Chris Speight is a Partner and our Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining MiddleGround, Chris served as the Chief Financial Officer of Alltech, heading the company’s global corporate finance, capital markets, investor relations, treasury management, FP&A, and M&A Functions. He also led the global agribusiness investment banking coverage for Deutsche Bank in addition to a 10-year career with Merrill Lynch and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Throughout his career, Chris advised dozens of major Agribusiness M&A and capital-raising transactions as well as different transactions in the broader food and beverage consumer space. Chris holds his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Iowa. All this to say… we’re pretty lucky to have him.
At MiddleGround, it’s often said that “all roads lead back to John,” and such is the case with Chris! He first heard of us when John Stewart recruited our operations extraordinaire, Blake Frazier, from Chris’ team (oops). To balance out his rigorous work schedule, Chris enjoys the simple pleasures in life, like good food, golfing… and absolutely smoking his kids in a game of Monopoly. Traveling is another one of Chris’ passions, which is lucky given that his prior jobs had him flying all over the world. Chris loves the big city… which is ironic living in a place like Lexington but gives him all the more reason to travel to cosmopolitan cities like New York, Shanghai, or London!