Independently Owned Secondary Firm Orchard Investment Partners Launches

New Firm is Led and Advised by Team of Private Equity Industry Veterans, Applying Their Direct Investing Expertise to Continuation Vehicles and Related Transactions in the Private Equity Secondary Market

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Orchard Investment Partners (“Orchard”), an independently owned secondary investment firm that is led and advised by a team of private equity industry veterans, today announced its public launch and its inaugural groups of professionals who are supporting the Orchard team as Investment Committee Advisors and Senior Advisors. Orchard was founded and is led by Scott Pasquini as Chief Executive Officer and Mark Tresnowski as Chief Operating Officer, who were previously colleagues for over 15 years at a prominent middle market private equity firm. Orchard has a narrow focus on investing in private equity-backed continuation vehicles and related transactions across industries where it and its advisors have direct experience and relevant networks, including financial services, healthcare, industrials, and technology and business services.

Comprised of nearly two dozen experienced professionals, Orchard’s Investment Committee Advisors and Senior Advisors are well positioned to collaborate with Orchard’s investment professionals to source, evaluate and add value at relevant investment opportunities. Orchard’s investor-advisors collectively bring many decades of experience – across direct investing, as well as strategic, financial, legal and human talent advisory expertise – along with unique industry insights and broad professional networks.

Orchard Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Scott Pasquini commented, “The emergence of continuation vehicles as a means for financial sponsors to extend their ownership of high conviction investments, while providing their flagship fund investors the opportunity for interim liquidity, represents a major innovation to the private equity industry. It has created a new opportunity to invest more deliberately in higher quality, lower risk assets alongside their existing owners and senior executives.”

“The Orchard team and I believe that thoughtfully investing in secondary transactions, particularly single-asset continuation vehicles, requires a different skill set than those offered by traditional secondary managers. We have purpose-built Orchard to more directly address this growing market opportunity by harnessing an unparalleled depth of private equity investing and advisory expertise, enabling us to better identify situations where our investment and collaboration can help propel private equity’s high performing businesses to even greater heights,” Mr. Pasquini continued.

Orchard Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tresnowski added, “As the GP-led secondary market continues to grow, with both a rising volume of deals and a widening range of asset quality, we believe it is increasingly important to apply direct investing experience to properly curate and add value to these opportunities. Orchard’s network-enabled approach to this market allows us to focus on the most compelling opportunities, move through our diligence more efficiently, and perhaps most importantly, serve as ‘group of peers’ thought partners and value-added investors to financial sponsors and their portfolio company management teams. And we are doing so without bringing the competitive dynamics that often underlie less-independent secondary firms – in other words, we are offering our capital and collaboration, but without the conflicts.”

Orchard’s Investment Committee Advisors include alumni from several of the industry’s well-established private equity firms – including Golden Gate, Hellman & Friedman, Madison Dearborn Partners, Thomas H. Lee, and Waud Capital – and represent over 120 years of collective investing experience across Orchard’s four core sectors of focus: financial services, healthcare, industrials, and technology and business services. Each Investment Committee Advisor is committing personal capital and meaningful time to support the work of Orchard’s investment professionals in identifying and pursuing attractive investments aligned with the firm’s strategy. Orchard’s inaugural group of Investment Committee Advisors include:

• Adam Durrett, a 17-year veteran of Hellman & Friedman, where he was a Partner focused on investments in both the financial services and healthcare industries;
• Chris McGowan, who has nearly 30 years of private equity experience, including his past 14 years as Managing Partner of CJM Ventures and 12 years previously at Madison Dearborn Partners, where he was Co-Head of the firm’s Basic Industries investing team. Chris is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, where he has taught the Private Equity & Venture Capital Lab for the last 13 years;
• David Neighbours, who has an extensive background in the healthcare and technology sectors as a Partner and Senior Advisor at Waud Capital Partners for over 20 years, as well as being a founding officer of the Healthcare Private Equity Association;
• Jim Rauh, who brings deep investing experience in industrials and healthcare from his time at TT Healthcare Partners, a middle-market investment strategy he co-founded with acclaimed healthcare advisor TripleTree, as well as his 11 years at Golden Gate Capital, where he co-led the firm’s Industrials vertical and founded its Healthcare & Life Sciences practice;
• Kent Weldon, who brings over 30 years of private equity experience as a Managing Director and Advisory Partner at Thomas H. Lee Partners, where he helped lead investments across multiple industries including business services, consumer, financial services, and healthcare; and
• Ryan Roberts, who previously led the services investment team at Pritzker Private Capital, following a decade with Madison Dearborn Partners, where he primarily focused on investments in technology and business services

