About CE2

Built by operators
for operators.

CE2 Partners is a commercial advisory firm dedicated to the middle market. We design and execute the revenue systems that turn growth pressure into durable competitive advantage.

Why We Exist

Growth strategies collapse not from flawed vision, but from an under built commercial execution layer.

Three pressures define this moment for middle-market companies. Each one tests the structural integrity of the commercial engine. Each one is solvable — with the right architecture, the right people, and the right operating discipline.

The Three Growth Pressures

Where growth actually breaks.

CE2 · Diagnostic Frame
01
Organizational

The Growth Ceiling.

— Built for a stage you've outgrown

Every business model was built for a specific stage. What delivered results at one level of scale may now have become a constraint.

Whether you're growing toward $100M or pushing well beyond it, removing the ceiling requires transformation of your commercial model — revamped go-to-market, pricing, and sales architecture.

02
Commercial

The Execution Gap.

— Sound plan, underbuilt foundation

Ever had a strategically sound growth plan that failed? You're not alone. It wasn't the wrong plan — it was commercially underbuilt.

CE2 closes execution gaps so companies can proceed with confidence: go-to-market assumptions, pricing architecture, sales design, plan KPIs, and clear owners.

03
Operational

The Information Advantage.

— Clean data, decisive cadence

Competing effectively requires clean data and the discipline to act on it — accurate customer economics, pricing visibility, and operating rhythms grounded in reality.

AI is rapidly becoming a meaningful component of this infrastructure, but it compounds what is already built — not what is absent.

Pressure
01 · 02 · 03

Three pressures, one playbook — diagnose where growth breaks before deciding how to fix it.

CE2
How we work
How We Show Up

Practitioner discipline. Partner-level attention.

01

We've held the seat.

Every senior member of CE2 has carried operating accountability — full P&Ls, sales orgs, pricing transformations, integrations. We bring the discipline of someone who's been measured by results, not deliverables.

02

We stay through implementation.

Strategy without execution is a slide deck. CE2 stays embedded long enough for the systems to take hold and the operating rhythms to become permanent.

03

We tell the truth.

Honest commercial assessment is rare and valuable. Whether we're advising owners, executives, or buyers, our analysis holds up under scrutiny because it's grounded in reality.

Our Team

Partner-led. Specialist-deep.

SB

Steve Baker

Co-Founder & Managing Director

25+ years as a commercial and general management executive in manufacturing and industrial markets. Steve has led full P&Ls, sales organizations, and strategic growth initiatives — bringing the hard-earned operating discipline that only comes from having held the accountability.

Manufacturing Industrial Markets P&L Leadership
KH

Katie Hoch

Co-Founder & Managing Director

25+ years of commercial leadership across manufacturing and distribution. Katie has held senior executive roles driving enterprise-wide go-to-market transformation, pricing strategy, and revenue growth — bringing deep practitioner fluency to commercial architecture.

Go-to-Market Pricing Strategy Revenue Growth
JM

Jordan Mercer

Director, Commercial Intelligence

A decade embedded in commercial finance and operations at a mid-sized industrial distributor — turning data across three different systems into something leadership can act on, fast.

Data Analytics Reporting
MD

Margo Diewald

Managing Director, Business Transformation

25+ M&A and divestiture transactions, led a $150M+ pricing transformation, and full enterprise technology experience — bringing transformation architecture and board- and investor-level communications rigor with C-suite accountability.

M&A Pricing Change Mgmt
SR

Stacy Rickman

Director, Commercial Performance & Capability

Designs KPI architectures, operating rhythms, and leadership coaching frameworks that keep commercial execution from reverting after the engagement ends — the durability layer.

KPI Design Operating Rhythms
The Partner Bench

Collaboration is a core value — across our clients' organizations and our hand-picked partner bench.

Executing on commercial growth often requires resources our clients don't have. Our bench of specialist firms exists to fill these gaps when needed and ensure successful outcomes.

Waypost Advisors

Supply chain specialists pairing strategy with execution — accelerating sourcing, planning, and operations behind our commercial strategies.

Supply Chain Sourcing Operations

W&N Partners

Senior operators bringing the manufacturing and financial rigor for complex commercial transformations to succeed.

Manufacturing Financial Rigor Transformation

Super Amplify

A human-centered AI firm building data architectures, workflows, and agents — embedding AI directly into our analysis, deliverables, and execution systems.

AI Data Architecture Workflows

Accelerate North

Technology and business architecture specialists for mid-market B2B — aligning business strategy and workflow with the technology stack, so growth can scale.

Tech Architecture Mid-Market B2B AI Readiness & Enablement