ABOUT US
IEI Advisors: Connections, Experience & Expertise for the Best Deals in Mergers and Acquisitions
Peter Flippen grew up around construction. His father was an architect who owned a custom home building business, and Peter's appreciation for the effort and rewards of business ownership began early.
Years later, Peter learned the HVAC industry working for a start-up software company selling to HVAC owners and executives. He sat in owners' offices across the country, worked the industry events, and learned how these businesses actually run. He also noticed how many of his clients were selling — the leading edge of a consolidation wave nobody had named yet.
When he left to build something of his own, one idea excited him the most: a sell-side M&A advisory firm built specifically for HVAC and mechanical contractors. He had industry knowledge and relationships — including a brother who was head of M&A for a large national mechanical contractor. What he didn't have, he went and earned — the CM&AA certification and a hard education in the mechanics of a deal. In 2018, he launched IEI Advisors, named for his father's company, IEI Construction.
The early years were slow; COVID froze all three of his first engagements, and the first closing didn't come until February 2021. Since then, Peter and his team of partners and trusted professionals have closed transactions representing more than $200 million in value — serving owners with Integrity, Excellence, and Innovation.
HVAC M&A TEAM
Peter Flippen — Founder and Managing Partner
Peter has spent over two decades in and around the facility services industry. Before founding IEI, he owned two businesses, spent years in management consulting at a large firm, and led sales at a software start-up.
He has personally handled every stage of more than $200 million in closed HVAC and mechanical contracting transactions. On each deal, he was there from the first call with the owner and led the deal through valuation, buyer outreach, management meetings, negotiation, buyer meetings, due diligence, legal agreements, and closing. He saw each deal through the working capital true-ups and in some cases, earn-out calculations. That work taught him HVAC M&A seller representation from the ground up and from every angle, including the issues sophisticated buyers will press on.
Every IEI client gets that experience. Owners work directly with Peter from their first conversation through closing and beyond.
He holds a business degree from the University of Virginia and two industry certifications.
Certifications:
Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor (CM&AA) from the Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors
Financial Modeling and Valuation Analyst (FMVA) from the Corporate Finance Institute
Taylor Bryant — M&A Associate
Taylor brings more than a decade of experience in banking, private equity, and financial advisory to IEI Advisors. A private equity sponsor placed him at two community banks to help lead their turnarounds. There he underwrote leveraged buyout and working capital financing, and he helped position one of the banks for a successful sale. He went on to hold an ownership stake in VML/VACo Finance, a Virginia public finance advisory firm, where he helped close more than $300 million in transactions before exiting. He later served as Vice President at Davenport & Company.
Most recently, Taylor ran a self-funded search through Carlyle Capital. That search put him in conversation with many owners as they thought through whether, when, and how to sell. It gave him a firsthand sense of what that decision means to the person making it.
At IEI, he works alongside Peter on every engagement. He holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia.