Team

Founder and Managing Director

Howard Turk, Founder and Managing Director, is a real estate lawyer turned Investment Banker with extensive experience in the title and settlement services industry, both domestically and internationally.

Mr. Turk’s prior roles include principal of a high-volume real estate conveyancing law firm, head underwriter of First American Title’s National Lenders Advantage as well as leadership roles in national title agencies.

An accomplished best-selling author and columnist, Mr. Turk is a frequent media guest expert and commentator on issues relating to the real estate and title industry.

Mr. Turk has an undergraduate degree In Political Science from York University and a Bachelor or Laws (LL.B.) degree from the University of Ottawa.

President

Dione Spiteri serves as President of Turk & Co., where she drives the firm’s strategic direction and leads growth initiatives including client development, market expansion, and brand positioning. She plays a key role in supporting the firm’s execution capabilities, bringing an operator’s perspective to complex transactions.

With over 20 years of experience as an international business executive, Dione has founded, scaled, and exited multiple high-growth companies across industries including eCommerce, technology, real estate, financial services, and professional services. Several of her ventures have earned recognition on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies.

She has advised more than 145 companies on growth strategy, operational efficiency, and enterprise value creation, contributing to numerous successful exits and capital raises. Her deep understanding of what drives business value, particularly in founder-led and high-growth environments, makes her an invaluable partner to clients navigating liquidity events and strategic transformations.

Dione holds a BS from Northwestern University and an Entrepreneurial Master's from the MIT/EO program.

Managing Director

Tom Courtney, Managing Director, is an experienced private equity investor and investment banker. Mr. Courtney has advised on more than 200 transactions involving financings, acquisitions and divestitures since 1986.

Mr. Courtney has deep experience finding and evaluating investment opportunities, negotiating transactions, arranging financings with relationships that are both extensive and deep. He regularly helps recruit top managers and board members so these organizations can excel. Mr. Courtney has started, bought and sold, and financed more than 20 companies.

Mr. Courtney worked at Morgan Stanley & Co., Alex. Brown & Sons, Inc., James D. Wolfensohn Incorporated, and Peers & Co. Mr. Courtney received an undergraduate degree in Economics from Princeton University and an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Managing Director

Matt Allen, Managing Director, has over 20 years of experience in Investment Banking. He has completed more than 50 transactions with financial services companies nationwide including mergers, acquisitions, capital raising and divestitures. Mr. Allen is also Managing Principal of Little Creek Capital where he provides consulting services to regulated depositories and specialty finance companies.

Prior to these positions, Mr. Allen was a Managing Director for Western Financial Corporation where he was head of Investment Banking, Managing Director at Milestone Advisors LLC where he led the Bank and Thrift Group, and worked for a brief period with Houlihan Lokey following its acquisition of Milestone in December 2012. Mr. Allen was a Managing Director for Hoefer & Arnett and a Senior Vice President for Hovde Financial.

Mr. Allen has a BS in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Old Dominion University, and a MBA in Finance from the Mason School at the College of William and Mary.

PhD., Managing Director

Ed McKenna, PhD., Managing Director, has over 20 years of experience in starting companies, creating and leading strategic plans, making acquisitions, and advising senior management teams. At Turk & Co., Dr. McKenna works with healthcare and technology businesses.

Dr. McKenna is also Advising President and COO of JRG Ventures, a retained firm with expertise in corporate development, product growth strategy, licensing and partnering within the life sciences, health technology, and novel disruptive technologies. JRG’s clients are global and range from start-up ventures to multinational corporations. JRG has a focus on identifying, targeting, optimizing and conquering growth opportunities. In addition, Dr. McKenna is Managing Director of Triple Ring Innovation Labs, the new business incubation program at Triple Ring Technologies, an innovative contract research and medical product development company, which partners with clients to complete complex technical projects from conceptual design through development and product launch.

Previously, Dr. McKenna was Chief Scientist and Engineer at Covidien. He is an inventor on over 100 filed patents and received five innovation awards during his time at Covidien including two time Inventor of the Year and Filed Patent of the Year. Dr. McKenna worked on many acquisitions at Covidien including Cardio Digital, Aspect Medical, Somanetics and Oridion. As a researcher he performed research in non-invasive technologies for the measurement of various physiologic parameters such as tissue hydration, non-invasive blood pressure, total hemoglobin, oximetry, tissue oxygenation, cardiac output and glucose.

Prior to Covidien, Dr. McKenna founded two technology companies while he was getting his PhD, both sold very successfully. Before that, Dr. McKenna was Chief Optical Hardware Engineer at Next Level Communications. He was the chief designer of the optical interfaces and controllers for a system that allowed telephone companies to compete with cable providers. Motorola acquired Next Level in 2002.

Dr. McKenna has BS and MS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, and a PhD in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from University of Colorado at Boulder.