Meet David Brooks: MedTech Banker by Day, Rocker by Night

David Brooks is an M&A Director with Kinsella Group. Now in his fourth year at Kinsella Group, Dave has applied his deep industry experience as a CMO and CEO to help MedTech organizations scale, position their business for sale, and pursue growth capital. In this article, Dave shares how his untypical route to investment banking is of value to buyers and sellers.

How did your career evolve into MedTech?

From high school, I became an engineering apprentice at a division of US truck manufacturer PACCAR (Kenworth) during which time I also studied and qualified as a Principal Financial Analyst. From there I worked in both senior finance and manufacturing operations roles at a scientific instrument manufacturer, an injection molding company and a sealing systems company before joining Perplas, the predecessor company to Orthoplastics, an orthopedics CMO. I was CEO for 20 years, selling it to Medplast (now Viant) and becoming President of Medplast International. In 2015 I chose to retire due to family circumstances.

How did you and Robert Kinsella cross paths?

As CEO of Orthoplastics, I was an annual exhibitor at OMTEC in Chicago, at which Bob would stop by, so over several years, I got to know Bob quite well. I always enjoyed our encounters which led ultimately to me reaching out to him later when he was looking to strengthen his M&A team.

What direct experience do you have of M&A?

At Orthoplastics I had an excellent private equity partner until the time came for them to realize their investment. Initially we decided to try to market the company privately, which I did myself. After three near misses and with a deadline approaching, my partner chose an investment banker to run a standard sale process, which I headed. This led to the acquisition by Medplast.

The process in which Orthoplastics was created out of Perplas included the sale of several business units, all of which I managed privately.

How does your background apply to M&A?

As a former CEO, I feel a powerful bond when speaking to CEOs of operating companies which usually develops into a close working relationship and alignment of interest. It is not always all about money or getting the most value. CEO’s spend years developing their businesses into corporate identities with value systems which they do not like to see going to waste. They prefer to sell to owners whose objectives align closely with the trajectory of their business and matching those objectives is a task I take extremely seriously. I want to be able to speak with a seller years later who has become delighted by the deal.

What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?

I play bass guitar in my own rock band called Long Strung Creatures – the name comes from a Wilfred Owen war poem called “The Show”. The band members are all high school friends with whom we have released four CDs of all original rock music and played many live shows.

Listen to Long Strung Creatures’ greatest hits here> https://bit.ly/3CThDhp All are available on Spotify and other music streaming platforms.

You live outside Manchester UK – United or City?

I live near the airport on the south side of the city. I am old enough to have seen live one of the world’s greatest ever soccer players – George Best. So, it is United for me. Spending so much time in the USA over the past 30 years has caused me to love American Football and having seen the Joe Montana/ Jerry Rice combination at play makes me a 49ers fan as well.