The Mad River Associates team is comprised of experienced and successful professionals who average more than 20 years of in-depth experience. Our successful results are largely due to the synergies we capture having such high quality professionals working together on our clients' behalf.

Bob Sahlman
Managing Partner and Founder

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Bob Sahlman is President and Founder of Mad River Associates.   Prior to 1998, Mr. Sahlman managed a team of seventeen professionals for Coldstream Real Estate Advisors, a commercial real estate brokerage firm in Bedford, New Hampshire. After retiring from that business in 1993, he went on to manage real estate investment entities in New England. After successfully selling the Sahlman family's rural telephone business, Topsham Telephone Company in 1998, Mr. Sahlman joined a thirty-year old main street brokerage firm called Country Business. The primary objective of joining Country Business was to find a manufacturing investment opportunity for the Sahlman family interests. After locating a suitable opportunity, Mr. Sahlman left Country Business in late 1998 to start Mad River Associates.   He has a B. S. in finance from George Washington University with three years of additional graduate studies in real estate and urban development at American University.

Brian Degen
Partner

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Brian Degen joined Mad River Associates as a Managing Director in October, 2006. He has an accomplished and diverse general management background in senior leadership roles with large multi-national corporations and small entrepreneurial start-ups. Brian has over twenty-four years of operating experience in a wide variety of industries and functional areas including operations, finance, sales and marketing, business development, information technology, and corporate administration. Prior to joining Mad River Associates, Brian founded a management advisory business working with companies to identify and overcome their major constraints to growth and profitability. He’s been the Chief Operating Officer of two Vermont companies, was a founding member of an Internet-based start-up company, launched the eCommerce division of International Data Corporation, and built the electronic publishing division at Fidelity Investments. Brian began his career with six years in high-tech manufacturing at Data General Corporation where he held numerous corporate and plant-level positions. Brian earned an MBA degree and a BS degree in Operations Engineering - both from the University of Michigan.  

John Freyhof
Partner

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John Freyhof has over fifteen years of direct investment and advisory experience and joined Mad River Associates as a Managing Director in June 2003. Prior to joining Mad River Associates, Mr. Freyhof co-founded TRF Urban Growth Partners, a $50 million fund specializing in socially responsible investments in middle-market manufacturing and service businesses.   Mr. Freyhof has been involved in assisting companies with fundraising, business plan development, strategic marketing and new product development as an advisor, board member and investor. From 1997 - 2003, Mr. Freyhof was responsible for originating and managing investments in a portfolio of fifteen technology, manufacturing, software and service companies as a Managing Director at PNC Capital Markets and TRF Urban Growth Partners. From 1987 - 1997, he served as an advisor to nearly 300 early stage technology companies who subsequently went on to raise over $500 million while serving as Director of Venture Development at a Carnegie Mellon University spin off called the Enterprise Corporation of Pittsburgh. Mr. Freyhof holds a BS in accounting, cum laude, from Syracuse University and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also a registered investment representative.  Mr. Freyhof manages the Mad River Associates Philadelphia office.

Jay Carpenter
Partner
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Jay started his career working for a computer engineering company based in Sydney, Australia, called Platypus Technologies.  After working as a manufacturing engineer and sales engineer for Platypus he left to develop a new product line for Gordon Cross Inc.  Jay developed relationships with manufacturing facilities in southern China, as well as established distribution channels throughout North America.  Jay also has extensive experience in the construction industry having worked as a construction project manager and structural engineer earlier in his career. He joined MRA’s Waitsfield office in 2009, to help grow the business and develop systems to improve the companies efficiency.  Jay has an MBA degree from Babson College, and a B.S. Mechanical Engineering, from The University of Vermont.

Erin Chase
Associate

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Erin Chase joined Mad River Associates in 2008 with over thirteen years of management experience and a strong background in market research. Prior to becoming the manager of MRA's Waitsfield office, Ms. Chase was employed by the Sugarbush Resort Children's Program where she was responsible for growing revenues by 300 percent in 2003; she was able to maintain steady revenue growth until 2005 when she left Sugarbush to start her own business. Erin co-owned and operated a successful childcare and early education establishment, in Waitsfield but sold her half in 2008 when she joined Mad River Associates. Currently responsible for MRA's research and target identification program, Erin works closely with MRA partners and their institutional and strategic clients. She also manages an extensive proprietary database and is responsible for identifying target companies on all of MRA's search projects. Erin studied Statistics and Psychology at Norwich University and brings her background in business management, grant writing and psychology to Mad River Associates.