Partnering with investors & leaders to drive growth and performance
Founded by Ms. Garza, a senior executive with 25+ years of experience, GHA partners with leaders to unlock enterprise value.
About
Karen Brown Garza, Founder and Managing Director
Guild Hall Advisors was founded in April 2024 by Karen Brown Garza, an accomplished executive with over 25 years of experience as an operating partner, turnaround and restructuring advisor, investor, and investment banker.
We bring deep expertise in board representation, strategy, transformation, finance, organizational design, and operational optimization to each engagement.
Track Record and Approach
- Proven ability to build strategic partnerships and collaborate effectively with private equity and private credit sponsors, boards, and management teams to drive measurable results
- Skilled in identifying and executing key value levers to accelerate impact and enhance returns
- Experienced stepping into interim executive or Board roles to stabilize, transform, and grow businesses
- Deep experience in due diligence and underwriting, Value Creation Plan (VCP) design, and disciplined strategy-to-execution
- Demonstrated success in driving performance improvement, managing change, and optimizing organizations across diverse industries and ownership structures
- Known for being resilient, insightful, and adaptable, communicating with clarity, distilling complexity, and adding immediate value
Select Areas of Expertise
- Value Creation & Transformation: Assessing, quantifying, prioritizing, resourcing, and capturing value levers through robust value creation and execution plans
- Executive Team Building: Evaluating leadership effectiveness and partnering with executives to enhance performance, alignment, and an accountability culture
- Enterprise Value Creation: Delivering sustainable revenue and EBITDA growth across control, non-control, and distressed situations; improving cash flow and capturing cost savings
- Business Transformation: Strengthening management systems and culture through program leadership, change management, and organizational alignment
- Strategic & Financial Management: Supporting strategic planning, budgeting, and data-driven decision-making via dashboards, OKRs, and KPI
- Operational Optimization: Enhancing efficiency through network and footprint analysis, SG&A and headcount optimization, working capital and Capex management
- Corporate Governance & Risk Oversight: Serving as a Board member, advisor, or observer to ensure effective governance, alignment, and oversight of digital initiatives, ESG, health & safety, and DEI
Contact Me
Contact us today to begin the conversation and partnership.
Message me with a brief description of your advisory and/or interim management needs related to your investments/portfolio companies or the larger portfolio.
