Our People

JOHN L. TAFT
Managing Director

John has many years of management experience as CFO, and COO and as a PWC partner.  Principally based out of Silicon Valley, John has a strong background in services, engineering, and manufacturing companies across a broad range of industries such as energy, telecommunications, microwave radio, semi-conductors and software.  He has also worked extensively with companies involved in real estate development and property management as well as a variety of governmental agencies.   

John has considerable experience in financing and growing companies.  As a CFO, John has raised more than $400 million in a variety of financings and complex transactions that have ranged from credit lines, promissory notes, subordinated bonds and leasing to private and public equity financings including an initial public offering.  This has involved banks, insurance companies, angel investors, venture capital and private equity funds as well as the public markets. 

While his functional expertise is finance, as a COO, John has been actively involved with all aspects of running a company and has a broad management and operations experience including real estate development and property management experience.  Backing this broad management and technology experience is an extensive government contracting, licensing, contractual, regulatory compliance and intellectual property experience as well as a strong background in internal controls and systems

An important part of a company’s growth or exit strategy frequently involves mergers and acquisition.  For a number of years, John was the managing partner of the PWC financial advisory services practice in Southern California and Arizona that provided transaction advisory services to clients that included mergers and acquisitions, business reorganizations, capital sourcing, litigation support, valuations and real estate services.  He was actively involved in more than $5 billion in transactions that involved a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy or workout. 

Patricia is one of the founders and Managing Directors of the Maxima Group. Maxima was formed to focus on enhancing the value of business enterprises that are experiencing rapid growth or financial distress.  Our client base is a mix of business owners, financial institutions, the legal community, and other service providers. Maxima services include strategy and business planning, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and reorganizations, real estate investment and development, and investigative accounting and litigation.  Patricia specializes in real estate matters, and has more than twenty five years of experience as a planner, developer, and real estate consultant.  She has worked with a wide variety of real estate product types, including single and multifamily housing, commercial, retail, industrial, and mixed use projects. 

Prior to founding Maxima, Patricia was the Partner in Charge of Real Estate for the Los Angeles office of Coopers & Lybrand. She was responsible for real estate consulting in the context of investment evaluation, market analysis, corporate strategic analysis, bankruptcy and reorganization, and litigation.  Her direct experience in the real estate industry provides a unique “hands on” perspective of real estate issues.  Patricia worked closely with developers, investors, and public agencies to provide decision making support for a wide range of real estate challenges and opportunities.  She also worked with bankruptcy and reorganization specialists to provide in-depth real estate analysis for troubled companies.  Her bankruptcy and reorganization experience includes work on several single family home developments, multifamily investments, retail properties, and industrial developments.  Patricia has provided expert witness testimony related to her analyses.  Her real estate clients included Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, private investors, public agencies, and international investors. Previously, Ms. Flynn had worked at a boutique consulting firm specializing in the hospitality industry where she focused on investment analysis for large mixed use projects. 

While attending Anderson Graduate School of Management, Ms. Flynn formed Fair Oaks Associates.  She consulted on various real estate matters to various development teams on matters of market and financial feasibility.  Among her most prominent clients was Lincoln Property Company, where she functioned as a contract project manager for industrial projects. 

Ms. Flynn experience also includes being the marketing director, project manager and planner for property management, architectural and engineering firms.  She was instrumental in the formation of development teams for large scale urban projects as well as market and financial feasibility, researching and writing environmental impact reports, as well as processing general plan amendments, zone changes, and other entitlement actions. 

Ms. Flynn is a member of the Urban Land Institute and the Building Owner and Managers Association, and Lambda Alpha.  She is the current Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Southland Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), and has also served as Chapter Vice President and Treasurer.  Civic organizations include The Central City Association and LA Headquarters Association, where she has participated on several planning and action committees.  Ms. Flynn has also developed and taught several real estate training courses.