TECHNOLOGY VALUE CREATION ALLY FOR PE FIRMS
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, a company’s performance can be significantly influenced by its ability to manage technology investments. For lower middle market private equity (PE) firms, typically investing in companies valued between $50 million and $300 million, maximizing value creation can be a challenge due to limited internal expertise, resources, and financial constraints. This is where we come in.
Our Story
Founded in 2017, IT Ally has established itself as a market leader in technology advisory services and solutions, becoming a trusted ally to lower middle market PE firms and their portfolio companies. We foster deep partnerships focused on value creation throughout the transaction lifecycle by leveraging our extensive business, industry, and technology expertise.
Our Mission
As your private equity ally, we aim to help you maximize the value from your technology investments and preserve the value created by your portfolio companies. Whether supporting your growth, differentiating you from the competition, or securing your business, we are here to assist every step of the way.
Unleashing the Power of AI for Value Creation
At IT Ally, we offer a suite of AI-powered services designed to help private equity-backed portfolio companies maximize value, improve operational efficiency, and achieve sustainable growth. Our advanced AI solutions provide the insights, expertise, and capabilities needed to navigate the complex business landscape and drive success.
How We Got Here
The Timeline
Award Winning Team
“Since our founding in 2017, our mission has been to level the playing field for small and mid-size businesses by being an “ally” on their side, helping them navigate today’s technology challenges. Today, that vision has evolved to provide private equity firms with precise, AI-enabled advisory services that enhance the value of their portfolio companies. We’re not just consultants; we’re your Ally, establishing deep partnerships that share in your firm’s success.”
Michael Fillios
Founder and CEO, IT Ally
BIO
Michael is the founder and CEO of IT Ally Holdings, a diversified holding company that provides business and technology advisory services to family owned and private equity backed small and medium size businesses. His diverse industry and IT leadership experience includes several Fortune 500 companies such as ITT, Delphi and Fifth Third Bank, consulting experience at firms such as EY and Grant Thornton, and over a decade as a start-up technology entrepreneur, enables him to serve the varying needs of IT Ally’s private equity clients. Under Michael’s leadership, IT Ally has been recognized as one of America’s fastest-growing private companies as a two-time winner of the prestigious Inc. 5000 award.
His first book, Tech Debt 2.0®: How to Future Proof Your Small Business and Improve Your Tech Bottom Line, was published by the IT Ally Institute in April, 2020. His second book, Tech Equity, How to Future Ready Your Small Business and Outperform Your Competition was published in April, 2023.
He is widely recognized as a thought leader and trusted advisor having led over $1B of transaction value for many leading private equity investment firms across a diverse set of industries.
Michael earned his accounting degree from The Hagen School of Business at Iona University and is a contributing author of The Alignment Effect (Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2002) and Winning The 3-Legged Race: When Business and Technology Run Together (BTM Institute/Prentice Hall, Nov. 8, 2005) as well as several articles and research reports.
He is the founding member and chair of the IT Leadership Roundtable for the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber and Opinion Columnist for several industry publications such as CEO World and CDO Magazine.
Lucas Asongu
Senior GRC Analyst, Risk Advisory Services Practice
BIO
Lucas brings over a decade of experience in developing, implementing, and improving Governance, Risk, & Compliance (GRC) programs for IT Ally’s SMB clients. Besides Cyber Risk Management, he has a diverse background in Information Technology, including Cisco Certified Network Professional and recognized project manager with the Project Management Institute.
Tony Bezilla
Senior IT Advisor, Technology Advisory Services Practice
BIO
Tony has 25+ years of experience in IT organizational models, change management, product development, program management, and evaluation and implementation of ERP, EDI, WMS, MRP and digital transformation implementations in the manufacturing, financial and services domains.
Mary Burr
Senior IT Advisor, Transaction Advisory Services Practice
BIO
Mary has 25+ years of experience and has led IT and Cybersecurity due diligence projects for over 20 PE backed clients. Her industry experience spans aerospace, consumer goods, hardware/home improvement, funeral services, gaming and emergency/disaster services across public, family owned, private equity owned and non-profit.
Kay Dickason
Senior Advisor and Healthcare Industry Expert
BIO
Serving at some of the nation’s top healthcare organizations, Kay is an accomplished c-level executive and consultant with 30+ years of experience.
Kay is an expert at leading the selection and deployment of effective and scalable solutions for healthcare organizations with a focus on leveraging technology to optimize care delivery, improve quality, and maximize business results.
