Private Equity Fast Pitch

John Huhn brings a 30-year track record of success in private equity, entrepreneurism and strategic consulting to his leadership of Compass Group. Over the course of his career, he has been involved in more than 75 transactions representing over $3 billion in enterprise value. Prior to founding Compass Group, John launched and led HBM Holdings, a family office focused on diversifying its core hold...

Charles K. Gifford, Jr ., Senior Partner Charlie co-founded New Heritage Capital in 2006 and has been investing private equity in founder-owned, lower middle market business es for 23 years.  He focuses his efforts on generating proprietary investment opportunities, developing and maintaining intermediary relationships and providing capital markets expertise in the areas of transaction pricing and...

Jay is a Partner at Plexus Capital. Jay is a member of the senior leadership team and works alongside the other team members to chart the strategy and vision for Plexus. In addition, Jay interacts with investors, assists with sourcing new investment opportunities, and helps oversee the portfolio. Jay is a graduate of the University of North Carolina where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in English an...

Kurt Haras is a Managing Director,  Mergers and Acquisitions at Cowen.   Mr. Haras has over 20 years of investment banking experience advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, private placements, public offerings, corporate restructurings and business valuations. His transaction experience includes representing private companies, private equity firms and public companies in domestic and intern...

For our 100th episode, we've created a montage of our past podcast guests providing their advice to recent graduates and young professionals in Investment banking and private equity. We encourage you as a listener to contribute your advice to young professionals on Jeff Henningsens LinkedIn post.     

Chris Cathcart is a Managing Partner and currently serves on the Management and Investment Committees of The Halifax Group. Chris joined Halifax in 2007 and leads business development for the firm. He is responsible for origination, evaluation and recommendation of investment opportunities and management of the firm's network of investment sources. Chris has more than 20 years of experience leadin...

Leon is a Partner at Palladium Equity Partners and it is part of the firm's Management Committee. Palladium is the oldest minority-owned private equity buyout firm in the industry with over $3 billion of assets under management. Leon joined Palladium in 2007 and Brujis is responsible for originations and underwriting as well as helping lead the firm's business services practice. Prior to joining P...

Deborah Smith is Co-Founder and CEO of The CenterCap Group, LLC and heads the firm's Strategic Capital and M&A and Execution efforts. Prior to forming The CenterCap Group, LLC, Ms. Smith was Co-Head of M&A and a Senior Managing Director with CB Richard Ellis Investors (CB Richard Ellis's $40 billion AUM investment management business). She joined CBREI in July 2007 to co-head the build out of the...

Gina is a founding partner of GP Capital. Gina founded Luna Strategies in 2016, where she counseled companies and their leaders on complex strategic issues and growth initiatives. She also serves on the board of public and privately held companies. Prior to founding Luna Strategies, Gina held senior executive roles with JPMorgan Chase during her 22-year career at the company. Most recently, she se...

Matt Moran is a Managing Principal & Head of Business Development at Inverness Graham. Matt joined Inverness in 2010, where he leads and manages the firm's business development efforts. His responsibilities include sourcing and evaluating new platform investment opportunities and providing transaction and post-transaction support for Inverness Graham's portfolio companies. Matt also serves as a Bo...

Shannon Zoller has nearly two decades of experience in the financial services industry, having started her career as a financial services lawyer. Ms. Zoller is currently the Founder and a Managing Partner of Tephra Advisors, a private capital fund advisory business, and is a Board member of WAVE (Women Association of Venture & Equity). After her legal career, she entered private equity joining mid...

Episode 93 of the Private Equity Fast Pitch features Jeff Parks, CEO of Stack Capital Group Inc. (TSX:STCK). Jeff co-founded the company, which successfully completed its IPO in June 2021.     Stack's mission is to 'democratize' access into growth & late-stage pre-ipo businesses, giving all investors, regardless of size, the opportunity to participate in the future growth of a portfolio of innovat...

Emanuel Citron is a Managing Partner at Volery. He serves on five of Volery's firm committees, including as co-chair of the Investment Committee, and a member of the firm's Operations, Finance, Valuation and Compliance Committees. Previously, he was a Principal at Stone Point Capital (2005-2017). He has extensive financial services focused private equity experience, including on investments in fin...

