Cortland Adds Senior Advisors to Accelerate Business Development and Launches Healthcare, Life Sciences and Biotech Practice

23 July 2026

MIDDLEBURG, VA --- Cortland Advisors LLC, a leading Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) management consulting firm that focuses on lower- to middle-market sized clients, announced today that it has added three senior advisors to its team. The new Cortland Advisors are:

o   Josh MacFarland, based in Arlington, VA, has been appointed Chief Growth Advisor at Cortland Advisors, LLC, where he leads business development and pipeline growth for the firm’s M&A advisory practice. MacFarland brings more than 20 years of enterprise sales and business development experience, with a career focused on building and scaling revenue functions for high-growth companies across data, technology, consulting, and professional services. He will focus on growing new accounts in the company’s Commercial Construction, Technology and Manufacturing verticals.

o   Dr. Jacob Mahaffey, based in Oklahoma, has been appointed as a Cortland Advisor and will support the firm's new Healthcare, Life Sciences, Medical Technology and Biotech practice. Mahaffey brings extensive experience across venture capital, private equity, technology commercialization and healthcare innovation.  Throughout his career, he has supported more than $500 million in capital deployment, advised growth-stage companies and investors, and worked with more than 50 start-up companies and 400 technology commercialization projects across the United States and Europe.

o   David Marston has been appointed a Cortland Advisor based in Miami. Marston has over 30 years’ experience with an extensive background in management operations and consulting. He will support various Cortland clients who require Operational re-alignments or other senior managerial needs.

“We’re very excited about adding these three great people to our senior team,” said Cortland Chairman & CEO Randy Coppersmith. “They each bring fresh thinking and great energy to our firm. David Reader (Cortland’s COO) and I felt we needed to expand our outreach capabilities, so we recruited Josh.

“Jacob brings a unique combination of venture capital, healthcare innovation and technology commercialization as we expand our Healthcare, Life Sciences, Medical Technology and Biotech practice,” said Coppersmith. “His experience evaluating investments, commercializing technologies, advising growth companies and working closely with healthcare organizations gives him a practical understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing companies in these sectors. Combined with his scientific, transactional and entrepreneurial background, Jacob further strengthens and significantly expands Cortland's ability to serve clients operating in highly technical and rapidly evolving markets.”

Coppersmith said Marston also offers strong skills for the middle-market. “Dave is a man of such integrity. His experience of running multiple companies in both the US and Canada is really unique. I just think he’s great, and the clients will, too,” he said. “And his skill set will greatly complement our existing Cortland team of professionals, which shall better serve all our clients.”

Josh MacFarland served as a Senior Enterprise Executive at Lightcast, a leading PE-backed labor market data and analytics platform, where he managed a named territory of Fortune 1000 accounts across the full sales cycle. Before that, he was Senior Director of Sales at Draup, a Series A SaaS talent intelligence company, where he built the firm’s enterprise pipeline from the ground up.

Earlier in his career, Josh served as Market Leader at Gallup, the global analytics and advisory firm, where he led enterprise business development across the DC/Mid-Atlantic region and ranked consistently in the Top 10 globally among a competitive field of senior account executives. He also held senior sales and business development roles at Forsta, the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), Gartner, and the Advisory Board Company, where he led membership development for hospital and health system CXOs across the United States.

MacFarland holds a Master of Business Administration from the George Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Washington & Lee University, where he served as Student Body President. He is based in Arlington, Virginia.

Jacob Mahaffey brings nearly 15 years of experience across venture capital, private equity, and technology commercialization, with a focus on driving growth and facilitating strategic transactions. He has supported the deployment of over half a billion dollars of capital and worked with founders, investors, family offices, and health systems on investment, commercialization, and value creation initiatives.

Jacob advises Healthcare and Biotech business owners, executive teams, and investors on growth strategy, operational improvement, and transaction readiness. His experience includes more than 400 technology commercialization projects and over 50 startup companies across the U.S. and Europe, with a focus on preparing organizations for capital raises, partnerships, acquisitions, and long-term scaling.

Jacob recently served as Director of the Institute for Emerging Technologies at Saint Francis Health System. Previously, he was a Partner at Marabek and an Advisor to Sutton Capital, supporting deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio growth initiatives, as well as capital deployment strategies through U.S. Department of the Treasury's State Small Business Credit Initiative programs.

Jacob has a broad sector focus including healthcare, life sciences, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing. He has founded three medical technology companies, is an inventor on multiple patents, and brings hands-on experience advising on commercialization, fundraising, and strategic transactions. He holds a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University and has completed executive education at MIT.

Dave Marston brings deep experience in business and technology strategy, new product development, and hands‑on finance and operations leadership. Originally from Ontario, Canada, he began his career in brand management at Procter & Gamble and Frito‑Lay. After moving to the United States, he led strategy and operations consulting engagements across retail and consumer goods, biotech/OTC, healthcare, global banking, and electric utilities. His roles have included Director of IT Strategy at KPMG Advisory and Archstone Consulting (now Hackett) in New York; and Engagement Leader at Computer Sciences Corp (now DXC Technology). Since 2014 he has served as COO for a boutique investment bank and a law firm, overseeing finance, IT, HR, operations, and marketing. His work included developing new product launch models deployed in 25 countries for Johnson & Johnson; custom IT applications for CVS Health; manufacturing processes for cardiac catheters at Biosense Webster; and promotion and inventory management models for a beverage alcohol retailer.

Marston holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) from Queen’s University in Canada, an MBA with Beta Gamma Sigma honors from Columbia Business School, with concentrations in Finance and Operations, and held FINRA General Securities Representative and Operations Professional licenses from 2020 to 2023.

Cortland Advisors LLC (www.cortlandadvisors.com) is a full-service mergers and acquisitions consulting and advisory firm co-headquartered in Tampa, FL and Washington, DC. The firm, which was founded in 2013, serves lower- and middle-market companies across specialized industry sectors including Government Contracting, Construction Services, Media and Technology, Distilled Spirits Makers, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Medical Technology, Biotech, Engineering and Manufacturing. Cortland advises owners, management teams, buyers and sellers on strategic growth initiatives, transaction readiness and M&A deals ranging from $20 million to $100 million.

For further information:

Randy Coppersmith

rcoppersmith@cortlandadvisors.com

703.927.7027 mobile