Bio

Richard (Rick) Strait is an Investment Committee Partner at Avante Capital Partners. Based in Milwaukee, Mr. Strait serves on Avante’s Investment Committee and advises on portfolio and other strategic matters. Rick joined Avante in 2019. Mr. Strait has over 35 years of private middle-market debt and equity investment experience. He spent his entire career with Northwestern Mutual Capital (NMC), the $50+ billion AUM private debt and equity investment arm of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. During his career, Rick and his portfolio teams completed more than $18 billion of private debt, direct private equity co-investments and private equity fund commitments. Rick also served as a senior member of NMC’s Investment Committee from 2002 through mid-2017, which approved more than $11 billion in aggregate mezzanine and private equity co-investments during his committee tenure. He represented NMC on numerous private equity fund advisory boards and as a director or observer on private company boards. Mr. Strait is an independent director of G&L Holdings, Inc., a privately-owned food ingredients company. He chairs G&L’s Finance & Acquisitions Committee and serves as a member on the Audit and Strategy committees. Mr. Strait lives in Wisconsin and is actively engaged in his local community. He serves on the board and chairs the Investment Committee of the Jewish Home & Care Center Foundation (Milwaukee). He is a member of the Alumni Advisory Board for the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Department of Economics and is a former board member and officer of COA Youth and Family Centers (Milwaukee). Mr. Strait graduated from the University of Wisconsin—Madison and holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.