Fidelity Equity Partners Hires Gray Hall As Operating Partner
Hall Will Lead the Firm’s Investment Initiatives in the IT Services Sector, Also Announces Key Promotion
Boston, March 25, 2008 Fidelity Equity Partners, which invests private equity in high-growth, mid-sized companies in North America and Europe, today announced the appointment of Gray Hall as Operating Partner.
In this new position, Hall will lead Fidelity Equity Partners’ investment initiatives in the IT services sector, targeting primarily growth buyout opportunities among mid-sized companies that are leading the ongoing evolution of IT services.
Fidelity Equity Partners will draw upon Hall’s extensive experience and successful leadership in the managed IT services industry as it seeks to expand its portfolio, focusing on services companies valued between US$50 million - $150 million (£25 million - £75 million, €40 million - €120 million) and growing organically at more than 10 percent per year.
“Fidelity Equity Partners believes that the IT services sector will continue to benefit from powerful long-term trends that have begun to transform the sector, such as the migration of enterprise IT infrastructure to centralized data facilities,” said Hall. “Over the past 10 years, these trends have produced many successful new business models within the IT services sector, including co-location, managed hosting, managed services and software-as-a-service (SaaS).
“We believe that the underlying trends that have driven these developments will continue to bring exciting changes to the IT services industry for many more years, producing great opportunity for progressive growth companies providing IT services and, consequently, for Fidelity Equity Partners,” Hall added.
“As the managed IT services industry continues to mature, and as the prevailing trends in the enterprise IT market continue to develop, Fidelity Equity Partners believes it will find a number of compelling investment opportunities in this sector,” said Brooke Ablon, partner. “Gray’s proven IT services experience, combined with our investment focus and long-term investment philosophy, positions us as an ideal financial partner for mid-sized growth companies in this exciting emerging industry sector.”
Prior to joining Fidelity Equity Partners, Hall was president, chief executive officer and co-founder of VeriCenter, Inc. VeriCenter was among the first full-service managed IT service providers in the U.S. market in 2000, and remained a leading provider of managed hosting, collocation and data center outsourcing services to mid- to-large enterprises until its successful sale to SunGard Data Systems in August 2007. Hall led VeriCenter from its start-up through 28 consecutive quarters of growth to $80 million in annual revenue, earning recognition as a member of the Inc. 500 in both 2005 and 2006. Prior to VeriCenter, he was a managing director with Broadband Venture Partners, LLC; a vice president with Technology Management & Funding, LP; and spent seven years with IBM Corporation in various roles in IBM’s Research & Development organization. Throughout his career, Hall has raised more than $100 million in funding for information technology companies.
Fidelity Equity Partners Promotes Nemeskal
Fidelity Equity Partners also said it has promoted David Nemeskal to vice president. Located in the firm’s Boston office, Nemeskal focuses on investment opportunities in Business Services, Healthcare Services and Financial Services. Since joining the firm as an associate in 2001, he has played a role in transacting deals, working with portfolio companies and exits. Some of the new investments he has been involved in include Production Control Services, TIDI Products and Avtek. Prior to Fidelity Equity Partners, Nemeskal was an investment banking analyst in Lehman Brothers Corporate Finance Department in New York.
“Since our founding earlier last year, we have closed our new $500 million fund, assembled a team of seasoned private equity professionals and opened offices on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Ablon. “Our growing team of industry veterans, combined with our committed capital structure and access to extensive global resources, positions us to provide an unparalleled range of expertise, financing and opportunities to mid-sized businesses seeking to fully capitalize on their technology advantage to drive long-term business performance.”
About Fidelity Equity Partners
Fidelity Equity Partners is an international private equity firm focused on helping high-growth, midsized, services based companies fully exploit their competitive advantage. The fund looks for opportunities where its partners’ individual expertise, culture of entrepreneurship, and access to unique resources such as the global family of Fidelity businesses can accelerate a company’s growth rate, profitability and overall market leadership. Fidelity Equity Partners raised its initial $500 million fund in 2007. For more information, visit www.fidelityequitypartners.com.