Dara Shareef

About

Dara serves as Managing Partner at Benchmark International charged with running the Tampa Transaction office and the two transaction teams therein. His role has three primary pillars: 1. Managerial. He is responsible for the success of Benchmark International’s first US office and the two transaction teams. 2. Operational. He takes an active, leadership role in some of our more complex engagements and serves as a sounding board for the teams on all others. 3. Corporate. The third element of his role is strategic in nature; to represent the Tampa Transaction team in leadership discussions helping our leadership team to architect and navigate the path forward.

He also holds the rare distinction of having served in every role over the course of his career. His career in finance started in financial services, where he was a bona fide phone basher. Further into his career, he authored dozens of business plans and pitch decks to mobilize capital and negotiated and closed dozens of deals. In addition to serving as a buyer of businesses, an operator of businesses and board member of companies contemplating an exit, he has played virtually every role in the execution of the sale of businesses.

His diverse background as both an operator of business and an investor into businesses allows him to anticipate issues in deals before they happen. Having been in each of their shoes, this allows him to think like both a seller and a buyer

Success

One of the most exciting aspects of Dara’s job is the opportunity it affords him to play with dozens of industries and business models. He has successfully facilitated transactions in sectors as diverse as SaaS, Commercial Landscaping, Vertical Market Software, Healthcare, Retail, Commercial Printing, Business Services, Marketing, IT Services, Niche Manufacturing, and Engineering. What is perhaps most remarkable about the Benchmark International model is that it transcends specific industries and business models. The sample mentioned above illustrates the point emphatically; Benchmark International’s unique approach translates across sectors and geographic borders.