
Founder & CEO
Michael Jacobs, the founder and CEO of Jacobs Capital, Inc. has an extensive background managing corporate finance practices for major firms. After a summer on Wall Street working for the nation’s top M&A advisor, he began his investment banking career with Robinson Humphrey, the largest securities firm in the southeast. Mr. Jacobs subsequently managed the corporate finance practice for one of the 20 largest commercial banks in the United States; for a global consulting firm; and immediately before founding Jacobs Capital in 1998, he served as Managing Director and head of the Atlanta office for the nation’s premier middle market M&A and business valuation firm, Houlihan Lokey. Michael served as Director of Corporate Finance Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department during the Bush (Sr.) Administration, where he was responsible for national policy in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, corporate governance, and certain banking and tax matters.
Professor Jacobs recently retired from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School where he taught in the MBA program for 13 years. He is the author of Short-Term America (Harvard Business School Press) which was named one of the ten best business books the year it came out. He later published Break the Wall Street Rule: Outperform the Stock Market by Investing as an Owner (Addison Wesley), which was the main selection of the Fortune Book Club. Mr. Jacobs serves on several corporate and non-profit boards and previously served on the board of North Carolina’s $90 billion state pension fund. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and Harvard Business School.
Read Michael’s Business Insights and Op-Eds.