Victory Park Continues Team Expansion

In a continuation of its hiring and promotion efforts, Victory Park Capital has promoted three of its investment professionals and hired three new associates.

“We are confident in our growing team’s ability to continue to position us as leaders in the market,” said Richard Levy, CEO and founder of VPC. “The recent promotions and new hires help validate our ongoing success in not only the specialty finance sector, but for the entire firm in the US and abroad.”

VPC has promoted Gordon Watson to partner, Harsh Patel has been promoted to Principal, and Karrie Truglia has been promoted by VPC to Principal.

Mr. Watson oversees direct private debt and equity investments in the specialty finance sector. He joined VPC in 2014 and is based in New York. Mr. Patel is responsible for investments in middle market companies with a focus on specialty finance opportunities outside the US. Mr. Patel has 10 years of experience in alternative investments and is based in London. Ms. Truglia oversees VPC’s debt capital markets activity with a focus on portfolio financings. Ms. Truglia joined VPC in 2015 from Citigroup. She is based in New York.

The three new associates that are joining the VPC team are: Sarah Ishman, Senior Associate – based in the New York office, Ms. Ishman is a former fixed income and commodities associate at Morgan Stanley; Katie Kissell, Business Development Associate – based in the Chicago office, Ms. Kissell is a former senior business development associate at Aurora Investment Management; and Christie Lacy, Marketing Associate – based in the Chicago office, Ms. Lacy is a former senior marketing associate at Aurora Investment Management.

These promotions and hires follow VPC’s hiring last month of Upacala Mapatuna as the firm’s new chief investment officer. Ms. Mapatuna is now on Victory Park’s investment and management committees and she is involved in overseeing the firm’s current and future investment funds. Before joining VPC she spent the past 12 years at Goldman Sachs most recently as a managing director.

Victory Park invests from $10 million to $50 million per transaction in small cap public companies and middle market private companies that typically generate less than $150 million in revenue and less than $30 million of EBITDA. The firm focuses on complex investment situations. Victory Park was founded in 2007 and is based in Chicago with additional offices in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and London (www.victoryparkcapital.com).

© 2016 Private Equity Professional • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 3-7-16