SAN FRANCISCO, April 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Financial Technology Partners ("FT Partners"), the only investment bank focused exclusively on FinTech, is pleased to announce two exciting developments today:

1. FT Partners has hired William Blair & Co. Managing Director and FinTech specialist, Phil Olson.  Phil joins the Firm as one of the most experienced investment bankers in the FinTech sector, with over 15 years of direct banking experience in the space.  Phil has been a key figure in over 100 M&A and financing transactions over the last 15+ years at William Blair (13 years) and Merrill Lynch (2 years).  Effective immediately, Phil will join the Firm as the senior banker in our newly-formed Chicago office.
2. Entering our 15^th year and having just executed one of the largest FinTech deals this decade – the $4.5bn sale of Heartland to Global Payments – FT Partners has won the prestigious "2016 Investment Bank of the Year" award by The M&A Advisor.    

Steve McLaughlin, Founder, CEO and Managing Partner of FT Partners, remarked: "When I founded the Firm fifteen years ago, the Firm's mission was to build the investment bank that we'd want to hire if we were a FinTech CEO – and that's exactly what we've done.  Today, we are proud to double-down on this vision with the addition of Phil Olson to further strengthen our team and add significant depth / domain expertise to our execution capabilities – and we are absolutely delighted to welcome Phil to our winning team."

Mr. Olson joins FT Partners as a Managing Director and will be based out of FT Partners' newly-formed Chicago office. Phil began his early career as an Analyst at Merrill Lynch in New York prior to joining William Blair for thirteen years, where he has been involved in over 100 successfully completed transactions during his banking career.  Mr. Olson earned his MBA from the J.L. Kellogg School of Management.

"I'm extremely pleased to join Steve and the entire FT Partners team.  The FT Partners franchise has blown the FinTech industry away with its passionate, deeply-client centric model of investment banking – and having seen that in action, I wanted to be a part of that vision," said Phil Olson, Managing Director. "The platform that FT Partners has built is truly unique and the depth of domain expertise is unmatched in the industry.  It's a great fit for me and I could not be more excited to help build out the platform globally."

Entering its 15^th year, FT Partners is yet again proud to have been recognized by the M&A Advisor as "Investment Bank of the Year" – as well as for executing the "Cross Border M&A Deal of the Year."  This is the fourth time the Firm has been awarded "Investment Banking (or Boutique) Firm of the Year," along with numerous other accolades including Dealmaker of the Year and Deal of the Decade – on top of being recognized by industry CEOs as the 2^nd Most Popular Banker (and the #1 FinTech Banker) in Silicon Valley via The Information, as the Architect of Financial Technology by The Deal and as a top 5 FinTech global influencer by Institutional Investor. 

About FT Partners

Financial Technology Partners ("FT Partners") is the only investment banking firm focused exclusively on providing top-tier strategic and financial advisory services to FinTech CEOs, founders and investors.  The Firm offers CEOs and investors a wide array of strategic advisory services in mission-critical transactions including M&A, IPOs, LBOs, recapitalizations and private capital raises. 

FT Partners' CEO, Founder and Managing Partner, Steve McLaughlin, formerly was a senior investment banker in Goldman, Sachs & Co.'s FinTech Group and was the senior investment banker in the Financial Institutions Group in San Francisco before leaving the firm to form FT Partners in late 2001.  San Francisco-based FT Partners is comprised of a team of experienced investment bankers formerly with the financial technology, M&A and investment banking groups of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan / H&Q and William Blair. 

Follow @ftpartners on Twitter for constant FT Partners updates or visit our website at www.ftpartners.com.

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SOURCE Financial Technology Partners

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