Keith S. Harbison

Founder and Managing Partner

Keith is the former Chairman and President of Pretium Packaging (“Pretium”), one of the largest plastic bottle manufacturers in North America. Keith acquired the business in 1992 with $4.5 million in sales which he grew to $230.0 million prior to selling controlling interest to Castle Harlan (a private equity firm) in 2010. Pretium is a full-service manufacturer of plastic bottles and closures for the personal care, pharmaceutical, food, household chemical, and agricultural chemical markets. The company is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri and operates twelve manufacturing facilities from Southern California through the Midwest, the Northeast, and Canada.

Prior to Pretium, Keith was involved in commercial real estate development, building office buildings for tenants such as IBM, Citicorp, Southwestern Bell and Hewlett Packard. Keith was also a Co-Founder, Officer and Director of Com-Link 21, a long-distance resale company which was sold to MCI WorldCom.

Keith graduated from Texas Christian University with a BS in Business Administration.

Jacob sturdy

Managing Director

Jake currently serves as the Managing Director and CFO of Alitus Partners.  His work includes deal evaluation and execution, as well as working closely with portfolio company management teams in developing and executing their strategic plans. 

Prior to Alitus, Jake served as an investor, board member and operating executive with private equity-backed portfolio companies during his time with FTL Capital, Thompson Street Capital, and Cequel III. He has been integral in the success of 10 portfolio companies, deploying a total of over $850.0 million of equity, raising over $5.0 billion of debt capital, and executing over 30 M&A transactions since 2002.  He began his career in public accounting and investment banking. 

Jake earned his BSBA in Accounting from Illinois College and his MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis.  Jake is a CPA (non-active).

Walker harbison

Director of Corporate Development

Walker was formerly an investment professional at Trilantic Capital Partners (“Trilantic”), a global private equity firm with $8.0 billion of assets under management. At Trilantic, Walker focused on control and significant minority investments in the business services, consumer and industrials sectors. Prior to Trilantic, Walker began his career in the Middle Market M&A Group at Lazard, where he worked on sell-side and buy-side advisory engagements and private placements for companies across various sectors including business services, consumer and e-commerce.

Walker received a B.S.B.A in Finance from Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School.

taylor harbison

Director of Operations

Prior to joining Alitus in 2020, Taylor spent 10 years with Golden State Foods, one of the largest global suppliers to McDonald’s and the food service industry.  While with GSF, he held leadership positions across the operation, from shift management to full P&L responsibility, leading and playing an integral part of facility achievements in performance, growth, safety and quality.  Most recently, Taylor was positioned in New Zealand as General Manager, where he led the transition of ownership from family to professional, grew branded sales and situated the business for continued expansion.

Taylor has an MBA in International Business from the University of Southern California and a BBA from Southern Methodist University.

Keith w. harbison

Analyst

Keith joined the Alitus team in 2017 to provide additional support to portfolio companies as well as assist in due diligence and onboarding of acquisitions.

Previously, he worked on plant operations analysis at Golden State Foods. In addition, he served on the due diligence team for Vitaligent on their acquisition of 70 Jamba Juice franchises.

Keith graduated with a finance degree from SMU and earned his Masters in Finance there as well.

Tony Bhalla

Operating Partner

Tony is the former CEO of Metal Container Corporation (“MCC”), a $1.4 billion wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser Busch focused on manufacturing beverage cans, having served there for nearly 25 years.

Throughout his career at MCC, Tony rebuilt the company by implementing his strategy of valuing customers, instilling passion for the business and relentlessly focusing on people and processes, leading the company through three major reinventions. He made MCC the best operating company in the industry while growing market share, divesting plants to raise cash for the parent company, and reinvesting $250.0 million to transform the business from total reliance on commodity products to new products.

Tony serves on Advisory Boards for Metal Exchange Corp. and Anchor Packaging which are both located in St. Louis, MO.

Tony has an MBA in Finance and Corporate Strategy from NYU and a M.S in Chemical Engineering from University of Michigan.

carl bouckaert

Operating Partner

Carl co-founded and co-owned Beaulieu of America, a floor covering manufacturer. As Chairman, CEO, and President, he grew the company to the world’s third largest carpet and rug manufacturer with offices, manufacturing, and distribution facilities around the world.  Carl’s other business interests include large land holdings in the immediate vicinity of Atlanta and several commercial buildings in North Georgia.

A native of Belgium, Carl studied engineering at Louvain University.

Elizabeth Oscko

Deal Administrator

Elizabeth manages the deal origination function including deal source outreach, incoming deal flow, and the company’s CRM. She also works closely with the team in investor communications and coordinating portfolio company interactions.

Prior to Alitus, Elizabeth worked as a kindergarten teacher in the St. Louis area. She earned a BS in Early Childhood Education from Boston University and a MLIS from the University of Missouri.