Michael L. Bailey

Mike Bailey is a founding partner of Progress Equity Partners. and has over fifteen years of financial and investment management experience. Prior to forming Progress Equity he was a partner at Transition Capital Partners. completing leveraged buyouts of middle market companies.

Mr. Bailey has over 25 years of experience in the food industry with such Fortune 500 companies as Frito-Lay, Pillsbury and Kraft General Foods, where he held positions of increasing responsibility in the areas of finance, sales and marketing and executive management.

Prior to joining Transition Capital in 1999, he co-founded Specialty Desserts where he served as President and CEO. Mr. Bailey completed his career at Frito-Lay as Vice President of Sales for the Northeast. From 1987 to 1990, Mr. Bailey was Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing and Executive Vice President for Haagen-Dazs. He then served as General Manager of Knudsen Dairy and General Manager of Frozen Desserts for the Kraft General Foods Dairy Division. From 1993 to 1995, Mr. Bailey served as President and CEO of Mission Foods, the largest tortilla maker in the world.

Mr. Bailey has served on the board of many portfolio companies and, in this capacity, he manages the strategic direction and facilitates the progression of each company into a professionally managed organization.

Mr. Bailey received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Chattanooga and a Master’s Degree in Management from Georgia State University.