Profile

Founded in 1998, Charlesbank Capital Partners is an established private investment firm with more than $20 billion of assets under management. Based in Boston and New York, the team has a long history of working together, a deep specialization in the middle market and experience investing over multiple business cycles. Known for its consistent, disciplined approach dating back to the firm’s Harvard endowment heritage, Charlesbank focuses on several core sectors where it has extensive industry expertise: business and consumer services, healthcare, industrials, and technology and technology infrastructure.

Drawing on decades of pattern recognition and a data-driven thematic approach, Charlesbank seeks out attractive opportunities across its complementary private equity and credit strategies, which collaborate closely. This rigorous, analytical approach to investing is deeply embedded in the firm’s DNA, as Charlesbank has been actively investing for over 25 years and continually draws on its insights and experience to generate informed perspectives around investable industry trends. With its robust industry knowledge and operational resources, the firm helps proven management teams accelerate growth, with a particular focus on founder-led companies, corporate carve-outs, transformational opportunities, and M&A platforms.

Awards

2025 Top Private Equity Firms, Top Women Leaders, Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors, Top Growth Equity Firms

2024 Top Growth Equity Firms, Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors, Top Private Equity Firms, Top Women Leaders

2023 Top Growth Equity Firms, Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors

2019 Top Business Services Investors

Features

Business & Consumer Services Investor: Charlesbank’s David Katz

GrowthCap’s RJ Lumba spoke with David Katz on November 5, 2025. David is a Managing Director at Charlesbank Capital Partners, where he oversees the firm’s Business & Consumer Services sector team and is a member of the Investment Committee. He has been with Charlesbank for nearly 13 years and previously worked at Bain Capital and McKinsey.

Key People

Michael Choe, Managing Partner, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Head, Flagship

Mike Choe has served as Chief Executive Officer of Charlesbank since July 2017. He has nearly 30 years of private equity experience, having joined Harvard Private Capital Group, the predecessor to Charlesbank, in 1997. At Charlesbank, Mike was instrumental in adding the credit strategy to complement the firm’s flagship private equity platform. He currently helps lead the firm’s business & consumer services and T&TI teams, including sourcing and investment efforts. Mike began his career at McKinsey & Company, where he focused on corporate strategy work. He earned a BA in biology from Harvard University.

Sandor Hau, Managing Partner and President, Credit

Sandor leads the credit investing strategy and team at Charlesbank. He joined the firm in 2016 from Nomura Securities, where he was a Managing Director and Head of Corporate Credit and Special Situations. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and Head of Credit Investing and Private Equity within the principal strategies group. Sandor earned a BS in Economics, summa cum laude, from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Brandon White, Managing Partner and Co-Head, Flagship

A member of the Charlesbank investment team since inception, Brandon co-leads the development of the firm’s flagship strategy. He also focuses on investments in the healthcare and industrial sectors. Brandon joined Harvard Private Capital Group, the predecessor to Charlesbank, in 1997. Previously, he worked at McKinsey & Company as a Business Analyst. He received a BA in Economics, summa cum laude, from Brigham Young University.

John Flannery, Managing Director and Head of Portfolio Resources Group

As the head of Charlesbank’s Portfolio Resources Group, John works to drive consistent equity value in the overall portfolio, working with CEOs and their teams to improve operating performance, strategy and governance. He joined Charlesbank in 2019 in an advisory role before being appointed Managing Director in 2021. Previously he spent 31 years at GE, most recently as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. He began his career there in 1987 and held various leadership roles including CEO of GE Equity (a $6B private equity fund), CEO of GE Capital Asia, CEO of GE India, Head of GE’s M&A and Strategy Process and CEO of the $18B GE Healthcare unit.

Joshua Klevens, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer

Josh joined  Charlesbank’s investment team in 2005, and in 2022 became the firm’s Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Charlesbank, he worked on the Bain Capital Private Equity team and as a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company. Josh earned a BA from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Funds Raised

Charlesbank was founded in 1998 after spinning out from Harvard Management Company, where the principals managed the endowment’s direct private equity investments. With more than $20 billion assets under management, the firm has built a reputation as a respected middle-market private investment firm with a successful track record across multiple business cycles. 

Over the past 28 years, Charlesbank has greatly expanded its investor base and broadened its focus to include credit investments. Drawing on decades of pattern recognition and a data-driven, thematic approach, the firm seeks the most attractive opportunities across its three strategies, with compelling upside and controlled downside.

As the firm has expanded its platform, it has invested in its people, developing and growing its team to ensure that Charlesbank has the right resources to support the growth of its portfolio and to maintain high-quality client service.

Note: Capital amounts include commitments made to all related vehicles, including the General Partner.

Key Investments

Accordion: Invested in August 2022
Sector: Business & Consumer Services

Accordion is a financial and technology consulting firm serving the Office of the CFO for private equity portfolio companies. The Company’s solutions include operational and technical accounting, strategic financial planning and analysis, CFO-driven transformation, CFO technology, transaction execution, public company readiness, interim leadership, and turnaround and restructuring.

Bridgepointe Technologies: Invested in December 2021
Sector: Technology & Tech Infrastructure

Bridgepointe Technologies is a leading IT channel platform selling recurring technology services to enterprise customers. Bridgepointe serves as a vendor- and technology-agnostic advisor helping enterprises purchase the right technology and services to meet their needs. Bridgepointe is highly diversified with a network of over 400 sales agents, known as IT Strategists, who serve over 12,000 mid-to-large enterprise customers nationwide.