She is experienced in helping organizations implement data management, governance, and archiving strategies to ensure trusted and accessible data for quality decision-making. Kay also provides guidance on private equity transactions within the healthcare industry.
Andrea Minnillo
Senior Business Analyst, Technology Advisory Services Practice
BIO
Andrea is responsible for delivering Digital Ally services to our clients. She has nearly 20 years of experience in leading and coaching business analysts and project managers. She has led multiple projects anywhere from small enhancements to large multi-year business and process transformation efforts. She also has a strong operations background holding various leadership positions in the banking, automotive, IT, and logistics industries.
Helmut Oehring
Senior IT Advisor, Technology Advisory Services Practice
BIO
Helmut Oehring is an accomplished global executive leading IT departments primarily in manufacturing, healthcare, and global supply chain management companies. He has extensive experience supporting LEAN manufacturing with ERP deployments, pursuing global markets with advanced CRM solutions, automating shop floors with AI & Industrial IoT innovations, and delivering cutting edge Business Intelligence solutions. Helmut has helped manage IT transitions through over 40 M&A transactions.
Marc Pillon
Risk Program Manager, Risk Advisory Services Practice
BIO
Marc is responsible for the Cyber Ally portfolio of services to our clients. He specializes in cybersecurity, infrastructure an operations management and often works with PE firms leading IT due diligence efforts.
Chris Schmidt
Senior Cybersecurity Advisor, Risk Advisory Services Practice
BIO
Chris is responsible for delivering our cybersecurity governance, risk and compliance services and providing overall fractional Information Security Officer services. In addition, Chris leads cybersecurity due diligence on behalf of our PE partners. His has a broad IT and cybersecurity background and a proven track record of managing risk and maximizing value for our clients.
Jason Steiner
Senior Cybersecurity Advisor, Risk Advisory Services Practice
BIO
Jay is responsible for delivering our cybersecurity governance, risk and compliance services and providing overall fractional Information Security Officer services to IT Ally clients. He is an accomplished, highly skilled advisory professional with broad experience in healthcare and industry as a management consultant in information security, data privacy management, and regulatory compliance.
Dave Stouffer
Chief Financial Officer
BIO
Dave is a proven Fortune 1000 Executive and consultant with over 25 years of experience establishing, leading, and reengineering organizations of various sizes and scales including multiple start-up and turnaround leadership successes. Dave worked in key positions with large consumer firms and brands including LensCrafters and its parent the $2.6 billion retailer/manufacturer US Shoe where he rapidly rose through the ranks to become the SVP Planning & Strategy.
Tom Painter
Senior IT Advisor, Technology Advisory Services Practice
BIO
Tom has 30+ years of IT leadership experience and is highly regarded as a collaborative partner who is calm when others are anxious and focused on the vision when the path forward is hard. He helps small and medium sized businesses reap the benefits of technology, just like the big corporations. His experience includes M&A plus healthcare, financial services, automotive, logistics, and manufacturing industries.
Mike Varney
Senior IT Advisor, Transaction Advisory Services Practice
BIO
Mike is an experienced IT and Finance executive with over 20 years in the commercial banking and credit union markets. As a transformative leader, Mike has held CIO and technology leadership positions in institutions from small to large, including being a ground floor executive for a de-novo institution that grew to be one of the most stable commercial banks in the country.
Market Presence
As a firm that services clients nationwide, we understand the importance of local presence in the markets we serve. These markets represent key cities that we have committed to place a market leader and point of contact to cultivate relationships with local PE clients, partners and to actively participate in networking communities such as the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG).
- Atlanta, GA
- Austin/San Antonio, TX
- Baltimore, MD
- Boston, MA
- Charlotte, NC
- Chicago, IL
- Cincinnati, OH
- Clarksville, TN
- Cleveland, OH
- Columbus, OH
- Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
- Delray Beach, FL
- Denver, CO
- Detroit, MI
- Germantown, WI
- Grand Rapids, MI
- Houston, TX
- Indianapolis, IN
- Irvine, CA
- Kansas City, KS
- Los Angeles, CA
- McLean, VA
- Miami, FL
- New York, NY
- Newtown, CT
- Omaha, NE
- Orlando, FL
- Philadelphia, PA
- Phoenix, AZ
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Richmond, VA
- Salt Lake City, UT
- San Diego, CA
- San Francisco, CA
- Seattle, WA
- St. Louis, MO
- Stratford, CT
- Tampa, FL
- Wayzata, MN
