Keith Puckett - Partner, The Ocean Group

Keith Puckett has over a decade of experience as a financial and operational advisor for clients ranging from Fortune 500 Companies to Internet ventures. Keith developed his professional expertise while working eight years at Wall Street investment bank, Bear, Stearns & Co. in New York City. Keith was a Vice President in the Technology, Media and Telecom group within the firm’s Investment Banking division. He specialized in mergers and acquisitions in the aerospace/defense and technology sectors and equity financings, including Initial Public Offerings (IPO) for Internet companies. In eight years as an investment banker, Keith executed over $85 billion of M&A transactions and approximately $10 billion of equity and debt financings.

Keith possesses a unique combination of advisory expertise related to growth and strategic development of financial and operational components of businesses, which has significantly increased the value of his client’s enterprise. Keith’s ability to provide a complete evaluation related to a company’s competitive market analysis, understanding the competitive positioning and comparable company analysis related to a client’s business, and ascribing value to each business model has proven invaluable for his clients.

Following his career at Bear Stearns, Keith spent two years as a Founding Partner and Co-Owner of Pepperface.com, an internet-based personal safety concept for women. Keith’s success with Pepperface is measured by the Company’s unparalleled growth performance, both from an overall sales perspective and development of a nationwide distribution network for Pepperface products. His talent and understanding of business principles was critical to Pepperface’s strategic development, including his effective identification of applicable revenue channels, price-setting strategies, effective e-commerce development, and accurately forecasting the start-up’s financial model.

Keith has advised clients including Cisco, Nortel, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, General Dynamics, DRS Technologies, Honeywell, Lucent, EDS, United Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, NBCi (NBC internet division), CBS Sportsline and Pepperface.com.

As a Partner of The Ocean Group, Keith focuses on strategic growth, brand monetization and competitive positioning for the agency’s clients. Keith is co-chairman of two Ocean Group companies: Ocean Strategic Group and Ocean Model Group. Keith’s advisory success is predicated on his business experience and acumen, drawing on an overall understanding of a client’s objectives and the knowledge to help clients achieve their goals. He is known for his ability to quickly identify and diagnose sales and growth impediments that go far beyond finance, working with companies to refine their organizational structure, product lines, sourcing, revenue channels and competitive market position