David Els

David Els joined Delta Capital after working twenty years in the publishing and media industry. During this time he developed strategic plans, repositioned media properties, and drafted financial strategies for companies from $5MM to $50MM in sales. Mr. Els expertise focused on magazines, newspapers, and Internet companies. For five years he served as a director of the Lighthouse Consulting Group in Boston, a software company providing services to over 200 publishers.

Most recently, Mr. Els served as the President and Publisher of the National Gardening Association where he developed the first on-line forum for the lawn and garden industry in 1992. This entity, which later became national gardening.com, was successfully sold to the leading company in the lawn and garden industry. Prior to his work with the NGA, Mr. Els was President of the Warner-Eastman Group in Boston which provided consulting services, including M&A, to companies in the magazine and newspaper publishing industry. He was responsible for raising capital for media acquisitions from banks, venture capital firms, and private investors.

From 1983-1989 Mr. Els was first the Circulation Director and then Publisher of the international daily newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor. He was responsible for the publishing, marketing, and distribution of the Monitor in 145 countries and the management of a $50MM operating budget. Before joining the Monitor, Mr. Els spent ten years in the management consulting field, first as an associate with the Palmer/Paulson company in Chicago, and then as President of his own firm, Public Management Associates based in Augusta, Maine.

Mr. Els has a BA degree in Business Administration from Principia College in Illinois and continued his graduate studies in Public Administration at the University of Maine. He was appointed by the Maine Labor Relations Board as the management representative in fact-finding hearings involving public agency labor disputes. He lives with his wife and son in Burlington, Vermont and enjoys biking, skiing, and gardening. He is currently the Chairman of the National Gardening Association Board and is also a director of the Mailorder Gardening Association, a trade association of merchants in the lawn and garden industry.