Lido Advisors: Invested in June 2021
Sector: Business & Consumer Services

Founded in 1999, Lido is a full-service, wealth advisory firm with an innovative family office approach. Lido’s clients include high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals, family offices, businesses, charities and foundations. An emerging acquiror of choice for growth-oriented RIAs, the firm completed more than 10 acquisitions under our ownership. In August 2025, Lido completed a partial sale of the business to HPS Partners.

MB2 Dental: Invested in January 2021
Sector: Healthcare

MB2 Dental is a leading dental partnership organization with affiliated practices across North America. Since its 2007 inception, MB2 has partnered with over 800 dental practices in 45 states, supported by 1,700+ doctors. MB2 has demonstrated an ability to add value by providing best-in-class support to practices, alleviating administrative burdens, and expanding specialty dentistry services.

Park Place Technologies: Invested in July 2019, exited December 2025
Sector: Technology & Technology Infrastructure

Park Place Technologies is a global data center and networking optimization firm, helping clients optimize data center budgets, productivity, performance and sustainability. From procurement to decommissioning, the company’s comprehensive portfolio of services and products helps companies optimize IT lifecycle management. The company has expertise across all major OEMs and supports more than 21,000 customers annually across the globe. The company was sold to a strategic buyer in December 2025.

Velocity One: Invested in March 2025
Sector: Industrials

Founded in 2025, Velocity One is a holding company consisting of EMCORE (formerly NASDAQ: EMKR), Cartridge Actuation Devices (CAD) and Aerosphere Power. The three companies are leading manufacturers of highly engineered components for the aerospace and defense industries, with product capabilities in navigational solutions, energetic devices and power systems.

World Insurance Associates: Invested in April 2020
Sector: Business & Consumer Services

Founded in 2011, World Insurance Associates offers comprehensive insurance coverage, risk management strategies, and benefits consulting services for businesses and individuals. Focused on property and casualty lines, the company has built centers of excellence in specialized industries such as transportation, self-storage facilities, non-profits and construction. We invested in World as the company’s first private equity sponsor, enabling the company to accelerate its pace of M&A, deepen its management team and standardize its operations. World completed a significant recapitalization and liquidity event in 2023, with Charlesbank retaining half its stake and continuing as co-lead investor.

Capital Responsibility

Charlesbank is committed to being a responsible investment firm that values ESG factors across its investments and firmwide initiatives. The firm believes a sound ESG program is an important element of its success and is closely linked to operational excellence, employee engagement, and value creation. By incorporating ESG-related principles into its firm operations and the investment lifecycle, it believes it is helping both create long-term value and further the respective missions of its investors and management partners.

ESG is integrated into Charlesbank’s due diligence process for all control and shared-control private equity investments, with a dedicated workstream conducted by its third-party ESG advisor to identify potential risks and value creation opportunities. As part of this process, the firm assesses each target company’s capacity to manage and mitigate such risks and look for ways to incorporate the findings during the hold period, depending on the facts and circumstances surrounding each company and industry, including materiality of ESG issues.

Once Charlesbank has made an investment, it collects data on various key performance indicators (“KPIs”) through an annual survey. The annual survey focuses on the areas most relevant to the operations and reputation of the portfolio companies each team works on. The firm typically prioritizes progress across several key areas:

— Diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI)
— Data privacy & security
— Ethics & compliance
— Social & labor conditions
— Anti-bribery & corruption

Charlesbank believes that its portfolio represents a valuable opportunity for effecting positive change, and it will continue to work with its management partners to coordinate the implementation and success of ESG initiatives, leveraging the unique opportunities presented by technology companies.

Within its own firm, Charlesbank strives to cultivate an inclusive environment that welcomes individuals with a range of backgrounds, ideas, and opinions. The firm believes collaboration among team members who bring a range of perspectives and experience is key to its creativity and success, and that fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace can help it generate broader insights, more innovative thinking, and deeper discussions that make it better investors. Charlesbank is committed to advancing these efforts and to fostering a culture that embraces individual differences, in turn helping it attract and retain a high-performing and diverse workforce.

CEO Reviews

Rich Eknoian, World Insurance CEO & Co-Founder

“As a founder-run company, World has benefited tremendously from our Charlesbank partnership. In addition to financial firepower, they’ve supported us in implementing best practices in M&A, talent management, marketing, operations and technology to help us achieve our potential.”

Scott Evars, Bridgepointe Technologies CEO & Co-Founder

“Charlesbank was the ideal partner to help us accelerate our growth through enhanced tools, additional talent, marketing and M&A. Their investment team and PRG have become indispensable advisors and forceful advocates for our success.”

TVN Reddy, Aptean CEO

“Charlesbank has been an excellent partner to Aptean as we execute against our mission to solve tomorrow’s unique challenges today with unrivaled, purpose-built software and superior customer experiences from people who care. The Charlesbank team is of the highest integrity and has been instrumental in supporting our M&A efforts and several other strategic initiatives to drive incremental value.”

Jeff VonDeylen, Ensono CEO

“The Charlesbank team was instrumental in helping Ensono build its business from a US business with 600 employees and $190M in revenue to nearly a $1B global business with 3,000+ employees. The investment team, credit team and resource group provided outstanding support and advice through acquisition and diligence assistance, financing support and operational excellence programs. We partnered throughout the investment period to drive growth in both revenue and EBITDA, resulting in a successful exit.”

The statements and opinions presented above are endorsements or testimonials, as applicable, that have been made by individuals who have existing commercial relationships with Charlesbank. These executives may be investors in one or more private funds advised by Charlesbank. The firm has not provided any cash or non-cash compensation to these individuals for these statements. The above commercial and/or investor relationships create a conflict of interest since the executive may have an incentive to provide a testimonial or endorsement to Charlesbank. These statements describe the testimonial/endorsement provider’s experience with Charlesbank and/or its supervised persons and may not be representative of the experience of others.