R. Michael Powell joined EarlyBirdCapital in 2010 and is a Managing Director in its Investment Banking department where he focuses on SPACs, middle market M&A and financings. Since joining the firm he worked on approximately 30 SPAC IPOs generating gross proceeds in excess of $2.8 billion. Prior to joining EarlyBirdCapital, Mr. Powell served as Managing Director at Pali Capital where he co-founded its investment banking department and underwrote in excess of $750 million of SPAC IPOs and advised on 10 M&A transactions valued in excess of $3.6 billion. Earlier in his career, Mr. Powell was a founding employee and served as Managing Director at Morgan Joseph. He also has previous experience in the Generalist/M&A group at ING Barings and the Energy and Natural Resource Group at UBS.