Mr. Costabile joined the firm in 2000 and is the Global Head of PineBridge Investments' Private Funds Group. Mr. Costabile sits on the Management Committee for PineBridge Investments. Mr. Costabile's private equity investing and valuation experience date back to 1990. Previously, from 1997 to 2000, Mr. Costabile was a Vice President at Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) in the Private Funds Group....

We are excited to present a montage of quotes and mottos from prior guests that have inspired them throughout the years in both their careers and personal lives.  As we begin a new year, we hope this special episode sets the stage and provides you with a new mind set for conquering the challenges & opportunities that lie ahead.

Steve is a Founding Partner and the Managing Partner of BVP. Steve combines financial expertise with a disruptive approach to value-add strategies in private equity. Previously, Steve was a Co-Founder and a Managing Partner of a lower-middle market private equity fund focused on the consumer sectors. Steve was previously a corporate lawyer at Kirkland and Ellis, and Cahill Gordon & Reindel. Steve...

Meahgan is well known in the Middle Market M&A community for her knowledge of and views on investing trends, creative and effective deal sourcing techniques, macro-market perspectives and best-practices in which private equity firms can bridge the gap between "Main St. and Wall St." Meahgan is the Chairwoman of the Association of Corporate Growth's "Women of Leadership" committee, was named one of...

Mr. Parisi helps family and independent businesses sell or recapitalize their companies' capital structure, realize a liquidity event, transfer ownership to next generation, or combine with a larger partner to accelerate growth. Prior to joining Carl Marks Advisors, Mr. Parisi was a Managing Partner of FPG Advisory where he focused on all aspects of sourcing and executing deals, including structur...

Our host Jeff Henningsen, president of Lockton companies in Houston and the Podfather of private equity, is speaking on the female committee panel for Wave (Women's Association of Venture & Equity   Wave allows the panelists to discuss three main topics: One - how Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has changed in corporate America and what the future looks like for female executives, Two - advice on...

Dominique Mielle is a Wall Street veteran with a comprehensive knowledge of corporate finance, capital markets, and the bankruptcy process.  She was a partner and senior portfolio manager at Canyon Capital, a $25 billion hedge fund, where she worked from 1998 to 2018. In 2017, she was named one of the "50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds" by the Hedge Fund Journal and E&Y. After retiring in 2018 she s...

Kevin McAllister has extensive private equity experience, including opportunity origination, execution, negotiation, and portfolio company support. Prior to founding Access in 2013, Kevin was at Sterling Partners where he was a member of its investment committee and led the Business Services practice (~$2 billion of AUM).    While at Sterling Partners, Kevin led the sourcing, underwriting, and man...

Jeff Hooke is a senior finance lecturer at the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business.  Earlier, he was a managing director at Focus, LLC, an investment bank serving middle market companies.  He served as Vice President of Research at the Committee on Economic Development. Previously, Hooke operated his own consulting firm, was a director of Emerging Markets Partnership (a $5 billion private equit...

Jeff Henningsen, recently nicknamed the podfather of private equity podcasts will be speaking with Scott Kolbrenner, a managing director at Houlihan Lokey. Scott co-heads Houlihans Industrial Services practice with a focus on engineering services. He was recognized by  Investment Dealers' Digest  as a recipient of its "Forty Under Forty" award and in 2020, as a contestant on Wheel of Fortune becam...

Christopher W. Kersey serves as the Founding Managing Partner of Havencrest Capital Management, and prior to founding Havencrest, Dr. Kersey served as a Managing Member and Partner of Camden Partners Holdings, LLC. From 2011 to 2017, Dr. Kersey served as the Chairman of the Board of Johns Hopkins Medicine International. During that time, Dr. Kersey helped spearhead John Hopkins Medicine Internatio...

Marc S. Cooper is Chief Executive Officer of PJ SOLOMON, a position he has held since 2016. He was previously Vice Chairman from 2013 to 2016 and joined the firm in 1999 as a Partner and Managing Director. Marc S. Cooper is Chief Executive Officer of PJ SOLOMON, a leading financial advisory firm with a legacy as one of the first independent investment banks. In 2016, Mr. Cooper led the transaction...