Capital Partner Advisors, LLC

​Ray Markman can best be described as an investment banker and serial entrepreneur. The founder of the Mayflower Life Insurance Co., Salespower, Inc.( division of Manpower), Seago Real Estate Syndication Company, and is the co-founder of Chicago City Bank, where he served as a director and took the bank public. Mr. Markman became the first Brand Manager in the History of Helene Curtis when the company decided to market their beauty shop products to mass retail outlets, these products were all first mover products, such as Spraynet,  Suave, Enden, the first dandruff treatment shampoo, and Kings Men, a leading men's toiletry line. He then joined Leo Burnett Advertising Agency which appointed him as an Account Supervisor. During his tenure he was named Advertising Man of the 20th Century. His accounts included Philip Morris, P & G, Pillsbury Cake Mixes and Charles Pfizer. Mr. Markman was requested by the Harvard Business Review, to deliver an analysis of the returns, profitability, and the time it takes for new products to reach commercial and financial success. His succinct analysis summed up by his words, "it takes twice as long, costs twice as much, for half the result" was labeled by the Harvard Business Review Editor who headlined the story "Markman's 2 1/2".  Mr. Markman was then recruited by McCann-Erickson Advertising, the center piece of Interpublic, the first Agency Conglomerate with a holding company that acquired a number of competing advertising agencies. He was the Management Supervisor on the Helene Curtis account, where he by hired the first woman Account Executive in the history of Interpublic, and which went on to build an all women ad agency, within the parent agency. He was the Management Supervisor for the Encyclopedia Britannica Account.  During his tenure his team created the National Geographix Series; Mr. Markman was responsible for selling CBS on running the show during prime time. The Series was the No.1 show in its time period went on to become the longest running documentary series in the history of television. Mr. Markman was recruited by Encyclopedia Britannica as V. P. of World Wide Marketing to introduce and market Britannica's revolutionary new Encyclopedia, Britannica 3.  He and the new team he led generated sales of one billion dollars, earning enormous profits. He was promoted to Executive Vice President, in line to become the next president.  After nine successful years at Encyclopedia Britannica Mr. Markman independently founded Heritage Home Video which pioneered the distribution of videos to be sold in mass retail outlets, such as Target, Wal-Mart and drug chains as a forerunner to Blockbuster.  After two successful years, he created a second company, Magic Video which was the very first company to distribute videos through supermarkets. He made exclusive agreements with Disney, Hanna Barbara, and Warner Bros. for their children's animations. He holds both Series 7 and 65 licenses attended University of Chicago and has employed the Modern Portfolio Theory of the University of Chicago multiple times, using uncorrelated assets to increase the returns and lower the risk. His strategy was to allocate startups to 5-10% of a client's portfolio. In his career Mr. Markman founded or funded more than 30 companies, with an overall success rate (positive returns) of 80%, and an R.O.I. of 31%.  Mr. Markman is involved in a number of partnerships with the goal of funding companies at various stages, such as startups, early to mid-stage companies and larger entities. He is CEO and Founder of Financial Life Planning Co. LLC, a Managing Partner of Capital Partner Advisors, and a Managing Director of Midwest Renaissance Venture Capital Fund.