John Barrett Bio

About John

As the Director of Corporate Development for Strength Capital’s portfolio company, ESP Associates, John leads ESP’s merger and acquisition activity, including deal sourcing, evaluation, due diligence and transaction execution.

Prior to joining ESP, John was Director of Corporate Development at Cooper Standard and also worked in the Corporate Development group at General Motors. Additionally, John held investment banking roles with Donnelly Penman & Partners, Doeren Mayhew and Oppenheimer & Co., where he provided merger and acquisition and financing advisory to public and private companies across a wide range of industries. John graduated with a B.A. in Finance from Michigan State University and received his M.B.A. from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

John lives in the Detroit area and enjoys spending his free time with his wife and four children.

John has had a storied career in athletics.  He is easily the most talented athlete at Strength, which is truly saying a lot.  But with age, John has struggled to find pursuits to highlight his athleticism.  To this point, you certainly do not want to own a home on a golf course where John will be taking tee shots.

John is a huge football fan.  The Detroit Lions and Michigan Wolverines are his teams.  And, as a student of the game, he is a zealot about “all three phases football” and can get super enthusiastic when that topic comes up.  A recent “all three phases” incident has him banned from Ohio Stadium.

John enjoys riding motor scooters, wearing gym shorts to business dinners, listening to the music of Glorilla, and playing shirtless beer pong.