Spotlight: Beni Cheruga on completing the first Charles Aris Transaction Services internship

Beni Cheruga joined Charles Aris Transaction Services as a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) intern in September of 2023. This experience gave Beni a comprehensive introduction to M&A and laid the foundation for future interns to learn deal sourcing and research alongside Founder Mitch Oakley and Managing Director Sean Curley.

Oakley and Curley founded Charles Aris Transaction Services in 2022 to focus exclusively on landing proprietary business deals for their clients. Beni is the company’s first-ever intern, and he joined with a wide range of experience in finance, accounting and investing services as well as an enterprising approach to serving within this net new role.

“We couldn’t have selected a better first intern,” Curley said. “Beni not only brought strong business acumen but an enterprising approach that helped create a better internship program overall.”

Beni is originally from Congo but moved to Raleigh in 2014. The native French and Lingala speaker says he had to learn English quickly by immersing himself in numerous clubs and after-school activities. He succeeded, and as a byproduct of his busy extracurricular schedule, became interested in finance and accounting through joining the National Academy of Finance, a nonprofit that connects high school students with businesses to learn about finance.

After developing this interest, Beni decided to pursue finance in higher education as well. He graduated high school and went on to complete two years of community college at Wake Tech before transferring to the University of North Carolina’s Bryan School of Business and Economics to earn his bachelor’s degree in finance.

Beni joined several extracurricular organizations at UNCG and completed multiple jobs and internships. CapTrust, a financial advisory group, hired Beni in 2022 to serve as an institutional investment research and consulting intern, and the young professional credits this experience as his first introduction to the financial services industry.

The finance undergrad also joined the UNCG Management Consulting Club as one of three members but quickly earned the position of club president and grew the organization to 25 members with the help of his peers: Garrett Noga, Judah Huff, Arlinessa Martinez and Zachary Ruleman.

In 2023, Beni began a new internship search on LinkedIn where he connected with UNCG graduate and Charles Aris Talent Acquisition Manager Josiah Smith, who introduced him to Sean Curley. On the hunt for his first M&A-focused intern, Sean determined that Beni’s mix of experience and financial background made him the perfect fit.

Charles Aris Transaction Services uses the same sourcing process and philosophies as its namesake executive recruiting business to connect its clients (often leading private equity firms) with founder-owned companies. Beni’s internship role required him to connect with these companies and conduct research to find potential value opportunities for clients.

Beni says this role gave him a wider range of responsibilities than prior internships, and he thrived on having greater independence to work on his own projects. As an M&A intern, Beni took the lead in writing his own pitches, having his own conversations with business founders and generating new, innovative ideas for his team.

Beni recalls one Charles Aris Transaction Services client that needed a market map detailing locations and revenue for a niche industry in the western United States. To tackle this project in a timely and effective manner, he looped in the UNCG management consulting club to complete the opportunity as a group project, which served as a win-win for the client as well as Beni’s fellow club members who were eager to gain hands-on consulting experience.

Now, as Beni plans for his future career, he’s excited to have led the way for future Charles Aris Transaction Services interns and believes the best path to success in this role is to be proactive.

“If you think there’s something you can do to help the team, don’t wait,” he said.

Beni also said one of his favorite aspects of the internship was being in a startup-like environment, where new ideas are welcome and appreciated. He encourages the next class of interns to think outside the box and never pass up an opportunity to sit down with Sean or Mitch and work on new concepts.

“If there’s a good idea, don’t be afraid to take initiative.”

To learn more about Charles Aris Transaction Services, contact Sean Curley at sean.curley@charlesaris.com or (336) 217-9125.