Mr. Marks is the founder and a Managing Partner of High Rock Partners, Inc. providing strategic consulting, investment banking and interim leadership services.
Marks' past positions included President of JPS Communications, Inc., a fast growth technology subsidiary of the Raytheon Company and President / CEO of an electronics manufacturer that he founded and grew to $22 million. He was a director for a RTP, NC area investment bank focused on raising capital for early stage and middle-market companies during the late 1990’s.
He has been involved as management, advisor or board member with several dozen emerging growth and middle market companies ranging from a venture backed software startup, INC. 500 staffing firm, environmental construction company, safety products distributor, semiconductor services provider, software as a service company….to a middle-market insurance services provider.
He was a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) ; the founding YPO Sponsor of the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO formerly YEO) in the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina Chapter; a member of the Association for Corporate Growth; a member of the board of directors of the North Carolina Technology Association and former director of the Partnership for Defense Innovation (the parent of the Defense & Security Technology Accelerator). He founded the Research Triangle Chapter of the National Funding Association and he is currently the chapter president.
Mr. Marks created and taught a graduate level course at Boston College in connection with the Hult International Business School in Boston (formerly the Arthur D. Little School of Management) titled "Managing Emerging Growth Companies". In addition, he teaches a graduate level elective titled "Financing Early Stage & Middle-Market Companies" at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. In addition, Marks lectures at Loyola University in Chicago as part of the Merger & Acquisition certification program.
He is the lead author of the "Handbook of Financing Growth: Strategies, Capital Structure and M&A Transactions, 2nd Edition" published by John Wiley & Sons, and he authored the publication "Strategic Planning for Emerging Growth Companies: A Guide for Management".
Mr. Marks obtained his MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and his undergraduate studies were in electrical engineering at North Carolina State University. In addition, he has attended executive programs at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He held series 62 and 63 securities licenses. Marks is a Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor (CM&AA).
