About Focus Advisors

Who We Are

Focus Advisors helps MSO owners achieve the best results when they sell their business, enabling them to realize the full value of what they’ve worked so hard to build. We’re focused exclusively on collision repair – and we’ve sold more MSOs than any other firm.

By staying at the forefront of industry trends and utilizing our database of buyers and investors, we provide our clients with unparalleled insights and a competitive edge. In the ever-evolving collision repair market, this allows you to maximize the value of your business and navigate the sale with confidence you are achieving the best possible result.

Hear What Our Clients Have to Say

The Focus Advisors Story

Our CEO, David Roberts, has done more transactions (both buying and selling) than any other advisor. He is best known for co-founding Caliber Collision Centers in 1995 — envisioning a more collaborative repair process across insurance companies, insureds, and repairers. At that time, 52,000 separate collision repair shops represented what was then a $25 billions industry in the US. Together, David and his partner began buying, rationalizing, and systematizing one of the nation’s first consolidated, performance-based MSOs — which by the time of its sale in 2008, would become the world’s largest collision repair consolidator.

After leading dozens of acquisitions for Caliber, David saw an opportunity to help MSO owners achieve the best results when they sell their business. He founded Focus Advisors with a proven method to help them grow, thrive, and prepare for a strategic exit. Today, Focus Advisors has grown to a team of trusted advisors — all committed to the same mission of helping MSO owners realize the full value of what they’ve worked so hard to build.

Our Team

David Roberts

Founder & Managing Director

David brings unparalleled knowledge and experience to his strategic advisory and mergers and acquisition work in the automotive services industry. In 1995, he and his partner, Matthew Ohrnstein, co-founded Caliber Collision, the world’s first and now its largest collision repair consolidator. As Chairman of Caliber through 2003 and the initial leader of its Corporate Development team, he wrote the book on how to change, grow and thrive in this intensely competitive industry. Helping raise more than $125 million in capital for Caliber and other providers, he also led the acquisition of 37 individual shops and Multiple Shop Operators at Caliber.

Chris Lane

President, Managing Partner
Chris joined Focus Advisors in 2015, having spent the prior 15 years as a consultant advising business owners how to effectively scale their businesses through development of sound operational and marketing strategies. As Operations Director he brings a startup-company mindset to managing clients, prospects, and business execution – move quickly, communicate clearly, with discipline and commitment. He originally developed his business fundamentals at Intel Corp, spending 12 years in marketing, marketing strategy, and program management, and has a BS in Applied Math/CS from Carnegie-Mellon.

The Former President and Chief M&A Advisor at Veritas Advisors, John brings almost 30 years of industry experience to Focus. Considered one of the most experienced M&A and strategy advisors in the Automotive Aftermarket, John has extensive domestic and international transaction, corporate development, capital raising, strategy, valuation and real estate experience in varied environments. He worked with everything from start-ups to private equity-sponsored consolidators to the Fortune 500 — leading M&A teams for Caliber Collision, DaVita, and Tyco International. John holds a BS in Economics from UC Riverside, and a Master’s Degree in Finance from the London Business School. 

MADELEINE ROBERTS RICH

Vice President

Madeleine joined Focus Advisors in 2022, bringing with her five years of experience in mixed-use, urban-infill real estate development. She previously worked in both development and strategy roles for large real estate investors and developers in both Washington, DC and San Francisco. Madeleine graduated with high distinction from Duke University, where she majored in Public Policy and minored in Economics. She currently pursuing a designation as a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Raul Salinas

Vice President
Raul joined Focus Advisors in 2021, bringing marketing and operations experience as a former start-up entrepreneur. In late 2018, he co-founded Siticar, a tech-based mobile car maintenance and detailing platform that delivered convenient services with the quickest booking experience to customers living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Raul graduated from San Jose State University in 2020 and holds an undergraduate degree in Economics.

Josh Anish

For almost two decades, Josh led media and marketing teams for high-growth technology start-ups. Despite his tech and literary background, he is no stranger to the automotive industry, having spent several years as the Marketing Director for AutoFi, a platform for dealerships to sell cars and loans. He is excited to be part of the Focus Advisors mission to help longstanding automotive entrepreneurs achieve maximum value for what they’ve built. Josh holds a BA in Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought (with Honors) from Amherst College. He also has a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College.

beth jerde

Administrator

Beth has a PhD in International Education with a focus on art. She did her research in Osogbo, Nigeria, at an art center that Nike Okundaye started 40 years ago for young women to earn a living making art rather than prostituting. Previously, she had lived in Kanazawa, Japan, for seven years teaching English. Upon her return to the US she ran a program in Iowa (Iowa-Japan Cultural Alliance) with ten teachers teaching Japanese in middle and high schools. She came to the Bay Area in 2009 as the ED of the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC). She joined Focus Advisors in 2017, putting her organizational skills to work in a new culture of collision repair.

Contact Focus Advisors Today to Learn More About Our Services & Benefits

You made your business what it is today but selling or expanding it requires knowledge of the game and experience in the industry. You may only sell a business once in your life, but the buyers and investors do this for a living and know the ins, outs, and how to come out on top. Let Focus Advisors help even the playing field and get the very most out of your business for you!