The Garden City Team.
Our Team
Operating Partners
Strategic Advisors
Care about people and performance?
Michael Arrieta was raised by a hard-working furniture salesman father and a retail worker mother. As the first in his family born in the U.S., his first language was Spanish, and he developed a stutter early on. At 17, he became the top seller at Cutco Knives, helping his family while graduating debt-free from the University of Alabama.
In 2014, he joined DocuSign, eventually rising to Global VP and Chief of Staff to the CEO. He left in 2020 after the company’s $15B+ IPO. That same year, he co-founded New Story Homes, which has now built 10,000+ homes across Central and South America.
Michael founded MAV Ventures, personally investing in over 100 companies and funds, including several $1B+ unicorns.
Michael now serves as the Founding & Managing Partner of Garden City Equity, an investment firm focused on partnering with family- and founder-owned businesses. Its mission is to honor God by building the best investment firm where both shareholders and workers thrive. Garden City has raised over $300M from exclusively mission-aligned families who help grow their acquired companies.
Michael has been named to Forbes’ “30 under 30” and serves as a board director and/or advisor to Cambia Health Solutions, Rhone Apparel, Embark, and Extend.
Walker currently serves as a Senior Vice President at Garden City Equity. In his role, he focuses on sourcing and evaluating new investment opportunities, structuring and closing transactions, and working closely with our portfolio company partners to help support their success post-closing.
Prior to joining Garden City, Walker was with New Water Capital, a private equity firm focused on making investments in consumer products, industrial manufacturing and services sectors.
Earlier in his career he spent time with Houlihan Lokey and Lazard, where he worked with a range of privately held and publicly traded clients advising them on buy-side and sell-side M&A transactions.
Walker holds a B.S. in Finance from Berry College.
AJ currently serves as an Associate at Garden City Equity. He focuses primarily on evaluating new investment opportunities, executing transactions, and supporting portfolio company growth.
Previously, AJ served as an Analyst at William Blair, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions in the Supply Chain and Commercial Services sector.
AJ earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Emma currently serves as a Financial Analyst at Garden City Equity, where she focuses on management company accounting and operations, budgeting, financial analysis, and tax compliance.
Prior to joining Garden City, Emma worked in Deloitte’s tax practice, specializing in the Investment Management industry. She served clients in the private equity, real estate, and fund of funds sectors.
She earned both her BBA in Accounting and Master of Accounting from the University of Georgia.
Mark Cole is the CEO of Maxwell Leadership. His journey with the Maxwell enterprise began in the stock room in 2000, and through applying the personal and professional growth lessons he learned along the way, he was promoted to sales leader and quickly rose among the ranks to become the company’s Chief Executive Officer.
An internationally recognized thought leader, he has worked alongside the company’s founder, John C. Maxwell, for over a decade, and has shared the stage with John to grow Maxwell Leadership into the organization it is today. Under Mark’s leadership, Maxwell Leadership, and the company’s non-profit organizations, Maxwell Leadership Foundation and EQUIP, have had a world-wide impact by equipping and training millions of adults and youth with values-based, people-centric leadership.
Mark Dufresne is the CEO of The Dufresne Group (TDG). Over the past 35 years, he has grown his family business from a single store into a multi-brand, multi-service home furnishings retailer across Canada. The Dufresne Group is a 26-time recipient of Deloitte Canada’s Best Managed Company award.
In addition to building TDG, Mark has previously served as the CEO of Ashley Global Retail and was a partner of the largest Ashley licensee in the USA. Over the course of 12 years this business was grown to over 130 storefronts before it was sold to Ashley in 2024.
A believer in continuous education and people development, Mark maintains CPA, CA, and ICD.D designations. He’s an active member of YPO and sits on boards across North America. He has mentored entrepreneurs and business leaders across innovation, retail, and healthcare sectors.
A purpose-driven and people-first leader, Mark is guided by the belief that businesses exist to Make Life Better for team members, customers, shareholders, and the communities they serve. Mark divides his time between Winnipeg, Manitoba and Tampa, Florida, yet his favourite place to be is on Lake of the Woods with his wife Stephanie, three grown daughters, and his extended family.
Jeff Giles is a Strategic Advisor & Investment Committee member at Garden City Equity, where he leads the investment team and oversees all aspects of investment strategy, capital allocation, deal origination, structuring, and negotiation. A people-focused leader, Jeff also guides the firm’s shareholder relations and marketing efforts, serves on the investment committee, and works closely with portfolio company leadership on M&A and strategic initiatives.
Previously, Jeff served as executive vice president, corporate development for Core & Main (NYSE: CNM), a leading specialized distributor with a focus on water, wastewater, storm drainage and fire protection products and services. As a member of the executive leadership team, Jeff led the company’s M&A and strategic planning efforts and played a key role in Core & Main’s successful IPO in July of 2021.
Over his career, Jeff has led or participated in more than 60 acquisitions, totaling more than $2.5 billion in enterprise value. In his seven years at Core & Main, starting in March 2018, he completed more than 40 acquisitions, deploying over $1.7 billion of capital. Prior to joining Core & Main, he served as director of corporate development for Barry-Wehmiller Group, a St. Louis-based global supplier specializing in capital equipment manufacturing, where he was instrumental in Barry-Wehmiller’s acquisition-driven growth, which helped double the company’s annual revenue to almost $3 billion during his tenure from 2013 to 2018. Previously, Jeff was vice president and director of business development at Bertram Capital, a leading lower middle market private equity firm based in northern California. Earlier in his career, he worked with corporate leadership on business development and strategic planning at Emerson.
