Three private equity and technology executives have launched Bridge Growth Partners, a growth-oriented private equity investment firm.
Bridge Growth will leverage the investment experience, strategic insight and operational expertise of its principals to focus on investments in technology and financial services as well as technology-enabled opportunities in other sectors.
The firm’s founding principals are Sander Levy, Alok Singh and Kevin Parker. Levy was a founding partner and managing director of Vestar Capital Partners, a private equity firm that manages over USD8bn of equity capital. Singh (pictured) was a managing director at New Mountain Capital, a private investment firm with more than USD9bn of assets under management. Parker is a technology executive who most recently served as chief executive officer of Deltek, an enterprise software and information solutions provider sold in 2012 for USD1.1bn. Parker was previously co-president and chief financial officer of PeopleSoft, an enterprise applications software company acquired by Oracle in 2004.
Joining the firm as senior managing director and chief administrative officer is Tom Manley, a technology executive who was most recently chief financial officer of Avaya and previously chief financial officer of Cognos, a software company sold to IBM in 2008 for approximately USD5bn. Manley will serve on the firm’s executive committee with the three founders.
As an integral part of its team, Bridge Growth is assembling an advisory board of recognised leaders to guide the firm and provide support to its portfolio companies. Advisory board members will include:
• Joseph Tucci, chairman and chief executive officer of EMC Corporation and chairman of VMware, leaders in information technology and services
• The Honorable John Manley, chief executive officer of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Canada
• Governor Tom Ridge, former Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security and former Governor of Pennsylvania
• Ambassador Steven J Green, former US Ambassador to the Republic of Singapore, chairman and chief executive officer of Greenstreet Partners, and member of the International Advisory Board of GIC and chairman of Guggenheim International
• Myron Trepper, former co-chairman of international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher
• Rob Ashe, a board member of Halogen Software and ServiceSource, and former chief executive officer of Cognos and general manager of IBM’s business analytics division
• Nanci Caldwell, a board member of Citrix, TIBCO Software, and JDA Software, and former executive vice president and chief marketing officer of PeopleSoft
Levy says: “Our objective in establishing Bridge Growth Partners is to bring a highly integrated, relationship-driven approach to private equity investing. By marrying our collective investment experience with our team’s deep talent in business building and operations, we will aim to identify attractive acquisition opportunities and help management teams build their companies.”
Singh says: “Our combined years of experience investing in and fostering the growth of companies within the technology and financial services sectors provides us with a unique perspective and an important edge in today’s private equity market. We intend to leverage our extensive global network of relationships cultivated over many years to identify and secure the most compelling opportunities for investment. Our goal is to actively work our investments to create enduring value for our portfolio companies and other stakeholders.”
