Steven Graham

Professional Bio:

Steve Graham founded Graham Partners in 1988. He serves as the firm’s CEO and Senior Managing Partner, and sits on the firm’s Buyout and Growth Investment Committees, the Buyout / Growth Valuation Committee, and the GCI Valuation and Investment Committees. Steve oversees all the activities of the firm, including investment sourcing, evaluation, monitoring, and divestiture; as well as overseeing the firm’s operations group. Steve established the firm’s long-standing strategy of investing in conversion plays in advanced manufacturing and industrial technology, created its operations-centric focus and its operations team, and developed the broad investment themes and investment criteria that drive the firm’s sourcing and investment activities.

Prior to founding Graham Partners, Steve worked for Goldman, Sachs & Co. in its Investment Banking Division, and for the RAF Group. For the first decade after founding Graham Partners, Steve and his team oversaw corporate finance activities relating to operating interests associated with The Graham Group, managing merger, acquisition, and joint venture transactions for The Graham Group that were completed in Italy, France, Canada, The United Kingdom, Poland, Brazil, and Argentina, as well as major financings and the divestiture of a controlling interest in Graham Packaging Company to a Blackstone Group-controlled fund in 1998. During this period, Steve served as a member of both the Investment Committee and Advisory Board of The Graham Group, as an Officer, Board member, and Management Committee member of numerous Graham Group operating and investment entities, and as the Graham family trustee for trusts that owned direct or indirect interests in various Graham Group entities, a role he continues to serve in today.

Steve has formed numerous charitable entities and supports many philanthropic causes in education, sports, the arts, dance, and health care. Several of Steve’s initiatives are focused upon under-resourced youth, including academic scholarship programs in over ten schools in the Greater Philadelphia region, coupled with numerous programs domestically and internationally supporting youth in sports and dance. Steve also serves on the Advisory Boards of certain unaffiliated private investment funds managed by other general partners, and has in past years served on private equity-related advisory committees for both Dartmouth College’s Graduate School of Business (Tuck) and Williams College, as well as on the boards of certain private schools.

Steve earned his B.A. from Williams College with a double major in Philosophy and English, and his M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. While at Williams, Steve was a three-sport varsity athlete (tennis, track, and skiing), and captain of the downhill ski team. Steve is still active in skiing, tennis, and other sports today.