Nick Fares Named a 2026 Smart Business Dealmakers Rising Star
Summit Capital Advisors is proud to announce that Founder and President Nick Fares, CBI, CM&AP, M&AMI, has been named a 2026 Smart Business Dealmakers Rising Star, recognizing him among Northeast Ohio’s Top M&A Talent.
The 2026 Rising Stars are featured in the October 2026 print and digital editions of Smart Business. The program recognizes up-and-coming professionals with less than 10 years of experience in M&A-related fields who are helping clients execute transactions and contributing to Northeast Ohio’s dealmaking community. Smart Business describes this year’s honorees as some of the region’s most promising up-and-coming M&A professionals.
In recognizing Fares, Smart Business highlighted the growth of Summit Capital Advisors and the firm’s track record serving business owners:
“As Founder and President, Fares has built Summit Capital Advisors into one of the region’s leading manufacturing-focused advisory firms, advising on more than $100 million in completed transactions while maintaining a 94 percent transaction closing rate.”
The publication also recognized Fares as the 2025 M&A Source Advisor of the Year, a three-time IBBA Platinum Chairman’s Circle Award recipient, and author of American-Made Millions: How to Unlock the True Value of Your Manufacturing Business Before Selling.
An Operator’s Perspective on M&A
Before becoming an M&A advisor, Fares spent nearly a decade building, acquiring, operating, and ultimately selling manufacturing businesses of his own. That experience continues to shape the approach of Summit Capital Advisors today.
Having sat on the ownership side of the table provides a different perspective when advising entrepreneurs through what may be the largest and most consequential financial transaction of their lives. Selling a privately held business is about more than valuation and deal structure. It can represent decades of work, relationships with employees and customers, family considerations, and an owner’s personal legacy.
Fares founded his M&A advisory practice in 2019 with that perspective at its core. Over the past seven years, the firm has evolved into Summit Capital Advisors, with a particular focus on representing owners of manufacturing, industrial, distribution, and B2B service companies in sell-side and buy-side M&A transactions.
Today, Summit works with privately held and family-owned businesses throughout the Great Lakes and Midwest, helping owners understand value, prepare for a transaction, identify and engage qualified buyers, negotiate transaction structure, navigate due diligence, and ultimately reach the closing table.
Recognition Built Around Client Outcomes
While awards and industry recognition are meaningful, the accomplishments highlighted by Smart Business ultimately reflect the trust business owners have placed in Summit to guide them through complex transactions.
More than $100 million in completed transactions and a 94% transaction closing rate represent dozens of individual business owners, families, buyers, employees, and companies navigating important transitions.
That is what makes this recognition particularly meaningful.
“I am honored to be recognized by Smart Business Dealmakers as a 2026 Rising Star and to be included alongside such an accomplished group of M&A professionals throughout Northeast Ohio. I am incredibly grateful to the clients who have trusted me to advise them through some of the most important decisions of their careers, as well as the attorneys, accountants, bankers, investors, buyers, and fellow advisors I have had the opportunity to work alongside. Every successful transaction is a team effort, and this recognition would not be possible without those relationships.”
Continuing to Serve the Manufacturing Community
The Rising Star recognition follows another significant year for Fares and Summit Capital Advisors.
Fares was named the 2025 M&A Source Advisor of the Year, an award presented at the 2026 M&A Source Conference recognizing his work and accomplishments during 2025. He has also earned the IBBA Platinum Chairman’s Circle Award for three consecutive years and remains actively involved in the business brokerage and M&A profession.
Fares is also the author of the Amazon bestselling book American-Made Millions: How to Unlock the True Value of Your Manufacturing Business Before Selling, written specifically to help manufacturing business owners better understand business value, transaction preparation, and the process of ultimately exiting their companies.
These efforts support the same objective that led to the founding of Summit: bringing experienced, owner-focused M&A advisory services to privately held manufacturing and industrial businesses.
Summit Capital Advisors congratulates all of the 2026 Smart Business Dealmakers Rising Star honorees. This year’s class represents professionals from across the M&A ecosystem, including investment banking, law, accounting, corporate development, transaction advisory, investing, human capital, and other disciplines that contribute to successful transactions throughout Northeast Ohio. The magazine’s October cover story highlights the honorees as the next generation of M&A professionals helping clients transact and leading future growth in the dealmaking community.
We are honored to have Nick and Summit Capital Advisors recognized among them.
About Summit Capital Advisors
Summit Capital Advisors is a lower middle-market M&A advisory firm specializing in manufacturing, industrial, distribution, and B2B service companies. Led by former manufacturing business owner and M&A advisor Nick Fares, Summit provides sell-side M&A advisory, buy-side M&A advisory, and Market Value Assessment services to privately held businesses throughout the Great Lakes and Midwest.