Dan Bales

Dan Bales is a co-founder and co-managing partner of GiANT Capital.

My wife and I are often described as “the happiest empty-nesters on the planet”.  Barbie and I enjoy traveling to see our five grown children who are located in wonderful places to visit across the country. We have an extremely active lifestyle with four feisty Jack Russell terriers chasing around our home in Edmond, Oklahoma.  Barbie has an active church ministry, teaching young married women how to cook healthy for their families.  Our other interests include fitness, golf, church, going to OU football games and completing our “bucket list” of places to go and enjoy together. 

My early years were spent growing up on our farm in western Oklahoma that my great grandfather claimed as our homestead during the Oklahoma Land Run.   My family moved to Oklahoma City when I was six years old.   After graduating Harding High School (voted one of the 10 outstanding seniors) in 1967, I started college on a full music scholarship. While in college I developed a passion for Psychology. After graduating from University of Oklahoma in 1971 with a BA degree majoring in Industrial Psychology and a member of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity, I was blessed to be hired at Liberty Bank as a Management Trainee.  I continued my MBA studies over the next few years while learning to be a banker. 

Responsibilities during my banking career include positions of leadership as President and CEO of a local community bank, senior commercial lender at three local banks, division head of private banking/wealth management in two multi-billion dollar regional banks, and actively participating in many highly diverse executive management teams.  More importantly, I had the opportunity to be part of developing the strategy for eight unique bank acquisitions and mergers during the last three decades of great change in this industry.   

In the non-banking sector, I was also fortunate to be hired by some of my bank customers to develop business plans and manage their companies.  These included positions as EVP of an NASD licensed securities firm and President and CEO of a wholesale distribution business and a large manufacturing company.

My other leadership activities include Chairman of the Oklahoma Organ Transplant Fund, Leadership OKC III, and Board positions with Oklahoma City Beautiful, United Way, American Heart Association, and Choices International Seminars.

The combined backgrounds and experiences of my GiANT Capital partners give us great perspective, confidence and insight into the transactional and financial components of growing successful businesses in this very competitive business climate. 

Matthew Myers

Matthew Myers is a co-founder and partner of GiANT Capital.

My formal business biography is presented below. Before we get into that, some visistors to the site wanted to hear the informal versio. I grew up in Oklahoma City with five brothers and sisters. My parents and siblings live close by, do despite our unique differences, we are a tight family, even today. I am maried to my wonderful wife Kim. We have two incredible children, and we laugh together almost every day. Like other families, we enjoy playing games together, taking walks, watching movies, helping others, taking weekend trips, and going to church. I am so truly blessed with amazing friendships outside my immediate family. My calling in life is to work with leaders to make a positive impact on the marketplace and world. I have a few strengths worth mentioning, primarily my leadership ability, a creative mind, and a high level of tenacity. I also have many weaknesses that are too numerous to mention here. For my personal interests, I love to read, cook, exercise, think, pray, and read the Bible. I am also a passionare fly-fisherman and love to go to the mountains when I get the opportunity.

Biography:

At age 24, Mr. Myers began his career working in the marketing department of his family medical laboratory business, Clinical Biopathology Laboratory. During a management crisis, he was asked to become the CEO of the seventy-employee firm. With the help of a solid team, he stabilized the business. He then convinced the majority owner to seek an outside buyer, and after a year of negotiations, the business was sold to Medical Arts Laboratory Inc.

Simultaneously, Mr. Myers saw the coming trend for corporate wellness and launched a software company to test employees' health by setting wellness standards, while encouraging them toward a healthy lifestyle. This was also sold to Medical Arts Laboratory Inc.

In 1996, Mr. Myers saw an opportunity in sports nutrition, so he started NuCare Inc., a nutritional supplement manufacturer and distributor. During the first year, the company had grown 500%, and the decision was made to sell to Snowball.com who was going public. Later renamed, IGN, this business went through several major changes and was eventually sold to News Corp.

In 1998, Mr. Myers and his business partner, Bobby Gruenewald, founded Extreme Interactive Media Inc., a large Web site with approximately 500,000 monthly visitors for extreme sports fans. In less than a year, the company purchased two businesses that were focused on extreme sports. During the first year, the company had grown 500%, and the decision was made to sell to a corporate buyer going public. This business went through several major changes and was eventually sold to News Corp.

In February 2007, Myers, along with a strategic investment group, formed GiANT Impact, which acquired Atlanta companies, Maximum Impact, INJOY and Catalyst. In 2008, Matthew co-founded GiANT Leaders, LLC.

Myers holds a bachelor of science in marketing from Oklahoma State University and a master's in business administration from Oklahoma City University.

David Woods

David Woods, CEO of Giant Partners and partner of GiANT Capital, is passionate about helping companies and organizations "Map Their Future." David is an expert in strategic thinking and coaching, with more than 28 years of senior level and CEO experience. As a seasoned strategist, David leads the organization's Strategic Orienteering program, a process created by David that provides organizations the tools to map their future and to achieve extraordinary growth. Strategic Orienteering is the strategic-thinking process that is the critical step most organizations miss, but it is a vital ingredient needed to frame the development of an effective, strategic plan.

By facilitating the Strategic Orienteering process, David helps organizations develop a clear map and vision of their future, and creates the subsequent strategic plans necessary to achieve success.

David also created and developed a powerful tool of Positive Accountability, a unique strategic implementation method, which ensures successful and effective execution of an organization's strategic plan.

Mapping an organization's future is the single most important activity in which a company's leadership can engage to ensure future growth and success.

Prior to his role as a corporate strategist, David was the founder and CEO of EXIM Group, an international company founded to assist companies in the development of global strategies.

Prior to founding EXIM Group, David was the CEO of Ditch Witch. With more than 1600 employees, the company is the world's largest manufacturer of underground construction equipment. Through effective, strategic thinking and strategic planning, the organization is the dominant player in the world market.

David has also served in leadership positions in numerous associations, organizations and boards, including his role as Chairman of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), as President of Leadership Oklahoma, Board Member of the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce, Incoming Chair of the Supplier Council of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, board member of various companies and advisor to numerous CEOs around the world.

He is a frequent keynote speaker at business conferences and universities on such topics as business strategy, global strategy, business in China, corporate intrapreneurism and executive networking.

David resides in Edmond, Oklahoma with his wife, Myra, and two sons, JD and Ian.