Capitol Meridian Partners

Capitol Meridian is pleased to welcome two new colleagues: Irene Lu as Vice President and Patrick Manning as Associate. CMP now has 15 professionals managing $1.3 billion in AUM across a portfolio of six investments.   Irene joins CMP from Carlyle where she focused on tech and govtech investing on the U.S. buyout and growth capital team. She said: “This is an incredibly exciting time to invest in the middle-market ADG space. I am thrilled to join Capitol Meridian in this chapter of its growth and help CMP create value and build exceptional companies.”   Patrick joins CMP from the U.S. Marine Corps where he was a Company Commander. He started his career in investment banking at Citi. Patrick said: “CMP gives me the opportunity to continue to make an impact by partnering with mission-critical companies in the aerospace, defense, and government sectors alongside an experienced, collaborative team.”

We are pleased to announce a majority investment in Beaufort, a UK-based supplier of survival equipment for air, land, and sea forces to global militaries and defense primes. This investment, a carve-out from Survitec, is CMP’s seventh portfolio company in our inaugural $900 million fund. CMP Is acquiring Beaufort in partnership with Stellex Capital Management. Beaufort is well-positioned to benefit from strong and accelerating defense spending worldwide. We will pursue complementary acquisitions, invest to expand the product portfolio, and deepen customer relationships. https://lnkd.in/eSg7qitS

Thanks to Luisa Beltran and Fortune for this thoughtful look at CMP’s founding and strategy, as well as the NatSec/Defense/Aerospace investing landscape.   https://lnkd.in/exJz3D3Q

In this video interview, CMP operating partner Niloofar Razi discusses the stunning pace of AI innovation, the possibility of AI going rogue, AI’s disruption of the workforce, leading through uncertainty, and the need for more women to get into cybersecurity. https://lnkd.in/eZ6T4fwU

Capitol Meridian Partners is pleased to announce a leadership transition at portfolio company PrimeFlight. Following decades of partnership with CMP and its founders, after careful planning Dan Bucaro is retiring as CEO. He will remain with the Company in the role of Chairman of the Board. Craig Smyth, current PrimeFlight Board Member and industry veteran will succeed Dan as CEO. Craig brings over 30 years of experience, having run several leading businesses in the aviation services sector. Adam Palmer, Co-Founder at CMP commented: “Capitol Meridian thanks Dan for his unwavering leadership at PrimeFlight. It has been a pleasure to partner with Dan over many decades and we wish him the best in his well-earned retirement. We would also like to congratulate Craig on his new role as CEO, and look forward to working with him to ensure a smooth transition in the near term and continued growth and value creation in the long term. Given his current role on our board and proven track record, we are excited and fortunate to have him as the next leader of PrimeFlight. For more information,visit:  https://lnkd.in/gKVYcG8Z

We are pleased to announce a majority investment in LAUNCH, which is CMP’s sixth portfolio company in our inaugural $900 million fund. We welcome the LAUNCH management team and look forward to supporting the Company's growth plans by strengthening LAUNCH’s customer value proposition; expanding into new markets and geographies; investing in technology; and providing follow-on capital. https://lnkd.in/e_KF-hiw

Trump’s DOGE has Washington and Wall Street on edge. In this commentary published today in Evercore’s “State of the Market”, CMP co-founders Brooke Coburn and Adam Palmer make the case that because of Washington’s “dense regulations, inscrutable bureaucratic layers, [and] byzantine procurement processes”, there is a “tremendous and underappreciated market opportunity accessible to subject matter experts” such as CMP. They conclude: CMP “believes that within the larger government opportunity set, the national security sub-sector offers particularly compelling opportunities.”  Thank you to our friends at Evercore for the opportunity to share our thoughts.

Thank you, Bloomberg and @DawnLim, for your coverage of PE’s growing role in the national security sector. https://lnkd.in/e47it2Kp

CMP welcomes Michael Puopolo, Gillian Dollard, and Curtis Uehlein to our growing firm. We’re building a team to find opportunity and create value in the gov/tech and national security/defense space. https://lnkd.in/ecfxm88C

This Washington Business Journal article looks at CMP‘s investment activity in the government contracting space. To date we’ve done five deals out of our $900 million inaugural fund, which closed earlier this year. Our cofounder Brooke Coburn is quoted: "These are very successful companies that have had a lot of success in building up great books of business and valuable customers and really differentiated capabilities — but generally they need help in getting to the next level.” https://lnkd.in/e6J3Gbsj