Flexible Capital Solutions for
Leading Asset Management Firms
We are an independent investment firm focused on providing capital solutions to middle market asset managers.
Our Capital
Our capital can be used to accelerate growth, support acquisitions or liftouts, fund GP commitments, seed new strategies, facilitate generational ownership transfer, and provide liquidity to founders.
Our Equity Capital is:
PASSIVE
PERMANENT
LOW-COST
STRUCTURED TO ACHIEVE
TAX EFFICIENCIES
Our Debt Capital is:
NON-DILUTIVE
LOW-COST
FLEXIBLE
CASH FLOW OR
COLLATERAL BASED
Business Focus
We focus on businesses that have enterprise values between $50mm and $500mm and target investments across the breadth of the asset management industry:
Alternative Managers:
PRIVATE CREDIT
PRIVATE EQUITY
REAL ESTATE
NON-TRADITIONAL ASSET CLASSES
Traditional Managers:
LIQUID EQUITIES
LIQUID CREDIT
SYSTEMATIC LIQUID STRATEGIES
Wealth:
RIA
MULTI-FAMILY OFFICE
OCIO
Who We Are | Senior Team
TODD OWENS
Co-founder & Managing Partner
Over 30 years of experience as an advisor covering financial institutions and as a senior financial services executive. Deep transactional experience in asset management, alternative asset management and specialty finance. Prior to founding Cantilever, has been a Partner at Broadhaven Capital Partners.
Former CEO of Fifth Street Finance and President of Fifth Street Senior Floating, publicly-traded business development companies. Began career at Goldman, Sachs & Co, spending 24 years including as a Managing Director and Partner of the Investment Banking Division. Served as Head of West Coast Financial Institutions Group and Head of the Specialty Finance Group, in each case for more than 10 years.
Degree in History and Political Economy from Williams College
DAVID BALLARD
Co-founder & Managing Partner
Over 30 years of experience in finance and investment management. Extensive track record of innovation on complex financial transactions that combined tax, legal, securities regulations and other constraints. Prior to founding Cantilever had been Director of Corporate Strategy and Senior Advisor to Rubenstein Partners, a real estate private equity firm. Responsibilities included strategic initiatives and relationships, advising on overall firm goals and overseeing financial forecasting and tax.
In addition, former Group Head of various US and global capital markets groups focused on convertibles and derivatives at Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers. Transaction experience includes IPO’s of alternative asset management firms, BDC’s, private exchanges, first synthetic public warrants issues in US as well first synthetic equity linked notes and other structured equity products.
M.B.A. with a Finance and Accounting concentration from the University of Chicago. B.A. in Economics from Middlebury College.
BEN DRYLIE-PERKINS
Managing Director - Head of Investments
Over 17 years of financial services experience as an investor, principal and advisor, including the last 11 years primarily focused on the asset management industry. Prior to joining Cantilever, Ben was a Managing Director at Grafine Partners responsible for sourcing, underwriting and structuring seed investments into newly formed private markets investment firms. Prior to Grafine, Ben was most recently an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, focused on advising asset management clients on GP stake, control M&A, IPO, bespoke capital raising and strategic advisory assignments. As an investor and principal, Ben has executed more than $600 million of GP Stake, seed and financing transactions. As an advisor, Ben has represented clients on over $20 billion of transaction value across more than two dozen M&A transactions and financings.
Prior to his investing and investment banking careers, Ben was a derivatives trader at Susquehanna International Group and several Chicago-based proprietary trading firms. Ben holds a B.A. in Economics from Swarthmore College and an M.B.A. from Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.
Strategic Partners and Investors
The largest investment bank in Latin America, operating in the Investment Banking, Corporate Lending, Sales & Trading, Wealth Management and Asset Management markets. Since its creation in 1983, BTG Pactual has created a meritocratic partnership culture, with a focus on its customers, excellence and a long-term vision.
Broadhaven Ventures (Ventures) is the principal investment affiliate of Broadhaven Capital Partners. Ventures is a direct investor in FinTech companies, a limited partner in early-stage fund managers and incubates financial services companies in partnership with experienced executives. Ventures supports its investment activities through Alt Goes Mainstream, a content platform focused on the evolution of private markets.
Advisory Board
PETER LEBOVITZ | Senior Advisor
Founder and Managing Partner of Harkness Partners, an asset management consulting and advisory firm
Board member of The Artisan Funds and Hoffberger Holding. Chairs the Board of the ALTX Trust. Advisory Board member of 361 Capital and China Bridge Ventures
President and CEO of Managers Investment Group / Managers Fund
(1994 – 2007)
SVP and PM, Greenwich Asset Management
The First Boston Corporation
Trinity College; The Tuck School at Dartmouth
JOHN SIMPSON | Senior Advisor
Partner at Broadhaven Capital Partners. Previously, Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Canyon Partners and Vice Chairman of Wasserstein Perella & Co
Practiced law with Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York and served as a Law Clerk to a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Commissioner (Trustee) of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery, member of the Board of Directors of Lurie Children’s Hospital, Vice Chairman of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Discipline Commission (which, under the Illinois Supreme Court, regulates the legal profession in Illinois), and a member of the Board of Directors of Navy Pier
Williams College and Harvard Law School (Editor, Harvard Law Review)
ELIZABETH BESHEL ROBINSON | Senior Advisor
Liz serves on the board of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK) and The Travelers Companies Inc. (NYSE: TRV). Liz is Chairman of the Board of Williams College, a Trustee of St. Luke’s University Health Network and a Trustee of Blair Academy.
Liz worked at Goldman Sachs in for 26 years. She joined the firm in 1990 in the Financial Institutions Group within the Investment Banking Division. She became Goldman’s Global Treasurer in 2005 and a partner in 2006. As Treasurer, Liz managed the firm’s liquidity risk, balance sheet and capital, funded the firm’s global businesses and worked with external stakeholders, including investors and regulators. She served as co-chair of both the Finance Committee and the Firmwide Capital Committee and was also a member of the Partnership Committee, Firmwide Risk Committee, Principal Investments Committee, and the Board of Directors of Goldman Sachs Bank USA.
Liz graduated from Williams College in 1990 and earned an MBA from Columbia University’s Executive MBA Program in 1998.
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