Director of Corporate Development

Description

About Lonestar Electric Supply

Lonestar Electric Supply is one of the fastest-growing independent electrical distributors in the United States, with a multi-state footprint across Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Tennessee. Lonestar is executing an ambitious buy-and-build strategy – expanding our geographic reach, deepening our product and service capabilities, and building a national platform in electrical distribution. We are led by an experienced management team and supported by a professionalized legal, finance, and operations infrastructure that gives our people the tools to move fast and win.

Today, Lonestar operates 30+ branches across four states with 1600 + team members and $2 + billion in annual revenue. 

The Opportunity in Electrical Distribution

The U.S. electrical distribution market is large, essential, and highly fragmented. Alongside a handful of national chains, hundreds of independent and family-owned distributors serve local contractor, industrial, and utility relationships – and many of these owners face succession questions and are seeking a growth-oriented partner.

At the same time, structural demand tailwinds are accelerating: data center construction, electrification of buildings and transport, grid modernization and utility investment, and the reshoring of domestic manufacturing. 

Lonestar sits at the intersection of these forces. With a proven operating model, a well-capitalized institutional sponsor, and momentum across its footprint, the Company has a multi-year runway to consolidate a fragmented landscape. The Director of Corporate Development will be the engine of that program.

Position Summary

The Director of Corporate Development is responsible for establishing and the operational owner of Lonestar’s M&A program – from strategy through close through integration. This is a high-visibility, high-impact role reporting to the CEO and working shoulder-to-shoulder with the CFO, CAO/General Counsel, and division leadership. The successful candidate will source, build, and manage a disciplined acquisition pipeline, lead deal execution across financial, commercial, legal, and operational diligence, and critically own post-close integration to ensure each acquisition delivers the synergies and cultural fit underwritten in the investment thesis.

This role is designed for a corporate development leader who wants to participate in a rapidly growing business via an integrated organic and inorganic growth strategy: institutionalize a repeatable playbook, close multiple transactions per year, and see the results of their work reflected on the ground in branches, customer relationships, and financial performance. As the platform scales, the Director will have the opportunity to build and lead a growing corporate development function.

Key Responsibilities

M&A Strategy & Pipeline Development

• Partner with the CEO, CFO, and Board to refine Lonestar’s acquisition thesis, prioritized target geographies, and end-market focus.
• Build, prioritize, and maintain a proprietary target database covering electrical distributors, adjacent product lines (lighting, automation, industrial supply), and complementary service offerings.
• Act as core liaison to Lonestar’s primary OEM supplier partner, aligning the acquisition pipeline with our joint expansion strategy and identifying add-on targets that expand our combined market presence in under-distributed geographies.
• Cultivate relationships with sell-side advisors, industry brokers, association contacts, and independent owners to generate proprietary and limited-process opportunities.
• Own the corporate development toolkit: CRM and pipeline tracker, relationship databases, virtual data rooms, and standing diligence request lists.
• Conduct ongoing market, industry, and competitive-landscape research to sharpen the acquisition thesis and inform target prioritization.
• Present pipeline updates, market intelligence, and pursuit recommendations at monthly management reviews and quarterly Board meetings.

Transaction Execution

• Lead the end-to-end deal process: initial outreach, NDA, IOI/LOI, financial analysis, diligence, definitive documentation, and closing.
• Build and stress-test acquisition models, including synergy quantification, financing implications, purchase price allocation considerations, and returns analysis.
• Coordinate diligence workstreams (financial, tax, legal, commercial, operational, IT, HR, environmental, insurance) using, and continuously improving, Lonestar’s internal diligence playbook.
• Manage day-to-day relationships with outside counsel, accounting advisors, quality-of-earnings providers, and lenders, in collaboration with the CFO and CAO/GC.
• Structure transactions to align incentives with owner-operators, including rollover equity, earnouts, seller financing, and retention arrangements.
• Draft and manage internal deal materials: investment committee memos, board approval packages, and sponsor communications.
• Partner with CFO and sponsor on financing execution for each transaction, including use of acquisition facility, R&W insurance placement, and purchase price funding.

Post-Close Integration

• Own the integration function end-to-end, including 100-day plans, workstream governance, milestone tracking, and synergy realization reporting.
• Own cultural integration and talent retention by onboarding leadership, retaining key sellers and branch talent, and preserving local relationships, while implementing platform standards.
• Chair the cross-functional Integration Steering Committee and lead cadence meetings across finance, operations, HR, IT, legal, and commercial workstreams.
• Coordinate with functional leaders to ensure timely execution of ERP conversions, branding transitions, benefits harmonization, customer and vendor communications, and other integration deliverables.
• Track and report on integration KPIs and synergy capture against the underwritten deal model; identify and escalate risks in real time.
• Institutionalize learnings from each transaction into a continuously improved integration playbook.

Cross-Functional & Sponsor Engagement

• Serve as a trusted business partner to the executive team, translating strategic priorities into executable transaction pipelines.
• Coach and develop junior corporate development, finance, and operations team members involved in transaction and integration work, with the opportunity to build a dedicated team as the platform scales.
• Contribute to broader strategic initiatives, including market entry analyses, greenfield branch decisions, and organic growth investments.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related discipline.
• 7–12 years of progressive experience across corporate development, investment banking, transaction advisory, or a combination, with meaningful ownership of buy-side transactions from origination through close.
• Demonstrated experience leading or materially contributing to post-close integration, not just deal execution.
• Strong financial modeling, valuation, and diligence skills; fluent in LBO mechanics, working capital treatment, quality-of-earnings analysis, and purchase price mechanics.
• Advanced Excel modeling and PowerPoint presentation skills; familiarity with CRM/pipeline tools and virtual data rooms.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to distill complex deal dynamics into clear board-level materials.
• Comfort operating with ambiguity, tight timelines, and multiple simultaneous workstreams.
• Willingness to travel across Lonestar’s footprint and target markets (approximately 30–40%); deal timelines may occasionally require short-notice travel and periods of evening or weekend work.

Preferred

• MBA or CFA.
• Industry experience in electrical distribution, industrial distribution, building products, or an adjacent B2B distribution vertical.
• Familiarity with distribution-specific diligence considerations: branch profitability analysis, inventory quality, rebate accounting, customer concentration, and vendor relationships.
• Experience working directly with outside legal, accounting and banking advisors.

Personal Attributes

• Ownership mindset – treats every dollar of enterprise value as personal.
• Judgment and discretion – comfortable holding confidential information and navigating sensitive owner-operator dynamics.
• Bias to action, paired with the analytical discipline to know when to walk away from a deal.
• Collaborative operating style – respected by finance, legal, operations, and field leadership alike.
• Ability to influence and drive outcomes without direct authority across deal and integration teams.
• High integrity, low ego, high output.