Lower-middle market investor LLR Partners has added Geoff Baird to its team as senior managing director of the firm’s value creation team.
Prior to joining LLR, Mr. Baird was an operating executive at Tailwind Capital where he assisted in sourcing, evaluating and performing due diligence on investment opportunities. At Tailwind he served as a board member and advisor on several of the firm’s portfolio companies including Stratix, a provider of managed mobility services; Diversified, an audio and visual systems integrator; AST, a managed services provider of Oracle software; and CoreBTS, a provider of technical support and managed services for both Cisco and non-Cisco hardware and software.
Mr. Baird is also a member of the board of WorldAware, an Annapolis-based provider of risk management services and intelligence, and an LLR portfolio company since December 2013.
“I fundamentally believe that bringing world-class knowledge and best practices to growth-stage companies in a structured way can have a meaningful impact on their value,” said Mr. Baird. “LLR shares that vision and has purpose-built its value creation capabilities over the last several years to carry it out. I am excited to lead the firm in growing its value creation team and expanding the resources we offer in areas like sales, marketing, and strategy.”
Mr. Baird’s experience includes several executive roles in the mobile, Internet of Things (IoT) and communications sectors. From 2012 to 2015 he was the president of the product & technology group of AGT International, a provider of IoT services to municipalities, manufacturers, health, and entertainment industries. Other past positions include CEO of 3i-MIND, a provider of digital investigative tools and services to intelligence and law enforcement agencies; and vice president and general manager at Avaya, a provider of business communication services.
“Geoff brings to LLR extensive operational experience, along with a keen understanding of the role investors like LLR can play in activating key growth levers, such as sales, marketing, human capital, strategy, and M&A,” said Jack Slye, a partner at LLR. “We are excited to have Geoff join the LLR team to lead and help enhance our value creation services.”
LLR invests from $15 million to $100 million in companies that have up to $100 million in annual revenue and are active in the education, financial, healthcare, security and software sectors. The firm will invest in minority or majority equity positions through growth capital, recapitalizations, and buyout transactions. LLR is headquartered in Philadelphia (www.llrpartners.com).
In April 2019, LLR made an investment in Magaya Corporation, a Miami-based provider of warehouse, cargo, and supply chain management software. The company’s products are used to automate and improve business operations for freight forwarders, third-party logistics, wholesalers and distributors.
In June 2018, LLR held a final closing of its latest fund, LLR Equity Partners V LP, at $1.2 billion. The firm’s earlier fund, LLR Equity Partners IV LP, closed at $950 million in March 2014.
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | September 23, 2019
