GrowFast

Stephen Murray is the Founder and President of GrowFast Advisory, a boutique middle-market firm built on a conviction inherited from his grandfather, Emile Legros — the owner and turnaround leader who acquired Cedar Point as an undervalued asset and grew it into one of America's iconic destinations by investing in his people. "Our success came from our people. Courtesy is contagious." That principle anchors every GrowFast engagement.

GrowFast treats human capital and AI not as cost lines, but as the levers that protect enterprise value through transition. The firm works at the intersection of private equity, M&A advisory, and owner-operator succession — where execution fragility becomes valuation pressure, and where the financials can be clean while the people risk isn't. GrowFast typically engages second-stage middle-market businesses in the $2M–$50M revenue range. Technology is the Tool. People Transfer the Value.

The firm's work concentrates on three areas where execution fragility compresses multiples. Valuation-Grade Succession™ preserves continuity of execution and reduces key-person dependency, including the AI-enabled workflows the business actually runs on today. AI as a value-creation system is workflow redesign and governance — not tool selection. Day-Two Ready™ proves operating model transferability in advance of diligence, not after a finding lands in a QoE.

GrowFast delivers through the Ecosystm™, a curated network of senior specialists assembled to fit the deal, the stage, and the sponsor's thesis. The output is not an assessment. It is buyer-defensible proof of continuity — cleaner diligence, stronger multiple defense, and a transition the operating model can survive.

Stephen brings more than twenty-five years as a Fortune 150 HR executive to that thesis — senior leadership roles at International Paper, Pepsi Bottling Group, Coca-Cola Enterprises, KONE Americas, and Ocado Group, across advanced manufacturing, distribution, industrial robotics, and consumer products. The pattern across those seats — M&A integration, organizational transformation, and value acceleration — is the operating spine of GrowFast today.

He is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) and ValueBuilder-certified, has presented at ACG Demo Days, been featured on the ACG Middle Market Podcast and in HR Management Magazine, and is listed in Marquis Who's Who. He holds a Master's in Industrial and Labor Relations from Michigan State University, a Master's in Sociology from the University of Florida, and a B.A. in Sociology from Furman University.

The thesis is direct: continuity drives buyer confidence, undocumented value gets discounted, and AI readiness without leadership readiness is not readiness. Proof, not opinion. Continuity you can defend to boards, buyers, and lenders.