On the heels of the firm’s busiest year to date and acquisition of PCF Insurance, the first investment from HGGC Fund IV, leading middle-market private equity firm HGGC announced several team changes to support its rapid growth. Foremost among these are the promotion of Dan Stanko from Principal to Partner, and the addition of Chris Heim, former CEO of HGGC portfolio company HelpSystems, who has more than 20 years of experience as a technology industry executive.
“I’m proud to say careers are made at HGGC,” said Rich Lawson, Chairman, CEO, and co-Founder of HGGC. “We attract talent from some of the industry’s biggest players who, like Dan, are drawn to our approach, reputation, and track-record. It is great to have a team that has grown with the firm, and fully understands our vision of opportunity in the market.”
Dan Stanko has been promoted from Principal to Partner. Since joining the firm in 2018, Stanko has been active in the firm’s Fund III investments in HelpSystems and Mi9 as well as Fund II investments in AutoAlert and Dealer-FX. He was previously involved with the firm’s exited investment in Innovative. Prior to HGGC, he spent nearly a decade at Bain Capital, where he was responsible for sourcing, evaluating, executing, and driving value creation across existing and new investments, specializing in industrials and TMT. Prior to Bain Capital, Stanko served as an Analyst in the Private Equity Group at Goldman, Sachs & Co. He holds an MBA from Stanford, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and graduated with the highest distinction from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and East Asian Languages.
Chris Heim joins HGGC as Executive Director after doubling the size of HelpSystems, where he currently serves as Executive Chairman. Heim’s two-decade career in leadership at technology companies— including multiple CEO roles at high-growth companies including Axium Software, Amcom Software, and HighJump Software—brings HGGC great operational expertise. For his work, Ernst and Young named Heim Entrepreneur of the Year. Chris earned a bachelor’s and an MBA degree from the University of St. Thomas.
Other promotions and additions include Steve Marino, who has been promoted to Principal, and Victor Rudo, who joins HGGC as a Vice President following his graduation from Stanford’s MBA program and a 2019 summer internship at HGGC.
Marino joined the firm in 2016 and leads its investor relations efforts. He significantly contributed to the firm’s prior $1.85 billion HGGC Fund III fundraise that closed at its hard cap in December 2016 after less than 100 days in the market. Prior to joining HGGC, Marino spent four years in Evercore’s Private Funds Group, where he covered institutional limited partners in the Western United States. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and American Studies from Middlebury College.
Prior to business school, Rudo served as Director of Strategy at Ascentis and spent three years at Summit Partners, where he was responsible for identifying, evaluating and managing investments in the technology sector. Rudo was previously an Investment Banking Analyst at William Blair. He holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in Business Administration from Emory University.