Sterling Partners Investment Thesis Challenge (SPITC)

Chris McGowan

Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship

Focus: Private equity, venture capital, entrepreneurship, and finance

Program involvement: Private Equity and Venture Capital Lab (PE/VC Lab), Sterling Partners Investment Thesis Challenge (SPITC), Private Equity Case Challenge (PECC), private equity workshops, student seminars, and student lunch and learns

Chris McGowan is the General Partner of CJM Ventures (“CJMV”), a Chicago growth equity and private equity investment firm.

McGowan’s private equity career began 28 years ago with AEA Investors in New York City, after earning an undergraduate degree in theoretical mathematics from Columbia University’s College of Arts and Sciences, and following two years of mergers and acquisitions training at Morgan Stanley.

After completing an MBA at Harvard Business School, he joined Madison Dearborn Partners (“MDP”) in Chicago, where he co-headed their basic industries practice for the last five years of his 12-year career there. At MDP, he oversaw more than $2 billion of equity investments focused on buyouts and growth equity globally in the industrial, consumer, and energy & power sectors. He continues to serve on the Board of prior MDP portfolio company Boise Cascade (Chairman of Audit Committee, NYSE: BCC) and formerly served on or advised the boards of Smurfit Kappa Group (LN: SKG), BWAY Holdings, FirstWind, US Power Generating, OPENLANE, The Illinois Venture Capital Association, and others.

In 2011, with the help of MDP leadership and mentors, McGowan formed CJMV, an investment firm focused on management buyouts of and growth equity investments in companies located near Chicago and London. CJMV’s current portfolio includes OPTO International, an Illinois-based manufacturer of retail shelving and display systems; Cedar Capital, a Chicago-based asset management firm; and Ingenica Solutions, a UK-based health care information technology company. CJMV’s former portfolio companies include Autism Home Support Services (“AHSS”), the largest provider in Illinois of home-based therapy for children on the autism spectrum. He is also a current Board member of 8th Light, BigStep Cloud, Consumer Ventures, Innovare, Jackson Capital Group, Just Hot Tubs, Kinzie Capital, Leadership Lyceum, MetalSoft and is a Board observer for Psycle London. He was formerly a Board member of Campus Cubed, Kenna Security (acquired by Cisco), Rise Interactive (acquired by Quad), Simple Mills (recapitalized by Vestar), SonarMed (acquired by Medtronic) and Spikeball.

Since Spring 2012, McGowan has taught at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business (“Booth”), and currently serves there as an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, and as an Investor in Residence and Faculty Advisor to Booth’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In the Fall of 2022, he begins his 12^th year teaching Booth’s Sterling Partners Investment Thesis Challenge (“SPITC”) and his 10^th year teaching Booth’s Private Equity and Venture Capital Lab. He is also conducting the 8^th year of the Booth Private Equity Case Challenge (f.k.a. Oxford-Chicago Global Private Equity Challenge).

McGowan is an active angel investor and currently serves as Chairman of the Limited Partner Advisory Committee for Hyde Park Venture Partners Fund I (and a member of their Fund II, Fund III and Opportunity Fund’s Boards), and as Chairman of the Advisory Board for Valley Growth Ventures. He is former member of Hyde Park Angels’ Board of Directors and Portfolio Advisory Board. His angel investments include Aero Design Labs, Agent.ai, AIM Clinics, AuditSight, BallotReady, Blueprint, Book+Main, Branch Messenger, Brilliant, Catalytic, Chowbus, Clearcover, Clyde, Codeverse, Cohesion, Colony Display, DAOHQ, Dispatch, EVA Automation, ExplORer, Farmers Fridge, FarmLogs, Fillow, FourKites, Frank, GeoFeedia, Havoc Shield, Hologram, Human Predictions, Kaizen Health, Klover, LandscapeHub, Lightpoint Medical, Luxury Garage Sale, Made In Cookware, Market Wagon, Markit, MAX Analytical, MetalSoft Cloud, Nanograph, nOCD, Noirefy, NuCurrent, Occasion, Ocient, Pacha Soap, Packback, Pangea, ParkWhiz/Arrive, PartySlate, Polyphotonix, PopularPays, Provi, Resonado, Rheaply, ShipBob, Sifter, Stacked, StreamLink, Techstars, Tenacity Cloud, ThinkCerca, TonDone, TractorZoom, TransparentC, Truss, TurboAppeal, Vertex and YCharts.

McGowan married his high school sweetheart, Sandy, and they have three children: one attending Walter Payton College Prep, and two recent graduates of the University of Chicago’s Laboratory Schools (“Lab”). At Lab, McGowan served for nine years on its Board of Directors including four years leading Lab’s Development Committee (two as Chair, two as Co-Chair), including oversight for Lab+, the School’s $80 million capital campaign. He is also a former Trustee for the Court Theatre at the University of Chicago. McGowan is serving his fifth year as President of Friends of Walter Payton College Prep (and former Chair, Annual Fund), and serves on the SHSAA Board of Trustees for Stuyvesant High School, where he attended with Sandy in New York City.

Duane Jackson

Founder, Author Capital Partners

Focus: Founder and family-led businesses, private equity and growth equity

Program involvement: Student workshops and Sterling Partners Investment Thesis Challenge (SPITC)

Duane Jackson is the founder of Author Capital Partners, a private investment firm that provides long-term, flexible capital to founder- and family-led businesses with less than $20M in EBITDA. Duane previously worked at BDT Capital Partners, a merchant bank focused on larger founder- and family-led businesses. At BDT, he had broad responsibilities including sourcing and executing transactions, leading research initiatives across the firm, and assisting in the development of the firm’s approach to ESG. Duane also served as a Toigo Private Equity Fellow at Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on software and technology businesses. He came to appreciate the role families have in building businesses over the long-term by working alongside several notable families, supporting their direct investments ranging from pre-revenue angel stage companies to small but mature, lower middle market companies. Duane first learned to creatively address complex problems as a member of the Chief Investment Office for TARP at the US Treasury Department during the global financial crisis and as an investment banker to financial institutions at Merrill Lynch. Duane earned an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was an MLT Fellow and earned a BBA from the George Washington University. He serves as an investor-in-residence at Chicago Booth and serves as a trustee at Lake Forest Academy.