EPIC Leadership
Nearly 75 Years of Collective Private Equity & CPG Experience
Tom Anderson
Partner
Tom is Co-Founder and Non-Executive Chairman for Beckway Group and EPIC. He currently serves private and private equity-owned companies in very active, hands-on Board Director roles helping CEOs accelerate sustainable growth and prepare for successful transactions.
From 2013-2020, Tom was an Operating Partner at The Riverside Company, a global private equity firm making control investments in growing middle-market businesses. At any given time, Tom served as Chairman of the Board for three to five companies, typically for the duration of each hold from diligence through exit. Tom earned a strong reputation for working in collaborative partnership with executive teams to plan and accelerate company performance and exit value.
Before Riverside, Tom was an Operating Partner with Sun Capital, serving interim leadership and operational restructuring roles across portfolio companies in both the U.S. and Europe. Prior to that, he was a senior practitioner with the restructuring firm AlixPartners, where Tom led company-wide transformation programs for private equity-sponsored portfolio companies. These included growth strategies, merger integrations, and company turnarounds.
Tom started his career as an Industrial Engineer for a former division of Union Carbide. He graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research. He subsequently earned an M.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Georgetown University.
Tom lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife of almost 30 years and together they have five children.
Rich Cavaliere
Managing Director
Rich is a Senior Operating Director at BeckWay Group. He has over 20 years of experience in Manufacturing Operations, working with Privately Held Multinational corporations and Private Equity backed companies. He utilizes his 20 years of hands on experience managing plant operations and changing work force cultures to drive increased plant performance to meet customer requirements and reduce total cost of ownership.
He believes in creating a culture of continuous improvement by simplifying processes and increasing ownership of front-line employees. Rich has extensive experience building new manufacturing sites, turning around or retrofitting existing sites and consolidating manufacturing sites.
Rich has a B.S. of Science in Chemical Engineering.
Paul Smucker Wagstaff
Partner
Paul Wagstaff is a recognized leader in the Retail Consumer Foods industry in the United States. Most recently, Paul was co-Founder and CEO of Eagle Family Foods, a private equity backed CPG food company based in Richfield, Ohio. Paul, led the stand up of the business after completing the platform acquisition of Eagle Brand Milk from The J.M. Smucker Company. Under Paul’s leadership, the Eagle ready to eat popcorn brands became the fastest growing popcorn in the U.S.
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Previously, Paul was President of The J.M. Smucker Company US Retail Consumer Foods Division where he successfully led a $2.4 billion business in net sales with over $400 million in profit.
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Paul currently serves on the Advisory Board of American Nutrition, Cyprium Partners, and the University of Akron Foundation Board. He has served on The J.M. Smucker Board of Directors, Advisory Council for Students in Free Enterprise, the Funders’ Committee for The Fund For Our Economic Future, The Healthy Weight Committee Foundation Board of Governors, and The Old Trail School Board of Trustees.
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Paul earned an MBA from Pepperdine University and completed his B.A. in International Relations at The College of Wooster.