our team
Alex Mammen
alex@heritagegrowth.com
Evan Toporek
evan@heritagegrowth.com
Jarrett Arkin
Jarrett@heritagegrowth.com
Callen Craig
callen@heritagegrowth.com
Alex founded Heritage Growth in 2014 with the goal of creating true partnerships with entrepreneur-owners, built on long-term thinking, shared values, and mutual alignment of interests. He brings over 30 years of private equity, investment banking, commercial lending, and family business experience to Heritage, and has completed over 70 M&A and financing transactions valued in excess of $7 billion. Throughout his career, Alex has served as a trusted advisor to a variety of private and public companies, including a number of founder and family-owned businesses.
At Heritage Growth, he focuses on identifying and investing in private companies, leading structuring and diligence, and advising and serving management teams in achieving their growth objectives. Previously, Alex was a Managing Director and Partner at TM Capital Corp., a boutique investment bank, with offices in New York, Boston, and Atlanta. He joined TM in 2001 and co-founded the firm’s Atlanta office and served as Chief Operating Officer between 2009-2013 and as a Senior Advisor between 2013-2014. Prior to TM Capital, Alex worked in the Consumer, Financial Institutions, and Real Estate/Structured Products Groups at Prudential Securities Investment Banking in New York and Atlanta between 1994-2001 and began his career in Commercial Lending at Bank of America.
Alex earned his MBA with honors from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago and graduated from the University of Tampa, where he was a recipient of the President’s Scholarship. He is a Board Member at Mission: Hope, an Advisory Board Member for the Sykes College of Business at the University of Tampa, and a Charter Member of the Atlanta chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE). Alex and his wife Anne have two children and are active members of St. Mary’s Orthodox Church in Roswell, GA. Alex enjoys art, travel, and home improvement projects.
Evan is a Partner at Heritage Growth. With over 25 years of operating and leadership experience honed from growing his own business and advising many others, Evan works closely with founders and owner-operators to nurture their brands, develop their teams, expand their businesses, and achieve their personal goals.
Evan spent over two decades as Co-Owner and CEO of Alternative Apparel, helping grow the t-shirt startup into an international lifestyle brand. Alternative reached its biggest milestones during Evan’s tenure, including: being recognized as one of Inc. 500’s fastest growing companies; launching Alternative Earth, its eco-fashion label; and breaking ground on its first flagship store in Venice Beach, CA. In 2008, Alternative secured a minority growth investment from Rosewood Capital, and in 2017, Alternative was acquired by Hanesbrands Inc (NYSE: HBI), giving the brand a massive sourcing and distribution platform to expand globally.
Evan earned an Industrial Engineering degree at the Georgia Institute of Technology and then joined Andersen Consulting, now known as Accenture, where his client roster included Chick-fil-A, Georgia Pacific, and FedEx. Evan serves in varying leadership positions on several for-profit and nonprofit Boards, including The Davis Academy as Past President and the Marcus Jewish Community Center as Treasurer. He is a 2015 graduate of Leadership Atlanta. Evan is also a guest lecturer at the Industrial Engineering School at Georgia Tech and a member of its Board of Advisors. Evan lives in Atlanta and is married with two children and enjoys traveling for fun, playing sports, and occasionally playing the drums.
Jarrett is a Principal at Heritage Growth. He is responsible for originating and evaluating investment opportunities, performing transaction due diligence and working with management teams to implement operational and growth strategies.
Prior to joining Heritage Growth, Jarrett was employed by Brightstar Capital Partners and Trive Capital, where he was engaged in private equity investments for companies spanning a variety of industries including niche manufacturing, logistics/recycled services, building products and industrial services. Jarrett started his career at Houlihan Lokey as a member of the Financial Restructuring Group advising on a variety of creditor and debtor-side transactions across a wide array of industries.
Jarrett received his MBA with Dean’s Honors from Columbia Business School and graduated from the Business Honors Program at The University of Texas at Austin where he earned a BBA in Finance. Outside of work, he enjoys playing golf, following the Atlanta Braves and backcountry skiing. He is also an active member of the Milken Young Leaders Circle.
Callen is a Senior Analyst at Heritage Growth. He assists in evaluating new investments in private companies and performs periodic reviews of current partnerships. He also conducts in-depth business, financial and market analyses to support management teams as they explore opportunities for business growth, including through add-on acquisitions.
Prior to Heritage Growth, Callen worked in the accounting and financial planning and analysis areas of Carter’s Inc. (NYSE: CRI), the largest designer and branded marketer in North America of apparel and related products exclusively for babies and young children. During his time at Carter’s, Callen gained experience in different aspects of the consumer and retail sectors, with a focus on financial analysis and reporting, accounting, marketing and IT integration. In addition, he assisted in the project management and rollout of the Carter’s Card, a new private-label credit card, that generated $70+ million in incremental revenues to Carter’s in the back half of 2019 alone.
Born in Macon, GA, Callen has always strived to be the best version of himself, with a strong desire to give back and help others. Callen earned his Bachelor’s in Finance from the University of Georgia, which he attended on a Zell Miller Scholarship. While at the University of Georgia, Callen served on the Executive Board for one of the largest philanthropies on campus, UGA HEROs. He plans to pursue an MBA in Finance and enjoys all things sports-related, gardening, relaxing with his family and giving back to his community.