Bio

Mr. Smith founded Hunter Equity Capital, LLC in late 2008 after working with private equity investment firms in both Chicago and New York. He has experience investing in a wide variety of industries and across the venture, growth-equity and buyout stages of investment. Since founding HEC, Mr. Smith has invested in several platform and add-on companies. These investments have all been majority control deals of profitable, growing lower middle market businesses. Mr. Smith is active in the operations of each investment focusing on assisting the management teams with capital raising, bank financing, corporate M&A and strategic direction. Mr. Smith has served on the Board of Directors of eight different companies and believes that extraordinary investment returns in the lower middle market are the result of strong partnerships and a hands-on approach. Prior to founding HEC, Mr. Smith was a Vice President at Prospect Partners, LLC, one of the country’s preeminent small buyout funds, located in Chicago. Mr. Smith worked at GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC, a $2 billion Chicago-based private equity fund focused on management-led consolidation investments prior to his tenure at Prospect Partners and began his investing career at New York-based JPMorgan Partners, LLC (now CCMP Capital), one of the largest private equity funds in the world. Before starting his investing career, Mr. Smith was an Analyst in the Investment Banking Division of Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York. There he focused on merger and acquisition and corporate finance transactions for financial institutions. Mr. Smith earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychological Services from Northwestern University with a Minor in Business. While at NU, he was a Wide Receiver on the Varsity Football Team in 1997 when the team played in the Citrus Bowl and in 1996 when Northwestern was the Big Ten Football Conference Championship Team.