David Lai Bio

David is a founder and Managing Partner of Calidant Capital. Mr. Lai is a private equity investor and entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in investing and managing a variety of companies across various broad-based industry sectors. In his career, Mr. Lai has contributed to greater than $1 billion in portfolio debt and equity capital, playing key board- level and operational roles in assisting management teams with growth through mergers and acquisitions and deployment of capital. Mr. Lai began his career in middle-market corporate finance at JP Morgan Chase & Co., and has been a principal with several family offices in Dallas, Texas. He holds a BBA in quantitative finance from Baylor University and obtained an MBA in finance from Southern Methodist University’s (SMU) Cox School of Business in Dallas, Texas. David is based in Dallas, and enjoys mountain camping, fishing, skiing, and sailing with his wife and teenage son.