Women in Leadership Series: Women in Private Equity

• Name: Michelle Dear
• Current role: Associate at Wind Point Partners ($1.5B middle market private equity fund in Chicago focusing on majority investments in consumer products, industrials and business services industries)
• Previous experience: Main Street Capital in Houston (publicly traded investment firm with ~$4B AUM) where I worked on investing in industry-agnostic lower middle market companies across the balance sheet in both debt and equity
• Education: Graduated in 2017 from the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University with a degree in Finance; was an Honors College member, Financial Markets Institute Scholar and played on the Varsity Women’s Soccer Team all four years
• Grew up in Chesterfield, MI where my family still resides

Heather leads Huron Capital’s business development, marketing, and investment sourcing activities.  She has 20 years of experience originating, structuring, and executing debt and equity transactions in the middle market.  Prior to joining Huron, Heather was responsible for all West Coast new business development for SPP Capital Partners, a NY-based investment bank. She also served as Vice President and Team Leader of Middle Market Banking at Comerica Bank in San Francisco and has also held roles at CIT Sponsor Finance and Madison Capital Funding LLC where she focused on originating and structuring leverage finance products for private equity clients.

Heather serves as Board Member of the Detroit Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), is the Founder and past Chair of the ACG Detroit Women’s Forum, and was co-chair of the 2019 ACG Great Lakes Capital Connection conference.  Heather is also on the board of Friendship Beverage, a Minneapolis-based beverage company whose brands include Juni and Chirp.

She received a B.A. from Cornell University.

Gretchen Perkins is a Partner at Avance Investment Management, LLC, and is responsible for sourcing investment opportunities both for the firm and for portfolio companies. Ms. Perkins brings over 20 years of sourcing and business development experience, having created and implemented successful business development organizations and programs at her two prior firms: Huron Capital and Long Point Capital, in addition to many prior years in a variety of financial services and consulting roles.

She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan. Gretchen has been an active member of the Association for Corporate Growth for over twenty years, having held multiple board and leadership positions in the ACG at the chapter and national levels. Gretchen will Chair the ACG Intergrowth national conference in 2022. Ms. Perkins is also involved in multiple non-profit endeavors, including the following organizations: Endeavor Detroit, Detroit Police Athletic League, United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan, and 100 Businesses Who Care. Ms. Perkins resides in Florida and has two grown children.

Ms. Svejnar is a Managing Director in the Ares Credit Group, where she focuses on U.S. direct lending. Prior to joining Ares in 2006, Ms. Svejnar was an Analyst at GE Capital Global Media & Communications, where she focused on providing debt financing to mid-market media firms. Previously, Ms. Svejnar participated in the GE Capital Financial Management Program and completed roles in risk portfolio analytics and financial planning analytics. Ms. Svejnar holds a B.A. from Michigan State University's Eli Broad College of Business in Finance.

Kim has nearly 20 years of investment banking, private equity and leveraged lending experience across a variety of industries with a particular focus on aerospace, industrial manufacturing, automotive and building products businesses.

Kim graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Finance where she was awarded a four-year scholarship on the Michigan State Varsity Women's Soccer Team.