
Who We Are
Paine Pacific, LLC is a boutique firm offering Mergers and Acquisitions, Business Consulting and Investment Banking related services. For 25 years we have been providing advisory services for clients of all types and sizes and achieving their personal and business goals. We are based on Portland, Oregon with satellite offices in Los Angeles and Westport, CT.
Who Are Our Clients
Our clients are people and their companies who are looking for someone to help them achieve their personal and business goals including growing their business organically or inorganically, buying or selling (M&A) a business, restructuring or rebuilding a business or raising capital (debt and equity). Our clients include small businesses, large corporations, international companies, family operations/offices and individuals who come to us looking for a complete end to end partner to help them reach their objectives.
Our History
Paine Pacific was founded in 1998 in Portland, Oregon to bring an operational approach to M&A and Business Consulting to the underserved small business markets. Founder Nels Paine’s career started in the small business sector primarily with startups and turnarounds. After a series of successes (and one big failure), he realized how much work it took to run, grow and create a success for investors, principals and employees in the smaller capital markets. He also realized that most M&A and investment banking firms had no interest in providing services to this range of companies. Thus the birth of Paine Pacific.
It became clear in the first few years that many of Paine Pacific’s clients had business and personal objectives but were unclear about how to reach them or were not in a position to achieve them in their current operational form. Paine Pacific provided these clients with the help they needed to understand what was possible and the best course to take based on their business, market and industry and then assisted them in getting there. While this was typically done as part of a transaction objective, over time the business added this as a standalone discipline of Business Consulting, providing operational and strategic advice and implementation to help clients meet their stated or learned objectives and/or to lead them toward a considered transaction.
In both disciplines Paine Pacific grew its business based on the premise of helping clients achieve their ultimate fiscal and company potential and realize the value in more successful transactions. Over the past 24 years the company has provided these services to over 500 companies in more than 120 different industries across the U.S. and around the world.
Our Team

Max Jacobs
Analyst
Board Advisors

David Arnold
Founder and President, Arnold Partners
Dave is the principal and founder of a boutique executive search firm focused on CFO and Board search for both public and private companies. He has placed over 100 CFO's into a wide variety of industries up and down the West Coast. Dave has spent the last 20 years in executive search after beginning his career in finance at Sun Microsystems and Apple Computer. Dave holds a BA from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Brent Keeton
Managing Partner, Grange Capital, LLC
Brent Keeton is co-founder, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at Grange Capital. He is responsible for oversight of portfolio management for all client accounts. Prior to co-founding the firm, Brent spent 16 years with Merrill Lynch and 3 years with UBS/PaineWebber as Senior Vice President, managing portfolios for high net worth individuals, retirement plans, and institutions.

F. Ward Paine
Founder and Managing Partner, Oscco Ventures
Ward was one of the first venture capitalists to open offices at 3000 Sand Hill Road in the late 1960’s. Since that time, Oscco Ventures raised 3 funds through five partnerships and invested in over 50 deals prior to retiring in 2000. Ward is the father of PPC’s principal partner, Nels Paine

James C. Towne
President & COO Microsoft Corporation
Jim was the first President of Microsoft Corporation in 1982. His career has included roles as VP, President, CEO or Chairman of Greenfield Holdings, Tektronix, Osteo Sciences Corp., Metheus, Photon Kinetics, and MCV. He holds an MBA from Stanford.