Robert A. McKee

Managing Director

Mr. McKee joined Cypress Associates as a managing director in 2010. He is based in Austin, Texas where he works with Cypress’ clients in Texas and the surrounding region. His experience includes investment banking, corporate management and new company formation.

 

Mr. McKee has approximately 20 years of investment banking experience, primarily in New York City with Merrill Lynch, PaineWebber and Kidder Peabody. Mr. McKee has worked on over 200 transactions which span virtually every aspect of corporate finance, including mergers and acquisitions, private placements of investment grade and non-investment grade debt, public offerings of investment grade and non-investment grade debt, public offerings of equity securities, leveraged leases, leveraged buyouts and merchant banking. Mr. McKee’s past and current clients have been both privately held and public companies ranging in size from micro-cap companies to large-cap companies. He has experience in many industry segments including semiconductors, software, retail, family entertainment, real estate development, electric and gas utilities, investor-owned water companies, telecommunications, chemicals and airlines. While at Merrill Lynch, Mr. McKee led a team that executed a series of high-yield debt financings that were part of a complex restructuring of the Seabrook nuclear plant’s finances that led to the completion of the plant after construction had been halted. Seabrook is the only nuclear plant that was completed after construction was halted.

 

Mr. McKee was the president and CEO of White Instruments, a manufacturer of electronic equipment, from 1996 to 2002. While at White Instruments, he reorganized the company and introduced three new product lines that accounted for over 60% of sales at the end of his tenure.

 

Mr. McKee is the founding partner of The Launch Team, a virtual incubator for early-stage companies. He is also a founder and past president of the Rice Alliance-Austin Chapter and still serves on the steering committee of the chapter. Additionally, Mr. McKee is a member of the advisory board of Greenling, an Internet based company that delivers locally produced and organic food to customers in the central Texas area.

 

Mr. McKee received a BA from Rice University and an MBA from the Wharton School.

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