Align Capital Partners (ACP) has made an investment in WilliamsMarston, a provider of accounting advisory and management consulting services.
WilliamsMarston provides specialized consulting services to public, private equity-backed, and pre-IPO companies to support mergers, acquisitions, carveouts, spin-offs, initial public offerings, restructuring, technical accounting, and interim management.
The firm was founded by Landen Williams and Jon Marston in 2014 and has offices in Boston and New York. Both co-founders will continue to lead the firm through its next phase of growth in partnership with ACP.
“Jon and I founded WilliamsMarston on the premise that many companies, their investors, lenders and other stakeholders were underserved in the accounting advisory space,” said Mr. Williams. “We owe our success to date to our uniquely talented team and their commitment to helping our clients accomplish their most critical objectives.”
Gary Belske, the former deputy managing partner and chief operating officer of EY Americas, was an advisor to ACP on this transaction and will join WilliamsMarston’s board of directors. Mr. Belske retired from EY five years ago in July 2015.
“This is an important milestone for everyone at WilliamsMarston. ACP is a great cultural fit for our firm; we share a vision centered around hiring and developing the most talented professionals while providing exceptional service to our clients,” said Mr. Marston. “We are excited to begin this partnership and accelerate our growth into new geographic markets while broadening our capabilities and service offerings to better serve our loyal and expanding client base.”
“WilliamsMarston has built a well-known and highly respected brand in its markets and has continued to grow relationships with market-leading public and private-equity backed clients,” said Chris Jones, an ACP managing partner. “We are thrilled to establish this partnership and are looking forward to further investing in the firm’s sales, marketing and technology resources as well as its people in order to help drive continued growth.”
Align Capital Partners makes control investments in companies with enterprise values up to $150 million that have from $3 million to $10 million of EBITDA. Sectors of interest include business-to-business services, specialty manufacturing, and value-added distribution. In January 2020, Align closed its second fund, Align Capital Partners Fund II LP and Align Capital Partners Fund II-A LP, at a combined hard cap of $450 million.
In addition to Mr. Jones, the Align transaction team included Operating Partner Dave Perotti, Principal Matt Beesley and Associate Bill Zaccardelli.
Investment bank BellMark Partners was the financial advisor to WilliamsMarston.
Align, with offices in Cleveland and Dallas, was founded in 2016 by managing partners Steve Dyke, Rob Langley, and Chris Jones – all formerly of The Riverside Company – and has a total of 18 team members.
Private Equity Professional | July 15, 2020
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