Bio

Ralph Manning is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Coltala Holdings. As a private investor, and more recently a founding partner of Progress Equity Partners, Ltd, he has been active in acquiring majority control of operating companies since 2003 – typically from founder entrepreneurs and owner operators. Ralph has over twenty years of direct investment and management experience, has served in executive and board roles at numerous companies, and for over fifteen years, he has been an active investor in the private equity market. Previously, he was an associate at RSTW Partners, a private equity firm providing mezzanine and equity capital to lower-middle-market and middle-market companies throughout the United States. A lifelong equestrian, Ralph is President and owner of Whistlejacket Farm in Johnson County Texas, a full-service breeding and training farm specializing in purebred Arabian and half-Arabian horses and home to internationally acclaimed equestrian Wendy Potts. Whistlejacket hosts riders who compete across the United States and internationally, trains and shows client horses in addition to its own and offers membership in its Equestrian Club and Riding Academy. Ralph is a graduate of the OPM program (Owner, President Management) at Harvard Business School, holds a Graduate Certificate in Finance, Southern Methodist University, a BBA in Finance Real Estate from Texas Christian University where he also attended the study abroad program at Oxford University in England and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Recently, he was a guest on the Private Equity Fast Pitch Podcast with Jeff Henningsen.