Who We Are

We partner with our executives to build legacy enterprises. This is our mission and our track record over the nearly twenty years we have been in business. Our teams have grown to scale companies in a broad array of industries–often times from very modest beginnings.

We specialize in deep and proactive industry research to identify emerging opportunities. We typically, in partnership with industry executives accomplished in the relevant segment, approach candidates directly.

We are experts in conducting disciplined, effective acquisition programs to scale our platform companies. In our nearly 20-year history we have been a protagonist in over 70 acquisitions totaling nearly $3 billion in transaction value.

The directors who we bring to the boards of our projects have been major players from the industries in which our companies compete. For our Tier 1 automotive project, we recruited a former CFO of General Motors, for whom the company was a major supplier. For our addiction treatment company, we recruited a founder of the industry. For our motorcoach company, we recruited the former CEO of Greyhound, the largest player in the industry.

Our first project established our paradigm.  In 1995, we and Chemical Venture Partners combined forces to build a premier Tier 1 automotive supplier. Our partner had spent a career investing in the automotive industry and was a director of Penske Transportation. We recruited to our acquisition team industry executives who included a specialist in process re-engineering recently completing a restructuring of Detroit Diesel, a leading manufacturer’s rep in Detroit, a former CFO from one of the Big Three, and an executive who had previously built a successful aftermarket parts business with Chemical.

After a year of industry evaluation, we bought our platform, an OEM supplier of roof rack systems for GM and Chrysler. In 6 years we completed 6 additional acquisitions, including two in Europe, and scaled the revenues from $60 million to $330 million. When we sold the company to Castle Harlan, our racks were exclusive on every platform, foreign and domestic, except Ford. The Case Studies section presents a cross-section of what we have done since. We have not fundamentally changed our approach.

In our projects, we have both gone it alone and had as partners over multiple projects some of the best private equity firms in the business—JP Morgan Capital, Bain Capital, and Golden Gate Capital, amongst others.