilities at Penske Truck Leasing included commercial and consumer rental, fleet management, real estate development and facilities management. He retired after 38 years with the Penske organization and soon established Key Tides. He has worked as an adviser to private equity investors and most recently served on the board of TFS Miner.
He and his wife live in Pennsylvania and are active as supporters of many organizations, including United Way of Berks County, The Kimmel Center, Natural Lands and Yellow Springs Art Institute.
Strategic Partner
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United States Merchant Marine Academy
Strategic Partner
Paul grew up in Boston, Massachusetts and attended the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Paul brings a focus on investing in later-stage, growth companies in the environmental and facilities maintenance industries.
Paul founded the American Medical Response and Omni Building Services, while also playing key leadership roles in successfully building Oakleaf Waste Management, The Miner Corporation and CLEARResult.
Today, Paul is a Strategic Partner of SideKick Operators. He is also the current Chairman of Oceans Healthcare of Plano, Texas. Paul has been active in his support of Children’s Hospital Trust, The New England Aquarium, and Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America.
Paul was selected as The National Entrepreneur of the Year for Emerging Growth Companies by Inc. Magazine, Merrill Lynch, and Ernst & Young.
