ACG Los Angeles | 2024 The State of Private Equity

Ryan is a Managing Director at Brentwood Associates and has been with the firm since 2011. Prior to joining Brentwood, Ryan spent three years at Swander Pace Capital, where he focused on private equity investing and portfolio company management in the consumer products industry. Prior to Swander Pace, Ryan spent two years as an Analyst at Harris Williams & Co. where he focused on mergers and acquisitions. He graduated from UC Berkeley where he received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Haas School of Business and a master’s degree in education from the Graduate School of Education.

Rich Lawson is a Partner, the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of HGGC. Rich is a member of HGGC’s Management Committee, Investment Committee and Valuation Committee. He has been involved in all phases of the firm’s development since its formation and directs the firm’s strategy and investment decisions, governance and investor relations. Since HGGC’s inception, Rich has overseen over 600 completed transactions representing more than $71 billion in aggregate transaction value.

Rich is Chairman of Pathfinder Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition vehicle backed by affiliates of HGGC and Industry Ventures and also serves as a director, chairman emeritus or trustee of several philanthropic and cultural institutions including the Capital Impact Foundation, San Francisco Zoo, Wasatch Adaptive Sports and the Forever Young Foundation, the organization that is a primary benefactor of HGGC's carried interest proceeds used to support extensive philanthropic work in children's causes around the world.

Prior to leading HGGC, Rich established predecessor private equity funds Huntsman Gay Capital Partners in 2007 with industrialist Jon M. Huntsman and Robert C. Gay, as well as Sorenson Capital in 2002 with medical products pioneer James LeVoy Sorenson. Mr. Lawson also worked at Morgan Stanley in its mergers and acquisitions department and served as President and Chief Executive Officer of enterprise software company Found, Inc.

Steve Russell is the Senior Portfolio Manager at Highview Capital. Steve is a founding member of the Highview team and oversees all aspects of the investment process including sourcing, diligence and execution of new investments. Steve currently serves on the Board of B&R Auto, GS Foods, Quickplay, Randall Foods and Watterson.

Prior to joining Highview, Steve was a Director at Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago-based private equity fund, where he executed investments across business services, healthcare, industrials, technology and other sectors. Earlier in his career, he worked as an Analyst at Chilton Investment Company and in investment banking at J.P. Morgan. Steve holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The Co-founder and Chairman of Cascadia Capital, Michael manages the firm. He previously co-led the firm’s Robotics, Automation & Artificial Intelligence, and Food & Agribusiness practices at Cascadia. Michael has been involved in over 100 transactions while at Cascadia Capital.

Prior to co-founding Cascadia, he served as a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers, responsible for global equity sales and equity syndicate. He also served on the firm’s Equity Commitment Committee, Equity Syndicate Committee and Private Equity Commitment Committee. Before joining Lehman Brothers, Michael was a Principal with Morgan Stanley & Company, where he was responsible for divisional global product and risk management and was a member of the division’s Operating Committee. He has been involved in numerous equity financing transactions for both public and private companies.

Michael holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Washington and an M.B.A. in International Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.