Pinnacle Investment Management Group has made a strategic minority investment in VSS Capital Partners, a private investment firm investing in the healthcare, education and business services industries.
Concurrently, VSS has expanded its partnership and leadership team, elevating four seasoned senior professionals to partners. The four executives, Trent Hickman, Patrick Turner, Andrew Goscinski and David Fann, join Jeffrey Stevenson, managing partner, as shareholders of VSS Capital Partners.
“As we enter a new phase of growth and seek to deliver our investment solutions to new markets, Pinnacle is a logical partner that enables us access to a world-class global distribution platform and extend the reach of VSS’s private markets offering,” Jeffrey Stevenson, managing partner at VSS, said. “We are confident both clients, and the management teams we partner with, will benefit from our partnership with Pinnacle.”
VSS plans to capitalize on these opportunities to build out its client base globally, leveraging decades of private investment experience to serve clients well.
“The VSS structured (flexible) capital platform serving the lower middle market is well established and poised for growth in the North American marketplace,” Ian Macoun, managing director at Pinnacle, said. “We believe Pinnacle’s global distribution capabilities and our world-class middle office and fund infrastructure platform will be an asset to VSS as it aims to scale over the long term.”
“At this juncture in the firm’s evolution, this is also the right time to extend the VSS Partnership to several of our seasoned senior executives in recognition of their many valuable contributions to the firm’s growth over the years,” Stevenson said.
Concurrent with the expansion of the firm’s Partnership, VSS promoted Trent Hickman to co-managing Partner. Hickman, who joined VSS in 1999, will assume additional responsibility co-managing the next VSS Structured Capital Fund alongside Jeffrey Stevenson, building on over 20 years of experience as a successful private equity investor in fast growing private companies. Patrick Turner and Andy Goscinski, who joined VSS in 2014 and 1998 respectively, have been promoted to senior managing director. David Fann, senior managing director and head of investor relations, joined VSS earlier in the year to help expand and build the VSS platform. He previously was vice chairman of Apogem Capital, the private equity and private credit arm of New York Life Investment Management with over $41 billion of AUM.
“I am exceptionally proud of the strong leadership team we have in place, which positions VSS well for the long term and as we embark on the next phase of growth. Importantly, this step also creates a meaningful pathway for VSS’s next generation of leaders,” Stevenson added.
