MRE Capital Expands Leadership Team with Creation of Three Business Partner Roles
Libby Barden, Sean Creamer, and Dave Paulus bring their respective expertise in talent, finance, and sales to accelerate growth and expand support for MRE portfolio companies.
Annapolis, MD – November 3, 2025 – MRE Capital today announced the creation of three new Business Partner roles to deepen executive support and help accelerate the growth of its portfolio companies. Joining MRE Capital to lead this effort are Libby Barden (Talent/People Business Partner), Sean Creamer (Finance Business Partner), and Dave Paulus (Sales Business Partner).
The new Business Partner model is designed to help portfolio company executives more effectively leverage the MRE Growth Playbook and build the skills and infrastructure required for long-term, sustainable growth. The roles will focus on:
Accelerating the development of key executive team roles within MRE portfolio companies.
Educating, aligning, and assisting executives on how to operationalize the MRE Growth Playbook.
Coaching and supporting leaders in critical C-suite functions to drive performance and development.
Building a connected community of portfolio company executives to share insights and support each other.
Establishing best practices and thought leadership for mid-market executive roles.
Facilitating collaboration between Boards, CEOs, and CXO leaders to drive aligned thinking and execution
Within their core functional focus areas, the Business Partners will develop best practices and frameworks for critical leadership roles, provide one-on-one coaching and guidance to accelerate individual and team growth, and foster a community of CXO leaders across MRE’s platform companies for shared learning and peer relationships.
“The creation of these Business Partner roles reflects our continued growth and commitment to building a strong, scalable foundation for our portfolio companies,” said David Williams, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of MRE Capital. “Libby, Sean, and Dave bring exceptional expertise in talent, finance, and sales to the team. By embedding their knowledge and leadership across our platform, we can better support executives, accelerate development, and drive long-term value creation across our businesses.”
Business Partners
Libby Barden – Talent/People Business Partner
Libby Barden is an executive leader who brings more than three decades of leadership in HR and talent management. She previously served as Global Chief People Officer at Merkle Inc. and led the Americas Human Capital function for dentsu across all service lines. In both roles, she was responsible for scaling the practice and increasing the People/talent function professionalism and productivity.
Prior to Merkle, Libby spent nearly 30 years at Accenture in both client facing and senior HR leadership roles including North American HR Lead, Global Management Consulting HR Lead, Global Human Capital Strategy Lead, North America Delivery Center Director, and Canada Country HR Lead. In most of these roles, Libby was responsible for teaming with and coaching the CEO and his/her Executive team - while also leading the development of People strategy and execution of HR/Talent functions for the business team. Libby has led HR teams numbering from 3 to 1200 in support of business facing teams as large as 45,000.
Most recently, Libby has provided strategic HR advisory services through Performance People Strategies. She has worked with various clients assessing Talent function capabilities and developing Human Capital strategy. She has also done CEO coaching, executive team coaching and 360 assessments and HR/Talent Lead coaching.
She has served on some volunteer Boards - most notably Dress for Success in Tampa, FL and also Corporate Voices.
Libby holds a B.A. and an M.B.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Sean Creamer – Finance Business Partner
Sean Creamer is an executive with extensive public and private company experience across several industries in CEO, COO and CFO (primary) roles. In addition, he has served on multiple public and private Boards of Directors in both for profit and non-profit sectors.
He served as CFO of Merkle Group, Inc., a global marketing services business, from 2015 through 2021. During 2015, he assisted David Williams with the sale of a majority stake in Merkle to the dentsu Group that ultimately led to 100% ownership by dentsu in 2020.
Prior to Merkle, Sean served as CFO of multiple public companies including the Madison Square Garden Company (NASDAQ: MSG), Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) and Laureate Education, Inc. (NASDAQ: LAUR). At Arbitron he also served as COO and ultimately CEO.
In his CFO roles, Sean was responsible for providing strategic financial insight on all facets of the business, helping prioritize opportunities and drive value creation. He oversaw all financial and accounting matters, including forecasting, budgeting and financial planning and analysis, as well as the treasury, investor relations, tax and risk management functions.
He currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C. Sean began his career at Price Waterhouse holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia PA and a Master’s in Taxation from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Dave Paulus – Sales Business Partner
Dave Paulus is an executive leader, mentor, and strategic advisor with over 35 years of experience in scaling marketing and technology services organizations. His expertise lies in driving exponential growth through strategic execution and team building.
As a member of Merkle’s executive team, Dave was instrumental in the firm’s ascent, focusing on growth strategy, market execution, and forging strategic partnerships. He successfully led Merkle's Global Partnerships with industry giants including Adobe, Salesforce, Google, and AWS. When Dave retired in 2022, Merkle, a dentsu company, had grown to over $1 Billion in annual US revenues.
Since transitioning from executive leadership, Dave has dedicated his time to mentoring, coaching, and providing advisory services to business leaders and foundations. His current focus on developing executive talent and refining business strategies perfectly aligns with MRE Capital’s mission to professionalize and accelerate the growth trajectories of its portfolio companies.
Dave began his career at Trans Union, a global information and insights company, and holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Clemson University. Dave currently resides in Big Sky, MT.
About MRE Capital
MRE Capital was formed as the family office of David Williams focused on private company investing and development. With a long-term investment horizon and a hands-on approach, MRE Capital focuses on creating value through operational excellence and strategic growth. For more information, visit mre-capital.com.
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