There is no substitute for experience and no shortcut to expertise.
Our partners have half a century of business experience and more than a decade of firsthand transaction expertise across multiple industries and geographies working on your behalf.
Theodor Tonca
Founding Partner
A lifelong entrepreneur, Theo is a multi-time founder and has purchased and sold several small and lower mid-market businesses in the past.
His entrepreneurial journey began at the age of 15, when he co-founded an events management business that despite “not really knowing what he was doing“, subsequently grew into a six-figure business and was eventually sold by the time he was 22.
Following this early win, he wasted some time, and money bumming around Europe before finding some gainful employment as a financial research analyst for Infomine, an online platform dedicated to the mining and resources space, where he developed a passion for the finer details of capital allocation.
This would directly lead to his next venture…a private investment partnership.
Putting up his own money and raising seven figures+ from outside investors, the partnership started out making substantial minority equity investments in micro and small-cap public companies before completing several small and lower mid-market private acquisitions.
This is when Theo met with the harsh realities of M&A for the first time and found out first-hand why, on average, 70% of transactions fail to meet their intended financial goals.
As he will tell you himself, “some of the experiences were good, some not so good, but overall, I learned a lot, and am better for it.“
After this, Theo would head up the sell-side business development efforts at a boutique M&A advisory firm for a couple of years before the entrepreneurial urge would kick in yet again.
After years of travel, including living in five countries over a six-year period, Theo advised on and founded several private ventures – some short-lived, others successful. One enduring venture was an independent financial research and analysis firm that continues to serve institutional clients worldwide. He later began sourcing acquisition candidates for an existing client, which directly led to the founding of Theodor & Co., an independent mergers and acquisitions consulting firm guided by the principle that deals should only proceed if they are mutually beneficial for all parties involved.
Theo is fluent in three languages, conversational in a fourth, and is also a published writer and speaker, contributing to several investing journals and financial sites, including Institutional Investor’s Journal of Investing, Seeking Alpha, The Motley Fool, and speaking at the World MoneyShow, among many others.
He has served on several non-profit boards in the past and today he donates directly to causes he’s passionate about, such as animal well-being and early entrepreneurship.
Terry Montgomery
Partner
A professional and a scholar, Terry balances entrepreneurial experience with traditional training.
Born and raised in South East England with a slight accent to show for it, Terry, attended and graduated from the University of Sheffield with a BSc in accounting and finance.
To the delight of her parents, she joined one of the “big four” accounting firms, where she put into practice a multidisciplinary approach to accountancy on behalf of mid/large-size public and private clients.
Although professionally rewarding, she longed to do something “less rigid and more creative“, this meant leaving accounting after several years, much to the dismay of her parents, to found a boutique public relations firm while still in her 20s, which would later end up being merged into a larger PR firm.
One transaction was enough to get Terri hooked and after originating several media and professional services transactions in excess of eight figures for sell and buy-side clients as an independent consultant, she joined Theodor & Co. as a partner to oversee and grow it’s UK and European practice.
Terri is fluent in both English and French, has participated in several ultramarathons, enjoys a spirited game of beach volleyball, and her causes include children’s charities and economic empowerment.