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Our Team Concept
At SWCPLLC from top to bottom, we roll up our sleeves and get to work focused on the vital interests of our clients. Every resource of our team is at your disposal. Our relationships, built on trust and client satisfaction, are reliant upon our
expertise and professionalism and are an important part of our success. We look forward
to putting that success to work for you.
Meet The SouthWind Capital Partners Team
Bryan Nowak ~ CEO and Managing Partner
 With over 20 years of corporate leadership experience, Bryan has been instrumental in achieving significant growth by demonstrating the ability to combine visionary, strategic, and tactical financial expertise to produce bottom line results. Bryan began his entrepreneurial career as the founder of Antarctica Insurance Agency, Inc. (AIA, Inc.) a financial planning and insurance agency in San Antonio Texas. Under his guidance, the Agency proliferated resulting in business expansion of seven offices and employing over 85 employees in two major Texas cities.
Bryan has served as VP of Operations for Super Val-Yu Promotions providing support in developing and implementing the corporate expansion of the Super Val-Yu Promotions, one of the largest specialty advertising firms in the northeast. He played a key role with the national expansion including 12 profit centers, encompassing 12 major territories nationally throughout the US and Canada. Bryan increased company revenue by 62% at Super Val-Yu during first year of tenure.
As acting president for the IRA Network LLC over a 15 year period, Bryan assisted in marketing, evaluation, development, and financing of numerous business concepts and plans that brought about successful capital restructuring in both the private and public sectors.
Bryan's passion in the area of holistic health and medicine has led him to the procurement of various certifications in these areas. Bryan is a recognized consultant in the Health and Wellness industry and is a Reiki Master, ISSA, IFPA and CIAR certified in sports nutrition and special population. Bryan's other endeavors include teaching classes in Entrepreneurial Business Start-ups and Health and Wellness at the University of Texas, at Austin
As CEO and managing director of SouthWind Capital Partners, Bryan will continue to bring the hard work, honesty, and integrity needed in order to forge the long term relationships between his clients and capital resources.
Dennis Ward ~ Managing Partner, Energy Division
 Dennis is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor's Degree in business management and began his career as an analyst with Dun and Bradstreet in Dallas, Texas. Dennis practiced public accounting for approximately 25 years with emphasis on taxation, auditing of "for profit" companies, and financial institutions. At one time, Dennis and his firm had over 20 financial institutions such as Banks, Savings & Loans, and Credit Unions which were offered a variety of income tax and auditing services.
After a successful career in public accounting, Dennis retired and sought challenges in the areas of executive compensation, employee benefit plans, and strategic wealth planning for higher net worth clients. Today, Dennis serves as one of the Managing Partners for SouthWind Capital Partners, LLC., which offers commercial loan brokering and consulting through a network of more than 20 professionals in the Dallas Fort Worth Texas area. Dennis has brought additional Real Estate lenders to the SWCPLLC network for both conforming and non-conforming commercial loans. Dennis recently closed a frac sand deal in the amount of $82 million in Texas.
Dennis is an avid golfer and with wife Charlotte enjoys spending time with their seven grandchildren and traveling as their schedules permit.
Scott Thomas ~ Managing Partner, Corporate Finance and Real Estate
 Scott Thomas' experience in finance and financial transactions spans 30 years. He received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Detroit with a Masters in Business Administration. After graduation, he moved to California where he worked as a corporate financial officer and as an entrepreneur in the booming semi-conductor, computer and software technology sector in the Silicon Valley.
Scott was the founder of Thomas Kavner LLC, an investment banking firm located in San Francisco, CA with satellite offices in Hong Kong and London. The firm specialized in mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt placement and turn-around management, completing a wide variety of assignments.
Over the years in the Bay area as an independent consultant, Scott accumulated a vast range of financial experience and contacts from public offerings, merger and acquisitions, sale of businesses, private equity placements, technology transfers and a variety of debt financings. His accumulated contacts and personal relationships span decades. After years in the Bay Area, Scott moved to Sedona, AZ where he focused on financing real estate transactions.