In addition, Orchard welcomed 16 distinguished professionals as Senior Advisors, who further extend Orchard’s insight and network advantages, including:

• Andy Redman, former President & COO of The Tornante Company, a privately held company that invests in, acquires and operates companies in the media and entertainment industries;
• Dan Dickinson, Executive Chairman of HCI Equity Partners, a lower middle-market private equity firm he co-founded to pursue growth investments in manufacturing, service and distribution companies, following his successful career in investment banking, where he rose to Global Co-Head of M&A at Merrill Lynch;
• Darren Snyder, Founding Partner of Fremont Growth Partners, an independent sponsor he launched following his successful 25-year career at Prairie Capital, where he was a member of its investment committee and held board responsibilities for over 20 companies across their first six funds;
• David Koo, a highly accomplished healthcare investor from his more than 20-year career with RoundTable Healthcare Partners, which he joined at the firm’s inception and where he led the firm’s investment efforts in both the pharmaceutical and consumer product sectors;
• David Lang, a deeply experienced growth investor in healthcare and software, and a 25-year veteran of TA Associates, where he led their healthcare team;
• Jack Levin, a Senior Partner at Kirkland & Ellis, one of the largest law firms in the world and preeminent advisor to the private equity industry, where he was appointed the first Chairman of the firm’s Global Private Equity strategy;
• Jamie Sprayregen, Vice Chairman of Hilco Global, a diversified specialty finance provider and advisory firm, which he joined following his storied career at Kirkland & Ellis, where he served on the firm’s global management committee for 13 years;
• Jim Perry, a Senior Advisor at Madison Dearborn Partners, where he was a co-founder and previously served as the Head of its Telecom, Media & Technology Services team, and helped orchestrate its first continuation vehicle of a portfolio company, Asurion;
• John Canning, a private equity pioneer who co-founded Madison Dearborn Partners, which he led as its CEO for 15 years until his transition to Chairman, and more recently, Chairman Emeritus;
• Michael Drai, Managing Partner of Rising Point Capital, a successful independent sponsor that has made eight platform investments, following his more than 10 years at Sterling Partners where he focused on investments in the industrial, business and consumer services industries;
• Paul Carbery, a 36-year veteran of Frontenac, where he helped lead investment efforts across a number of industries, including industrials, healthcare, and technology, and supported the transition of its portfolio company, Motion & Control Enterprises, into a single-asset continuation vehicle;
• Paul Huston, Co-Founder & Chairman of Hudson Ferry Capital, a lower middle-market private equity firm focused on investments in business services, specialty manufacturing and outsourcing companies;
• Scott Paton, Partner and Head of Business Development & Investor Relations of CrossHarbor Capital Partners, a highly successful commercial real estate investment and asset management firm, which he joined following a 25-year career as an investment banker and private equity investor;
• Steve Griesemer, a co-founding partner of May River Capital, an industrial-focused private equity firm that has raised three institutional funds since its launch in 2012;
• Tierney Remick, a recognized thought leader and senior advisor to corporate boards and CEOs, stemming from her 30-year career at Korn Ferry, one of the world’s preeminent executive search firms, where she is Vice Chairman & Co-Leader of their Global Board and CEO practice; and
• Zaid Alsikafi, a private investor who previously spent over 20 years at Madison Dearborn Partners, where he led the firm’s Telecom, Media & Technology Services investment team

Orchard invests out of its committed closed-end fund.

About Orchard Investment Partners

Chicago-based Orchard Investment Partners (“Orchard”) is an independently owned secondary investment firm that is led and advised by a team of industry veterans – private equity investors investing in private equity – and positioned as a value-add partner to financial sponsors and their portfolio company management teams. Orchard has a narrow investment focus on private equity-backed continuation vehicles, particularly single-assets in the lower- and middle-market, across industries where it and its advisors have direct investment experience, unique insights and extensive professional networks. The firm’s focus industries include financial services, healthcare, industrials, and technology and business services.

For more information, visit Orchard’s website: https://orchard.partners.

Follow Orchard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/orchard-investment-partners.