Houlihan Lokey, Inc. announced that Alexandra Lebenthal has joined the firm as a Senior Advisor in its Financial Sponsors Group. In this new role, Ms. Lebenthal will lead a new initiative focused on providing investment banking services, industry relationships, and growth opportunities to female entrepreneurs and business owners in the U.S. Ms. Lebenthal is based in New York.

Ms. Lebenthal has more than three decades of experience in financial services, having joined her family’s business, Lebenthal & Co., in 1988 and becoming President and CEO seven years later. In 2007, after selling the company, she relaunched her own certified woman-owned company as its President and CEO, recognized as a leading woman-owned broker-dealer in corporate capital markets. Over the course of her career, Ms. Lebenthal has received numerous awards and accolades, including being named one of New York's “100 Most Influential Women” by Crain's New York Business in 1999 and one of the “Top 50 Women in Wealth Management” by Wealth Manager in 2009. In 2013, she was named to both Crain’s “Largest Women-Owned Businesses” and “Fast 50” lists. She has served as a board member of The Committee of 200, an organization for businesswomen, and a board member and Treasurer of SIFMA. She also co-founded The Women's Executive Circle in 1996, a women's mentorship program.    

“A key element of Houlihan Lokey’s success over nearly five decades of growth has been to seek out trends or opportunities that are emergent or, in this case, untapped but with tremendous potential,” said John Mavredakis, Global Head of the Financial Sponsors Group. “We believe there exists a significant gap between women-founded or women-owned businesses and the financial services industry’s dedication to effectively serving these businesses. We see a huge opportunity to close that gap and dedicate our expertise, relationships, and resources to this segment of the U.S. business landscape. In this respect, Alexandra could not be more perfectly suited to this role, and we are delighted that she has joined us as a Senior Advisor to lead this effort.”

“Over the course of my career, I have met so many women in exciting roles—at startups, venture capital firms, financial sponsors, and others—and in contemplating the next phase of my career, I saw the opportunity to combine my passion for supporting women in business with my experience and expertise as both an advisor and a business owner to create something genuinely meaningful and impactful at a time when women-led businesses have achieved unprecedented growth,” said Ms. Lebenthal. “Houlihan Lokey’s size and scale, dominance in mid-cap corporate finance, unmatched coverage of the financial sponsor universe, and breadth of products and services available to help sustain and grow women-owned businesses make it the ideal home for this initiative, and together we believe deeply in its potential for success.

“Alexandra’s wealth of wisdom and knowledge is outstanding, and her passionate efforts over the years to mentor and support women in business is remarkable,” said Irwin Gold, Executive Chairman at Houlihan Lokey. “We are confident that this new initiative will be a success under her guidance and leadership, and we are hopeful that our dedication to women in business will have an ancillary and meaningful impact on our own diversity and inclusion efforts at Houlihan Lokey, which are more important than ever.”

Ms. Lebenthal holds a B.A. in History from Princeton University.