Scott's strong suit is investigating and studying current business conditions to assess optimum financial opportunities. His blend of experience and personal contacts lend itself to multi layered sophisticated projects. He digs in and discovers the best alternatives to maximize a business opportunity and get it funded.
Scott is an entrepreneur with strong corporate background and a verified ability to obtain maximum results in relation to successful financing. In completing over $500 million in debt and equity financings for a variety of business opportunities, he has a good sense of what works for a company's future stability. He has participated in a diverse range of business arenas including technology, real estate and retail.
Clint Barnes ~ Director of Business Development
Clint Barnes joins SouthWind Capital Partners with over 15 years of sales management roles. Clint has held key Account Executive roles with Sony, Dell, and Microsoft as well as Director of Business Development for Bulldog Solutions and Way Systems.
As an Account Executive and Territory Manager for these companies, Clint had a direct hand in the sales growth within these Fortune 100 organizations by exceeding targeted sales goals by 150-200% year after year. Clint was instrumental in the formation of new policy procedures and development within the sales departments. At Bulldog Solutions and Way Systems, Clint was responsible for growing new lines of business through direct contact with key decision makers at the companies. Clint's role helped his firms experience a 30-40% growth in new lines of business.
Clint has a B.A. Degree from Texas State University in Public Relations and a Masters in Public Administration from San Diego State University. In his free time, Clint enjoys traveling with his wife, Patricia, and their son, Zachary. He is also active in the community, serving on the board of the Lago Vista Little League and as a volunteer with Boy Scout Troop 198.
As Vice-President of Business Development, Clint and his team will be responsible for the continued growth of the sales and marketing lines of business for SouthWind Capital. Clint's diverse expertise in customer service, business development and customer acquisition will be utilized as the company continues its expansion into new markets and growth of the organization in the coming years.
SECURITIES/LEGAL SPECIALIST
John A. Peralta, Esq.
 John brings over 20 years of legal expertise to the SouthWind team. With a strong background in securities and insurance regulation, John fills a key need for entrepreneurs seeking assurance that they are in full compliance with the myriad state and federal laws and regulations governing the acquisition of capital. Of special interest to our clients, John spent six years with the Texas State Securities Board where he served as an Enforcement Attorney and later as Assistant Director of the Enforcement Division. During his tenure with the Securities Board, John acquired extensive knowledge and experience regarding the regulatory scheme governing the issuance and sale securities, and the activities of securities agents, broker-dealers and investment advisers. He has also developed a network of contacts in the state and federal securities regulatory community that enables him to access a broad spectrum of expertise and bring up-to-date information to our clientele.
John is also an experienced state and federal prosecuting attorney, specialized in a wide variety of white collar crimes, such as securities fraud, insurance fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. In addition to practicing in the private sector, John has worked for the following agencies: the Texas State Securities Board, the Texas Department of Insurance, the Texas Attorney General's Office, and the U.S. Department of Justice. John received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1986 from the University of Texas at El Paso, where he majored in finance and graduated with honors. In 1989 he received a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
ACCOUNTING/BUSINESS PLAN ANALYSIS
Jon (J.R.) Hall, C.P.A.
 Jon's professional career began at Ernst & Young in Houston. He served in a variety of audit, tax and specialty consulting areas before leaving for private industry. During his career in industry, his range of experience ran from serving as a Controller and Chief Financial Officer of both private and publicly-traded companies to serving as President of a publicly-held environmental services company. With the experience of being both on the team and a team leader for several IPO's and a wide variety of secondary offerings (both private and public), he understands the needs of companies of all sizes, from start-ups, to mature large national operations. The offerings where he played a key role ranged from a few hundred thousand of equipment financing to as much as $75 million in a single private equity offering.
