Thought Leaders



Paul Donnelly

CEO and Founder of Coil Investment Banking

Paul Donnelly is a co-founder of Coil Partners having spent his career as an investment banking professional and principal investor. Paul has a successful track record of working with emerging growth and middle-market companies to enhance shareholder value through various corporate finance and M&A initiatives.

He has served as a financial advisor on numerous successful engagements representing over $3.85 billion in transaction value for clients such as: Travis Mathew, Camping World, Fruit Fillings, Trojan Battery Corporation, Reliant Account Management, Monk Development, Enerliance, Lead Tracking Solutions, GeoMicro, Interush, Benihana, TS Restaurants (Dukes and Hula Grill), Hu Hot, Earthbar, Trend Offset, eWork, Proxim Wireless, Accurate Metal Fabricators, Yard House, Radius Medical, Islands Restaurants, Intercoastal Manufacturing Company, DynTek, Iteris, Rand Technology, Triton Network Systems, Pro-Log, and Grand Prix Association of Long Beach.

Prior to founding Coil Partners (previously Optivest IB), Paul was a Managing Director with the Los Angeles-based investment banking firm B. Riley & Co. He began his career with L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin and later joined L.H. Friend & Company as a Managing Director and continued post-merger with B. Riley & Company. Paul has also been active on the principal side of equity and debt investing with venture capital firms Enterprise Management Company, Pacific Venture Finance and Ally Capital.

Paul received his B.S. in Finance and Business Administration from San Diego State University and holds FINRA Series 7 and Series 63 licenses.

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