Co-founder (President) of Coltala Holdings
Edward Crawford is Co-founder and President of Coltala Holdings, a diversified holding company with a unique, proven enterprise system that enables high-potential small and mid-sized companies to achieve scale. Coltala is expertly positioned to acquire family businesses and privately held companies specifically in essential services, home health and manufacturing industry segments. Coltala is committed to being conscientious stewards of its sellers’ legacies and to build upon those strong foundations.
Prior to co-founding Coltala, Edward was a Managing Director at Avesta Holdings, where he led business development activities, identified capital and acquisitions, special situation opportunities and managed key investor relationships. Edward helped build Avesta’s business to include over 320 employees, $1billion in assets and $100 million in revenue.
Before joining Avesta, he held the role of Vice President at Goldman Sachs where he spent seven years as an advisor to numerous CEOs, institutions and private company owners. Edward joined Goldman Sachs from the private equity firm Advantage Capital Partners (ACP), a national lower, middle-market, private equity firm.
Prior to joining ACP, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic where, at age 23, he founded a four-member coffee cooperative and grew it to include more than 200 coffee farmers with access to global markets.
Edward is a TEDx speaker on Servant Leadership and has been highlighted in World View Magazine, Dallas Business Journal, D CEO Magazine, and The Washington Post. Edward was a top 50 under 50 Diversity MBA Magazine winner, A Peace Corps Success Story, U.S Peace Corps, a MACVPAC 40 under 40 Business Leader, and selected as Peace Corps top 40 under 40 on the 40th anniversary of Peace Corps Founding.
Edward is a trustee on the Business School Council at The Freeman School of Business at Tulane University, a Co-Founder of War Veterans Fund, and is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
As a U.S. Naval Intelligence Officer, Mr. Crawford served with Special Operations Command South in Latin America. From 2012-2013, he was deployed to Afghanistan as the Tribal and Political Adviser for SEAL Teams Two and Four in support of a Special Operations Task Force. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his service.
Edward holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and he is an MIT Sloan Leadership Fellow. He holds an MA, GMBA from Tulane University in Latin America Studies / Finance, where he was also a Morton Aldrich Fellow, a FLAS Fellow and a Cowen Scholar. Edward holds a BA from Texas Christian University in English Literature.