Doug has been making investments in private companies since 1978. He grew up in Kentucky and in 1965 graduated with honors from the University of Kentucky with a degree in accounting.  After graduation, Doug practiced as a CPA with a national firm and was a financial officer for two publicly owned insurance companies.  In 1978 he moved to St. Louis and founded Valley Venture Corporation which successfully invested in 6 businesses.  He spent a year helping Harbour Group, one of the first private equity companies, get started and in 1985 he again went out on his own and started Group One Capital.  It successfully invested in over 20 private businesses over the next 15 years.  After investing, he and his partners concentrated on helping the businesses grow.  One example is a sunglass retailer that that had 70 stores in 1990.  Over the next 5 years it was grown to 350 stores when it was merged with The Sunglass Hut, a public company.  In 2000, Doug moved to Ft. Lauderdale and concentrate his efforts on making acquisitions for Beauty Alliance.  That business started with an investment in a small beauty products distributor with $20 million of sales in 1986.  Doug helped it acquire 20 other similar businesses.  In 2007 it was sold to L'Oreal when it had over $370 million of sales and $65 million of annual profits.  Since then, Doug has invested in several smaller businesses which have been very successful.  Doug and his wife, Linda, are generous contributors to institutions and charities that serve children.

Dean Kretschmar is an experienced investor and business leader with over 20 years of experience, who focuses on pursuing investment opportunities in the small and middle-market arena. Soaring Eagle Investments has invested in early stage water rights and water distribution in Utah. Prior to founding Soaring Eagle Investments, Mr. Kretschmar served as a minority owner, and executive for Beauty Alliance.  With sales in excess of $370MM in 2006, Beauty Alliance was one of the largest and fastest growing professional salon distributorships in the U.S. selling to 125,000 salons through 870 Distributor Sales Consultants and through 400 professional outlets. Beauty Alliance was sold to L’Oréal USA, a subsidiary of L’Oréal in 2007.  Mr. Kretschmar also served as Vice President of Acquisitions for Group One Capital/Von Allmen Capital. Earlier in his career, he gained extensive leaderships as Vice President and Private Lending Specialist with Nations Bank, a company later acquired by Bank of America. His responsibilities with Nations Bank entailed managing a large loan portfolio and working with middle-market portfolio managers. Educated at Baylor University, he earned his Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance/Entrepreneurship with a minor in Marketing in 1996.