Jeff earned an MBA from Washington University’s Olin Business School and a bachelor’s degree in business from Wake Forest University. In 2015, he received the distinguished 40 Under 40 Emerging Leaders Award from The M&A Advisor. Jeff is active in the community, serving on the board of trustees at City Academy, the ACG St. Louis Advisory Board and as a member of the board of directors of the Missouri chapter of Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF). He previously served on the board of trustees at Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School. Jeff and his wife, Christina have three adult children, William, Charlie and Anna.
George B. Huber is a Managing Partner of Finback Investment Partners a Miami based private equity firm he Co-Founded with Governor Jeb Bush that has approximately $500 Million AUM. Mr. Huber also is the Founder and Chairman of Equity Investment Group, a diversified family office investment company that has consummated over $2 Billion in transactions for its own account since 1990. He was the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Blue Vista Capital Management, a private equity investment firm having more than $1.5 Billion AUM, and Peak Campus, one of the country’s largest student housing companies. Mr. Huber serves as a Trustee for Vanderbilt University Board of Trust. He also serves as a Board member or Advisor for numerous companies, including Evolv Technology, Elliott Bay Capital Trust, Zips Car Wash, AgAmerica Lending, Bridge 33 Capital and Garden City Equity.
Among his philanthropic endeavors, Mr. Huber is on the Board of Directors for New Story Charity, a nonprofit community-building innovation company with a mission to end world homelessness. He has previously been active in numerous other civic and business involvements including serving as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees or Directors for The Canterbury School, the Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce, Goodwill Industries of Northern Indiana and Board member of Lakeland Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:LKFN) and Fort Wayne National Corporation (NASDAQ:FWNC). He is a member of YPO International. Mr. Huber holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.B.A. with Honors from the University of Michigan.
Griffin currently serves as a Senior Associate at Garden City Equity, where he focuses on portfolio monitoring, financial reporting, and operational value creation initiatives in partnership with the internal team and portfolio company management.
Prior to joining Garden City, he served as Vice President of Finance at Godwin Capital Group, a closely held family office with more than $1B in assets under management. He began his career in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ private company audit practice, serving clients across a variety of industries.
Griffin earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Auburn University and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensed in the state of Georgia.
Bradley Ong is a Vice President at Garden City Equity, where he is responsible for new investment sourcing, evaluation, due diligence, and execution. Once under management, Bradley partners with Garden City's portfolio companies to provide resources and guidance needed to drive strategic, financial, and operational initiatives.
Prior to Garden City Equity, Bradley was a Senior Associate at Stephens Group, a middle-market private equity firm based in Little Rock, Arkansas with ~$2B in assets under management. While at Stephens Group, he focused across engineered industrial products, industrial services, and specialty distribution.
Bradley began his career as an Investment Banking Analyst at Rothschild & Co., where he worked on various M&A and financing transactions across the metals & mining sector. He holds a B.S. in Finance and a B.S. in Accounting from Virginia Tech.
Ken Polk is the Founder and CEO of Arlington, one of its industry's most uniquely built family offices, with over $10B in assets under stewardship. Arlington’s unique approach centers on creating value beyond money and purpose beyond generations. He authored The Spirit of Wealth Preservation, revealing the 3 Laws of Preservation and providing insight into the Arlington story path that led to its transformational stewardship ownership model.
Ken Polk entered the wealth management industry by way of Lipscomb University and Deloitte. At the age of twenty-five, Ken founded Arlington and today remains focused on an objective to help others build a better family, a better business, and, ultimately, a better society.
Ken lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with his wife, Ashley. They have four children.
Rick Stark is a serial entrepreneur, operator, and management consultant with extensive experience in building, scaling, advising, and co-owning companies ranging from $50 million to $5 billion across North America.
Rick spent more than 20 years as Co-Owner and CEO of PROFITsystems, Inc., the leading provider of software and services to the retail furniture industry. In 2006, he sold PROFITsystems to The Riverside Company and continued serving on the company’s Board of Directors until its acquisition by Accellos, Inc., a KKR portfolio company.
Rick later joined SocialSEO, now Intero Digital, as Co-Owner, COO, and CFO, where he helped scale the company from $2 million to $50 million in revenue over five years.
Across his career, Rick has worked closely with founders, family-owned businesses, operators, and leadership teams to drive growth, improve execution, and create durable enterprise value. He brings the perspective of a founder, operator, seller, board member, advisor, and consultant, with a passion for helping business owners realize the full potential of what they have built.
Megan currently serves as a Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer at Garden City Equity. In this role, she oversees the firm’s financial operations across all Garden City entities, including accounting, reporting, treasury management, and risk oversight. She partners closely with the internal team and portfolio company leaders to implement strategic initiatives that drive growth and profitability.
With more than a decade of experience in finance and accounting, Megan has built her career primarily in the private equity sector. Prior to joining Garden City, she was the Vice President of Finance at Frontier Growth, a growth equity firm investing in vertical SaaS companies with over $1B in assets under management. She began her career in Deloitte’s audit practice, serving a range of clients from large public companies to smaller private institutions.
Megan earned a Master of Accounting from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina. She is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in North Carolina.
Outside of work, Megan enjoys spending time with her husband, Tim, and their two young children, Brooks and Beau. She is an avid sports fan, enthusiastic reader, and loves cooking for family and friends.