About Us
Business Consulting with Experience
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Troy Gabriel
Managing Partner
​Troy has been a life-long entrepreneur, learning at the knee of his father and grandfather, both entrepreneurs. Troy has been COO of several companies, including a publicly traded equipment rental company, as well as several family-owned businesses. He is a farmer, a strategic thinker and an operations optimizer.
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Troy has experience in the equipment rental, manufacturing, banking and commercial real estate industries. His experience in equipment rental, as well as being COO of a $750 million publicly traded company, included involvement in the acquisition of many smaller equipment rental businesses across the country.
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Troy brings his entrepreneurial mindset to our engagements as well as his strategic and tactical thinking and his broad experience over a 37-year career. Throughout his career, Troy has been a lead participant in raising well over $1 billion in equity and debt.
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Troy graduated from Capital University in Columbus, OH with a bachelor’s degree in business in 1987. In addition to Flathead Partners, Troy is a real estate investor, a farmer and was in the equipment rental business. He was co-founder and CEO of Franklin Equipment LLC. Starting in 2008 with one location ($6mm in revenue), Franklin grew from one store to 20 stores in 7 states across the Midwest and South ($125mm in revenue) and was ultimately sold to United Rentals in 2021.
Jon Usher
Managing Partner
​Jon Usher is a seasoned financial executive with experience in M&A, turnarounds, raising and managing capital and analyzing operational and financial metrics to help better optimize business performance. He has been CFO to many companies on a full and part-time basis, including a $250 million publicly traded transportation company and most recently was CFO at Franklin Equipment where he helped Troy grow the business.
Jon has been consulting with many businesses in many industries since 2002. He has experience with transportation, distribution, service, manufacturing and tax-exempt companies.
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After graduating Summa Cum Laude in 1979 from Butler University with degrees in Economics and Accounting, and a 10-year stint at Arthur Andersen and his first CFO role, Jon joined Troy in 1997 at newly formed NationsRent. Over the next three years Troy and Jon helped NationsRent complete 60 acquisitions across the country, go public, raise over $1.5 billion in equity and debt capital and grow from $20 million in revenue to $750 million.
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Jon brings a keen understanding of business and finance and M&A skills to his clients and the clients of Flathead Partners.