CHARLESTOWN CAPITAL ADVISORS
OUR TEAM
RAJ MAHESHWARI
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Mr. Maheshwari most recently (August 2005) founded Charlestown Capital Advisors, LLC, a private merchant banking company specializing in financial advisory/merchant banking services (including M&A Advisory) to public and private market emerging companies. Under Mr. Maheshwari’s tenure, Charlestown Capital has been an M&A advisor to Esmark, Inc., a $1.3 billion steel company that was sold to OAO Severstal of Russia in August 2008.
Prior to Charlestown, Mr. Maheshwari was a portfolio manager and managing director at Weiss Peck and Great Investments (WPG). From 1999 to August 2005, Mr. Maheshwari was a Portfolio Manager and Managing Director at WPG and its successor parent company Robeco Investment Management. At WPG, he built and managed a $500 million (approximately) Risk Arbitrage and Special Situations/Event Driven hedge fund.
In Addition, at WPG and its parent company, Robeco Investment Management, he was involved in many aspects of investment management, including asset allocation, identifying new investment strategies, and overall new investment strategy.
From 1996 to 1999, Mr. Maheshwari was a Vice President of Research at Robert Fleming, Inc., where he helped run a $250 million (approximately) equity portfolio.
Mr. Maheshwari holds a BS in Mathematics and Computer Sciences from the State University of New York at Albany and an MBA from New York University. He lives in New York.
JOHN WEBER
PRINCIPAL
Mr. Weber joined Charlestown in 2011, where he provides financial advisory and merchant banking services (including M&A advisory) to public and private market emerging companies.
Prior to Charlestown, Mr. Weber worked from 2009 to 2010 with Springdale Advisors, a firm managing long-short equity investment funds and providing equity research to institutional investors.
From 2003 to 2008, Mr. Weber was an analyst with Granite Capital International Group, an investment firm focused on public equities with peak assets under management of approximately $850 million. While at Granite, Mr. Weber invested across industries, with the particular interest in special situations investments.
Mr. Weber holds an MBA and a law degree (JD) from Columbia University, and an AB in Comparative Literature from Princeton University. He is a CFA Charterholder. He lives in New York.
ROBERT BOSE
PRINCIPAL
Mr. Bose joined Charlestown in 2014, where he focused on providing merchant banking services to public and private companies with a focus on energy.
Prior to Charlestown, Mr. Bose spent 17 years in the Global Investment Banking Group at the Bank of Nova Scotia most recently as Managing Director and Head of the Power & Utilities Group. There, he was specifically focused on providing M&A and capital market coverage to financial sponsors with interest in the energy and power sectors.
Mr. Bose has an Honors Degree in Economics from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and a CFA Charterholder.
LEE SMITH
PRINCIPAL
Lee Smith, has over 15 years of experience as an investment manager for institutional investors, serving since 1995 as the President and CEO of Hartland Asset Management, a registered investment advisor. Hartland’s focus is the private fixed income market, including tax exempt bonds and real estate loans.
In addition to his work on behalf of institutional investors, Mr. Smith has worked with Charlestown Capital on a variety of merchant banking and turnaround situations, including the EVOQ and SGGH investments.
Mr. Smith is also an expert on renewable energy, particularly solar power. He is the co-founder of American Solar Partners, LLC a solar power project design and development company, active in the commercial and residential solar markets. Smith and his staff have designed and installed dozens of commercial roof top solar power systems and hundreds of residential systems. His company also provides financing of projects and development of new products for the solar market.
Prior to his private sector career, Mr. Smith worked in the public sector, as Deputy Commissioner of Economic Development for the State of New York during the administration of Governor Mario Cuomo. Before his public service, he was a lawyer in private practice, with an emphasis on ERISA-related matters. He is a cum laude graduate of SUNY at Buffalo School of Law and has a BA with high honors from SUNY at Buffalo.