MEET THE FOUNDERS

We’re Here for You

Who We Are

We are a team of senior bankers obsessed on your success. Our focus is bringing Wall Street level of expertise to the underserved Entrepreneurs of small and medium sized companies.

With over 3 decades of cumulative experience totaling over $1 billion of transaction and investments, we have the experience to solve our clients' most complex needs.

BLAKE NIELSEN

Managing Director, Co-Founder

Blake is one of the Co-Founders of Black Iron Advisers. Prior to BIA, Blake was a Senior Vice President at W.G. Nielsen & Co. where he spent 14 years assisting in all facets of mergers & acquisitions advisory. While at W.G. Nielsen, he led transactions with an aggregate transaction value exceeding $500 million. His practice at W.G. Nielsen & Co. was focused on Logistics, Manufacturing, Distribution, and Automotive related transactions. He led sell-side transactions for companies such as the third largest keg leasing company in the world, franchises like SealMaster, and one of the largest hurricane protection hardware distributers in the United States.

Blake was also one of the founders of Io Triumphe Capital, a firm founded to purchase and provide growth capital to small and mid-market companies.

Blake was previously named one of Denver's Top "40 Under 40" business leaders by the Denver Business Journal. Blake holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from Occidental College and a masters in Finance from the University of Denver.

Blake is a past member of the Board of Advisors for The Bridge Project and was one of the founders of the Los Conucos Scholarship Fund.

Registrations –

FINRA – Series 7 Registered General Securities Representative
FINRA – Series 79 Registered Investment Banking Principal

Fun Facts – Blake is one of the owners of a western belt buckle manufacturing company (www.jandhbuckles.com).

Todd Whitfield

Managing Director, Co-Founder

Todd is Managing Director and Co-Founder of Black Iron Advisers. Todd considers himself a generalist given his wide of industry experience on both the buy and sell-side. Before putting on an entrepreneurial hat, Todd worked for Janus Henderson Investors (Formerly Janus Capital Group) as an Equity Analyst investing in Automotive, Energy, Materials, Industrial and Transportation companies. While at Janus, he covered over $500m in equity investments. Todd began his finance career as an Investment Banking Analyst with Putnam Lovell, NBF focused on mergers & acquisitions in the financial services industry.

Todd is also the founder of a transportation company that is one of the largest FedEx Ground route operators in the Denver Metro area.

Todd received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with honors from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Registrations:

FINRA – Series 79 (Registered Investment Banking Principal)

Fun Facts - Todd is a car fanatic and has had the opportunity to meet the CEOs of all major car companies including Chrysler/Fiat, Ford, GM, Mercedes and Tesla.