Manhattan West, an investment company with a vertically integrated platform of in-house services and investments, has added Reginald “Reggie” Tucker to the Venture Capital team as Managing Director.
Tucker brings more than a decade of experience to Manhattan West, as a capital allocator in both public and private markets, venture capital and private debt. He will bring his deep network of limited partner and general partner relationships to the organisation as it builds out its venture capital division, complementing the firm’s private equity, real estate and private debt investment strategies.
Manhattan West’s entrepreneurial, energetic culture, and unique geographic and relational access to the fast-growing venture capital ecosystem in Los Angeles attracted Tucker to the firm. He joins a highly skilled, well-credentialed team with deep experience as allocators, investors and entrepreneurs that have generated significant momentum in recent months.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to join an emerging, minority-owned firm like Manhattan West with such a depth of investment experience, talent and intellectual capital,” says Tucker, Managing Director – Venture Capital, Manhattan West. “It’s an honour to join a firm where my core values and investment philosophy align perfectly. We think differently as investors and as a team, and our collective support for each individual investment strategy across the others on the platform will enable us to build several disruptive, leading-edge funds.”
Tucker will be charged with building Manhattan West’s new venture capital growth opportunities fund leveraging his markets, fundamental investment decision making, creative investment structuring expertise and broad network. His first fund will allocate across the venture capital opportunity set through fund investments, co-investments and directs as well as strategic investments in emerging and high-growth opportunities primarily in early to growth-stage.
“An investor of Reggie’s caliber and background joining Manhattan West signifies a true inflection point for the firm,” says Lorenzo Esparza, CEO, Manhattan West. “Not only is Reggie uniquely skilled at sourcing opportunities across both hard to access funds as well as new and emerging firms and co-investments, but he’s truly a leader in his field. Above all that, he will elevate our culture and is the perfect fit for the next-generation investment platform that we are building at Manhattan West.”
Prior to joining the team at Manhattan West, Tucker served as Managing Director at Orange County Employees Retirement System (OCERS) for the past two-plus years where he had oversight of all private markets. There he had direct oversight over more than USD500 million in capital commitments per year as he helped build out the private equity and venture capital programs and related co-investment strategy. He also contributed to sourcing and evaluating new, niche and non-traditional investments for the “unique strategies” asset class. Tucker has held investment leadership roles at the New York State Common Retirement Fund (NYCRF) and the State of Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds (CRPTF).
Manhattan West’s vertically integrated platform of services and investments represents the make-up of a next-generation investment firm. Its creative thinking and “get things done” environment empowers the team to focus on establishing a high degree of trust with its clients, partners and shareholders while executing on strategic initiatives through its pragmatic approach and delivering high-quality results.
