Mr. Mikkelsen is a Principal of Cooper and Company, a private investment firm with offices in Newport Beach, CA, Dallas, TX, and Auckland, New Zealand, where he has served since 2001. He leads the firm's efforts in evaluating, structuring, and managing private and public equity investments, and has overseen investment and M&A transactions totaling over $1 billion during his tenure. Mr. Mikkelsen has also served as a Board member or advisor to several portfolio companies including Calnetix, Upwing Energy, Direct Drive Systems, Vycon, Calnetix Power Solutions, Sapphire Energy, and RiskSpan.

Additionally, Mr. Mikkelsen serves as a Director of various other organizations, including Fidelity Bancorp Funding, Inc., a top provider of bridge and permanent financing for commercial real estate based in Santa Ana, CA; Tapestry Management LLC, a joint venture established to develop Silverwood, a master-planned community spanning 9,500 acres in the Mohave River Valley in Southern California, which will feature 16,000 homes upon completion; and Chassis Lease Co, a captive financing vehicle formed to acquire and lease 5,000 intermodal chassis annually to the North American Chassis Pool Cooperative (NACPC).

From 2014 to 2019, Mr. Mikkelsen was a director and one of three partners at Center Street Lending, one of the largest specialty real estate lenders in the United States, based in Irvine, CA. Prior to joining Cooper and Company, he worked as a corporate attorney at Kirkland & Ellis in New York, where he focused on representing private equity funds and companies in leveraged buyout transactions. He also practiced law at Russell McVeagh, a leading New Zealand-based firm that advised clients on domestic and international corporate transactions.

Mr. Mikkelsen holds PhD, LLB, and BA degrees from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the CFA Institute.