CSG Expands Senior Team to Meet Growing ESOP Demand

CSG Partners has added three new managing directors to its industry-leading employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) advisory team. The 2025 ESOP Investment Bank of the Year (The M&A Atlas Awards) promoted Nate Grow and Doron Saraf and welcomed Gene Kennedy, a seasoned commercial banking executive with extensive employee ownership experience.

The move reinforces the firm's singular commitment to ESOP transaction advisory and reflects the unique depth of expertise that distinguishes its practice. CSG develops ESOP specialists from within through a culture built around deep, hands-on experience, while selectively adding seasoned professionals with notable backgrounds in the field.

"We take the managing director title extremely seriously, and these appointments underscore the high standards we associate with it," said Lawrence Kaplan, CSG's Founder and Managing Partner. "Nate, Doron, and Gene bring complementary expertise that strengthens our ability to serve a growing number of companies pursuing employee ownership strategies."

Nate Grow, Managing Director

Nate Grow has been promoted to managing director after joining CSG Partners in late 2025. In his first year with the firm, Grow has closed ESOP formations for a pair of Midwest-based construction companies and is currently finalizing transactions for manufacturing, industrial supply, and contracting firms across the region.

Grow previously led Capstone Partners' ESOP advisory practice. He also spent nearly a decade at Houlihan Lokey and Lincoln International, where he advised consumer, retail, and food and beverage clients on complex mergers and acquisitions.

Originally from Rockford, Illinois, Grow splits time between Chicago and South Bend, Indiana. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and teaches in the University of Notre Dame's undergraduate business honors program.

Gene Kennedy, Managing Director

A former commercial banking market leader and lending executive, Gene Kennedy brings deep experience in financing ESOP transactions and advising middle-market businesses. Kennedy joined CSG from Customers Bank, where he served as Market Executive for New York and Boston. Over a 12-year period, Kennedy built out a corporate and specialty banking practice for the top-performing mid-size bank.

Kennedy previously held senior banking and credit roles at First National Bank of New York and JPMorgan Chase. At JPMorgan, he worked across corporate client banking, middle-market, and small-business financial services, giving him broad experience executing transactions for a wide spectrum of privately held companies.

A lifelong New Yorker, Kennedy is a graduate of Trinity College and earned an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Doron Saraf, Managing Director

Doron Saraf has been promoted to managing director after advancing through CSG's talent development program. He joined the firm as an analyst in 2019 and has led ESOP feasibility, valuation, structuring, financing, and deal-negotiation processes for middle-market companies nationwide.

During his tenure at CSG, Saraf has advised on ESOP transactions representing more than $3.5 billion in cumulative enterprise value and has raised nearly $1 billion in transaction financing. His professional journey underscores CSG's emphasis on cultivating specialized ESOP expertise and developing talent internally.

Saraf began his career at Sterling National Bank (now Santander Bank), where he evaluated and executed strategic transactions ranging from M&A to portfolio acquisitions and divestitures. A Long Island, New York native, Saraf currently resides in New York City. He's a graduate of the University of Wisconsin's School of Business.

Strengthening a Best-in-Class ESOP Advisory Team

The three appointments reflect CSG's approach to building a best-in-class team with the discipline and judgment to lead middle-market companies successfully through the ESOP transaction process.

"Companies that work with CSG Partners benefit from managing directors with deep transaction experience and a thorough understanding of every stage of the ESOP lifecycle, from planning and execution through ongoing management," added Lawrence Kaplan.