BlackArch Partners, a prominent middle-market investment bank offering a full spectrum of advisory services, is pleased to announce that Gordie Vap has been promoted to Managing Director.

Vap is a founder of BlackArch Partners and heads the firm’s Aerospace, Defense and Government Services industry practice.  He has spent the last seventeen years in the Aerospace, Defense and Government services industry both as an investment banker focused on middle-market mergers and acquisitions and as an Air Force pilot.  Over the course of his investment banking career, Vap has advised more than twenty-five middle-market businesses.

Notable transactions led by Vap include the sale of Tex Tech to Shoreview Industries and the sale of Machine Lab to Milestone Partners.  He also advised Xe Services (formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, now known as ACADEMI) on its sale to USTC Holdings, LLC, the sale of Xe’s subsidiary, Aviation Worldwide Services, to AAR Corp. and the sale of CEF Industries, Inc., to TransDigm Group.

Prior to founding BlackArch, Vap served as an officer at Edgeview Partners, a leading middle-market investment bank based in Charlotte.

Before beginning his business career, Vap was a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, flying A-10 “Warthogs” for eight years.  During his service, he qualified as an instructor pilot, forward air controller and combat search and rescue pilot, flying in the Republic of Korea and in support of Operation Southern Watch in Iraq.

Vap earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University.  He also earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, graduating with high honors.  In addition, he is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

BlackArch Partners is a leading middle-market investment bank offering a full spectrum of advisory services to financial sponsors, private companies and diversified corporations.