Cascadia Capital, an investment bank serving middle market clients globally, is pleased to announce that Scott Ames has joined the firm as Managing Director of Financial Sponsor Coverage. In this role, he will continue to develop and institutionalize relationships with leading private equity firms, family offices and other capital players across the U.S. Mr. Ames will work closely with Cascadia’s industry sector bankers to make valuable connections, effectively coordinate deal flow, and leverage bankers’ sub-vertical expertise to provide buy-side, sell-side and financing services to the firm’s clients and institutional partners.
“Financial sponsors are a significant part of our business, and we have developed deep relationships within the ecosystem over the past two decades,” noted Michael Butler, Chairman and CEO of Cascadia Capital. “In recent years, an increasing number of our engagements have involved private equity firms and other sponsors, which has created demand for a dedicated and coordinated financial sponsor coverage effort to allow the firm to better serve this constituency.”
With the support and partnership of our clients and partners, and a historic M&A market, Cascadia closed 51 transactions in 2021. Over 65% of Cascadia’s transactions were M&A advisory and of those, 40% were sold to private equity firms. Over 30% of Cascadia’s clients last year were institutionally-backed pre-transaction.
“We are thrilled to have Scott aboard to lead financial sponsor coverage for Cascadia,” added Mr. Butler. “Following a national search, Scott is the best cultural fit and the clear right choice to launch this dedicated effort at Cascadia. He will provide an unwavering focus to our approach of building deep strategic relationships with private equity and family office firms, aligning our areas of industry expertise with a sponsor’s specific investment criteria and ROI goals to deliver the best possible outcomes and opportunities for our clients and partners. There are very few firms that can successfully serve entrepreneur and family-owned businesses as well as they can institutionally-backed organizations, and I believe Cascadia is one of them. Those capabilities are strengthened with the addition of Scott.”
“I’m looking forward to working alongside a talented group of senior industry sector experts at Cascadia Capital to help institutionalize relationships with leading financial sponsors,” said Mr. Ames. “The firm has such a strong reputation and track record across multiple industry verticals, and I’m excited to bring these capabilities to bear for the benefit of Cascadia’s financial sponsor clients.”
Mr. Ames joins Cascadia from Lazard, where he was a senior member of the Financial Sponsor Coverage group and led the firm’s West Coast efforts. He will be based in Cascadia’s Minneapolis office and will serve our clients and partners across the U.S. To learn more or connect with Scott Ames, please visit his bio here.