Looking to coincide with the uptick in M&A activity that is expected, Jeff Rosenkranz has come out of retirement and formed Metronome Partners, an investment banking boutique focused on the middle market. The Chicago-based firm’s services will include M&A advisory, capital raising and strategic advisory services.   

While at home, Rosenkranz ran six marathons and began a quest with his sons to see all 30 Major League Baseball parks. He managed to hit 14 of them during the last couple of years, but he started to miss advising clients.  

“After two years at home with my family, which was great, I started to want to get back in it and the timing was right,” says Rosenkranz.  

Rosenkranz, who has more than 20 years of experience at Merrill Lynch and Piper Jaffray, launched Metronome to capitalize on improving market conditions and because he recognized a growing need for unbiased advise.

“I wanted to start my own firm rather than joining a bigger firm because I want to be closer to the deals. I didn't want to feel pressure on volume. I want our focus to be on quality of advice and senior level attention,” says Rosenkranz.

Prior to his two-year hiatus from banking, Rosenkranz most recently spent six years as head of M&A and chairman of the opinion committee at Piper Jaffray. Prior to Piper Jaffray, Rosenkranz spent 14 years at Merrill Lynch in New York and Chicago.

A testament to Rosenkranz’s reputation in the middle market, Metronome Partners already has two assignments from business services companies. “I really wanted to get back to working with clients. I missed this business and the relationships. It’s very gratifying help someone with some of the most important business decision they will  ever make,” says Rosenkranz. “

Joining Rosenkranz at Metronome Partners is Shane McDaniel and Scott Hales. Prior to joining Metronome Partners, McDaniel and Hale, managing directors with the new firm, co-founded Marksman Venture Partners, a merchant banking boutique providing advisory services to lower middle-market and venture-backed businesses in the Midwest.  

McDaniel was formerly a member of Piper Jaffray’s investment banking team in Chicago and worked with Rosenkranz. “We worked together for three years and I am really looking to forward to working with Shane again,” says Rosenkranz.

Metronome is entering a relatively crowded field as a number of new boutiques have taken shape in recent months. Two new firms were launched out of WY Campbell in May and June, a handful of former Barrington vets left Wells Fargo to launch Intrepid Partners, and former KPMG Capital Markets head Stephen Gaines recently formed HighBank Partners.

Financial services industry