Greenwood: Designing the Structure of Your Legacy
We bridge the gap between day-to-day financial management and high-stakes transaction execution.
Our Philosophy: The Integrity of the Build
At Greenwood, we believe a transaction is only as strong as the architecture supporting it. Most firms arrive when the “For Sale” sign goes up. We believe the real value is created much earlier—in the engineering of the capital stack, the streamlining of the entity structure, and the professionalization of the financial narrative.
We utilize the concept of Green Wood—investing our time and expertise into living, growing enterprises. By providing the scaffolding of institutional-grade financial leadership today, we ensure your business doesn’t warp or crack under the weight of a complex transaction tomorrow.
Most investment banks are built for the pitch, focusing on a narrative that gets a buyer or investor to say ‘yes’. At Greenwood, we focus on mitigating any of the risks that the buyer will say “no.”
A Risk Mitigation mindset looks beyond the top-line growth to stress test the foundation. We look at your business through the eyes of the person taking the risk—the institutional underwriter, the investor, and the sophisticated buyer.
De-Risking the Asset
We identify the structural challenges that typically cause deals to fail during due diligence. By resolving these months before engaging the market, we eliminate the investor’s leverage to discount your valuation or terms.
Institutional Gravity
Because we speak the native language of the world’s most rigorous capital providers, our clients’ businesses carry an immediate sense of Institutional Integrity.
Certainty of Close
By engineering the business so a lender cannot say no, we create a path to completion that is defined by precision, not hope.
”We don't just dress a business up for sale; we reinforce the load-bearing walls of its financial structure so it can withstand the weight of global capital.
— Christopher Lewis
Our Leadership
Christopher Lewis
Founder & Managing Director
Chris Lewis founded Greenwood on a singular premise: the middle market deserves the same level of structural precision as the Fortune 500. He serves as the lead for founders who are ready to transition from successful operators to institutional owners.
A Career in Global Finance
Chris forged his career within the world’s most formidable investment banks and advisory platforms, executing over $25 billion in transactions. His tenure on Wall Street provided a masterclass in complex capital structures:
- Chris has a significant history of serving middle-market clients within both global and boutique investment banking environments, providing the personalized, high-touch advisory typically reserved for the world’s largest corporations.
- At ABN AMRO Bank N.V., he served as Director, delivering sophisticated M&A advisory and structured capital solutions for global clients.
- As Senior Vice President at MUFG, he advised C-suite executives on multi-layered financing solutions, including public capital markets and private placements.
- His foundational years at GE Capital and Citi provided elite training in risk mitigation and financial modeling—the mathematical scaffolding upon which all successful deals are built.
The Risk Mitigation Mindset
Chris leverages his background in risk management to deconstruct a business through the eyes of a lender, identifying hidden structural challenges before they become liabilities. By engineering these issues out of the framework early, he ensures the enterprise is stabilized and bankable well before the execution phase.
Academic & Strategic Rigor
Chris holds a dual JD/MBA from Vanderbilt University, which allows him to navigate the intersection of legal structure and financial strategy with surgical precision. This multi-disciplinary approach ensures that every aspect of a client’s financial architecture—from entity tax structures to capital stacks—is engineered for maximum stability and a transformative exit.
Eric LeMarbre
Managing Director – Business Development
Eric D. LeMarbre is the Managing Director of Business Development for Greenwood Capital Advisors. Prior to his role at Greenwood, Eric was the Founder and President of UBC Advisors, a Nashville-based M&A advisory firm focused on the lower middle market, particularly blue-collar and service-oriented businesses. His work centers on helping entrepreneurs navigate growth, succession, acquisitions, and exits across industries such as trucking, logistics, warehousing, manufacturing, construction, landscaping, HVAC, roofing, and dealerships. Under his leadership, UBC Advisors developed into a profitable firm with strong margins while building a reputation for practical, relationship-centered advisory work tailored to owner-operated businesses.
Before founding UBC Advisors, Eric was a Partner at Nextward Advisors, where he helped close multiple transactions across transportation and service sectors. Prior to that, he served as Managing Director at Tenney Group, a transportation-focused M&A firm, where he engaged more than 25 advisory clients and worked on transactions generating fees ranging from $250,000 to over $2 million. During his tenure, he spoke at more than 50 industry events on business succession, valuation, and mergers and acquisitions, and chaired the American Trucking Association’s M&A Task Force in 2020. Earlier in his career, Eric was a Vice President and Wealth Advisor at Regions Financial, where he earned Chairman’s Club recognition as a top-performing advisor.
