Our mission is to partner with owners and management teams to build great companies, which will create long-term value for investors, employees, customers and local communities.
INVESTMENTS WITH IMPACT
Forge pursues platform investments in companies that range in size from $3-10M of EBITDA, and draws on the partners' operational and leadership experience to grow businesses through investment in people, processes, technology, systems, expanded operations, and strategic acquisitions.
LONG-TERM COMMITMENTS
Forge takes a long-term view in building businesses with the potential to hold and grow businesses for 10+ years, and can hold majority or minority equity positions, including equity buyouts that are staged over a period time allowing for owners to plan their long-term exit path with a partner who helps them grow their business.
MEET OUR TEAM
GARDNER DUDLEY
Partner
Gardner Dudley is an experienced executive having spent much of the past 15 years leading teams and organizations. After starting a career in finance, he moved into a startup company where he gained experience in all stages of the business life cycle, from growing a business as a startup through sale to a public company, and then managing through the acquisition and integration of other companies.
Gardner has touched virtually every area of growing businesses, including identifying leadership and building teams in sales, operations, technology, and other areas. He has successfully scaled sales and operations in growing organizations, identified and implemented IT solutions, and helped develop products to support business growth. Gardner spent 17 years at Network International and then Liquidity Services Inc., which acquired Network International in 2010. He served in various leadership roles, including as President of the Capital Assets Division for Liquidity Services, which was a $250 million business with over 400 employees and operations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
Gardner has practical M&A experience through his work as an advisor to large corporations early in his career and as part of the management team of both buying and selling parties later in his career, and again as an advisor at Valedor Partners.
LOGAN WALTERS
Partner
Logan Walters is a private equity investor and business advisor with over 15 years of finance, operations, and consulting experience working primarily in institutional private equity firms and operating companies.
During his career with firms including SCF Partners and First Reserve Momentum, he has participated in over 20 acquisitions and several mergers with over $1.25 billion in aggregate value. His activity has centered on the lower middle market with an average transaction size in that segment of approximately $30 million and average equity investment of approximately $10 million. This focus has given Logan an expertise in identifying companies with strong potential for growth, designing plans for companies to achieve such growth, and actively supporting management teams in executing on growth plans. In addition, he gained much of his experience in the highly cyclical and fundamentally challenged energy services subsegment, which has required discipline on valuation, structure, leverage, and an ability to help management teams navigate substantial volatility.
He prides himself most on the many relationships he has developed with entrepreneurs and investors who have trusted him as a financial and/or strategic partner.
SEAN WINDSOR
Associate
Sean Windsor is a finance professional with over 13 years of experience in consulting and advisory roles. Throughout his career, he has gained expertise in evaluating companies and providing comprehensive financial, operational, and strategic guidance to management teams and investors.
Sean utilizes his analytical background and experience conducting due diligence, comprehensive risk assessments, and data analyses to identify and evaluate key company attributes for purposes of formulating strategic recommendations and actionable insights.
Sean leverages his knowledge of financial and market dynamics to develop and evaluate financial strategies aimed at driving growth and optimizing operational processes for companies in the middle and lower middle markets, and across various industries. He has gained operational expertise working closely with management teams to understand unique goals and challenges, develop strategic plans, and offer solutions that align with their objectives.
OUR APPROACH
Patience
Forge takes a long-term view and remains committed to companies though the inevitable challenges they will face. But don’t take patience for passivity. We actively support our management teams leveraging our own experience, lessons learned, and our network of relationships.
Agility
We recognize that the world is changing fast and middle market businesses who embrace change will have an advantage. This is why we constantly pursue innovation in our companies. Our portfolio companies are pushed to innovate in order to remain at the forefront of their industry.
Care
We prioritize good partnerships and fair deals that benefit all parties, rather than maximizing the value for a single constituent. We also considering the impact of the investments on the broader community and run our firm with a commitment to making a tangible impact.
Strength
The Forge foundation is built on experience, trust, and transparency. We make investments where our backgrounds in operations and finance, and our experience bringing stronger systems, processes and people to companies will support them becoming stronger, more efficient companies.