I had a long career on Wall Street working for very successful businesses, and out of that I developed a view of the kind of culture where I’d like to work. Utay:I think we’ve developed a very unusual culture here. We make investment decisions as a group, and if we don’t have unanimity, we won’t make the investment. But we have six partners who together put up 15 percent of the equity in Clarion’s fund, so we are a very consensual firm. Tell me about your role as managing partner. It’s a journey that we go on with the company, and that, in and of itself, can create value because it increases transparency and reduces the perception of risk. Then we go through an institutionalization process with the company where we fill out the management team and begin to put it through the paces that a large corporation would go through. We usually put up part of the purchase price in equity, as well as borrow money from lenders. Utay:Because we’re a business that invests in the lower-middle market, we try to identify a company that has a strong central business proposition-a product or service-that we believe has great potential, and give it the resources to become great. What is your process when purchasing companies? We try to buy companies that, with a combination of investment in management and capital, will get on a strong growth path. At the end of the day, we’re investors in growth. We are typically making control-oriented investments in companies that we’re either buying from the entrepreneur or from a corporation for whom the subsidiary is no longer strategic. Marc Utay: Clarion Capital Partners invests in the lower-middle market, primarily in three industries: business and health-care services, consumer and retail, and media and entertainment. How would you describe the work of Clarion Capital Partners? And whether incubating or developing strategy for a new company, or offering investment critiques for a junior partner, Marc Utay’s love of developing interesting and inspiring businesses and people is contagious-and well worth the risk. These companies are the legacies of the partners at Clarion Capital Partners and their highly collaborative culture. That means building well-rounded management teams, instituting budgets, audits, and strategic plans, and providing financial resources, all to ensure the company’s ability to stand the tests of time and competition. While financially backing growth companies is certainly part of his role as managing partner of Clarion Capital Partners, his definition of success includes taking a company or entrepreneur under the wings of Clarion and giving them all the tools they need to accelerate their company’s development. For Marc Utay, investing capital means far more than dollars.
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