Eric began his professional career in external audit at Arthur Andersen and later spent over a decade in leadership development and nonprofit initiatives before returning to financial advisory and investment banking. Across every chapter of his career, he has been known as a strategic thinker, connector, and communicator with a passion for helping individuals and organizations thrive. He earned both his Master’s of Accountancy and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee, combining analytical rigor with entrepreneurial vision and community-focused leadership.
The Advisory Board: Sector Intelligence
Our board is engineered to provide deep structural insight into the bedrock sectors of the economy.
Benny Word joined Collier Engineering in 2007. As a Senior Project Manager, Benny’s focus has been on municipal projects in Nashville, Tennessee. As the Metro Public Works Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program Manager, he has worked with over 300 neighborhood associations in Nashville, attending neighborhood meetings and advising their members and constituents on traffic calming measures available for their area through Metro Public Works of Nashville and Davidson County. Benny also acts as a liaison to the Metro Council members of Nashville and Davidson County to help them promptly respond to their constituents on traffic matters that may directly affect the area or neighborhood that they represent.
Benny’s enduring client relationships and exceptional ability to coordinate with multiple agencies ensure the success of any project. His experience and professionalism keep municipal projects running smoothly.
With the Metro Public Works Sidewalk Improvement Program, Benny has overseen project implementation, reporting, and direction of the program to the Mayor’s Office. He also directs projects and priorities in conjunction with and is directed by the Metro Public Works Sidewalk Program Manager and other staff. He is heavily involved with ADA compliance and utility coordination. Benny routinely handles sensitive correspondence with Metro Council members and their constituents and conducts public meetings concerning this program’s direction and issues.
Patrick H. Johnson is a renowned health care executive and business leader, known for his innovative contributions to healthcare and strategic community investments. As a key member of Nashville’s Coronavirus Task Force, he led initiatives for mass testing and community assessment centers. Formerly a senior VP at Meharry Medical College, he now advocates for health equity and is a founder of the Nashville Baseball Investment Group.
Bakari A. Adams is the Founder and Managing Partner of Crestway Partners, a platform capital and Co-GP firm that partners with real estate operators to accelerate growth and access institutional capital. He brings over 20 years of experience spanning acquisitions, asset management, and portfolio management across a broad range of property types and capital structures.
Prior to founding Crestway, Mr. Adams was a Managing Director at Starwood Capital Group, where he led strategic partnership investing and supported the growth of real estate operating platforms and investment managers. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing investments in early- to mid-stage real estate owners and operators.
Before Starwood, he was a Partner, Investment Committee Member, and Head of Asset Management at Interstate Equities Corporation (IEC), and prior to that, Senior Director
of Asset Management at Veritas Investments. He began his career at MacFarlane Partners, where he spent a decade and rose to Vice President, overseeing investment management, development, and asset management responsibilities.
Throughout his career, Bakari has executed equity and debt investments across multifamily, office, retail, condominium, hospitality, and land — with a consistent focus on disciplined capital allocation and repeatable execution.
Mr. Adams holds a B.A. in Finance and International Business from Howard University and an M.B.A. in Real Estate and Finance from Columbia Business School. He serves as a strategic advisor to Apiary Partners, a multifamily operator, and sits on the boards of Obsidian Capital Group, a multifamily operator, and VANA Partners, an extended stay hotel developer. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute and the Real Estate Executive Council, and a board member of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, home to the de Young and the Legion of Honor, among the most visited museum
institutions in the country.
Built for the Long View
Greenwood is not a transaction shop; we are a vertically integrated platform. Whether we are providing strategic financial leadership, securing institutional growth capital, or executing a transformative exit, our work is defined by the permanence of the structures we help build.
Elevate Your Enterprise
inquiries@greenwoodcapitaladvisors.com
(615) 202-6876
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Securities Products and Investment Banking Services are offered through BA Securities, LLC. Member FINRA SIPC. Greenwood Capital Advisors LLC and BA Securities, LLC are separate, unaffiliated entities.