Jon graduated with a B.B.A. in accounting and finance from the University of Texas-Pan Am in Edinburgh, Texas. He established himself as a problem solver and catalyst for growth in industries ranging from manufacturing to service. Prior to completing his education, Jon proudly served in the United States Marine Corps, including a tour of duty in South Viet Nam. After college, Jon earned his certification as a Certified Public Accountant and maintained that license in Texas for almost 30 years. By joining with Southwind Capital Partners, LLC, he has blended his professional experience together with the Southwind team, to offer creative and unique solutions to your most pressing business problems.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATES
- Mary Erler - During Mary's 18+ year financial services career, she held officer positions within three of the largest commercial banks in the US, including Bank of America, SunTrust and First Union (Wachovia.) Mary managed several branch offices in the retail bank and held positions in the Trust Division, Commercial Lending, Business Banking and Investment Division. As a Business Banker and Vice President with SunTrust, Mary worked with clients to provide deposit, cash management and lending services to meet the changing needs of a variety of business owners. As a certified SBA Lender, Mary worked with the specialty lending division of SunTrust Bank to provide SBA and other funding vehicles to her clients. During this time, Mary also began working with the Loudoun County, Washington, DC and Fairfax County Economic Development Authorities to bring her clients additional resources. In addition, Mary worked with clients in areas of business planning, financial statement preparation and analysis and IPO or Venture Capital resources as needed. Mary established working relationships with several large Venture Capital firms along with the local incubators for technology and energy projects. Mary provides small, middle-market business owners and C-Level Executives consulting services in many critical areas of business operations, including: Marketing, Business Development, Facilitating Business Financing, Venture Capital or SBA Funding, Human Resources, Training and Identifying and tapping into new markets.
- Scott Tatum - Scott has a wide range of experience and expertise during his 28 year oil and gas career. His initial training came from Getty Oil Company in Midland, Texas in their land department. Landmen at Getty were assigned managerial responsibility for the prospects assigned, providing Scott direct involvement in the scientific generation of prospects, negotiating and purchasing oil and gas leases. He also managed the joint ventures with partners and maintained the contracts that associated with each trade. During the early 80’s, Scott's experience and his desire to build his own oil and gas business has provided him with the tools to construct a vast network of oil and gas professionals. This network has been instrumental in his ability to source better-than-average oil and gas projects and obtain professional evaluation criteria including all geological and engineering data necessary with which sound decisions can be made.
Project and Acquisition Management is Scott's focus. His experience in all facets of oil and gas management from large detailed engineering evaluations to presenting the financial needs to prospective financiers lends well to his role with SouthWind Capital Partners.
- Brian Walters - Brian is the co-founder and CEO of Brian Walters and Associates, a management consulting firm based in Austin, Texas. The company’s commitment is to be an advocate and resource for small, privately-held businesses in Central Texas and beyond. To this end, Brian Walters has been instrumental in assisting small businesses to improve their operations and profitability by implementing solutions to issues that typically plague entrepreneurs.
As a Management Consultant, Brian has successfully changed the operations and guided the financial performance of businesses all over North America. He has a very impressive track record of increasing revenues, controlling costs, streamlining operations, and maximizing profits. He holds a BBA in Human Resources Management and an MBA in Finance from the University of Houston, University Park. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for three companies, and is a member of the Society for Industry Leaders at both Vista Research and the Gerson Lehrman Consulting Group.
Brian Walters also serves the greater Austin area by holding a seat on the Minority Business Enterprise/Women-owned Business Enterprise/Small Business Enterprise Procurement Program Advisory Committee. In this role, he works alongside the other committee members within the structure of the Advisory Committee to positively impact the landscape for small businesses in the Austin metropolitan area. Specializations include: Small Business Turnaround; Pricing And Bidding Issues; Budgeting, Cash Flow, And Financial Management; KPI Management; Business Valuations; Comprehensive HR Management; Organizational Structure; and much more.
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