05/22/2026
Big news from the 2026 D CEO & ACG M&A Awards — The CJ Group took home recognition in the $50M–$250M transaction category!
The deal behind the award: last July, the senior leadership of Schirm USA, Inc. —Chad Kern, Cody Helm, and Rebecca Rodgers — completed a $60 million management buyout of the company they'd built, forming Liberation Chem-Toll, LLC to bring Texas ownership to a 50-year-old chemical manufacturer serving U.S. agriculture.
Our own Gary Jackson, Mikayla Markland, and Hector Gutierrez were proud to serve as advisors on this one. Keeping jobs, facilities, and American manufacturing capability right here in our own backyard is exactly the kind of work we love being part of. Congratulations to the whole team. 🤝