News

CHICAGO – March 1, 2017 – Victory Park Capital (VPC), an investment firm focused on private middle market debt and equity investments, announced today the promotion of Tom Welch to Partner. Mr. Welch joined VPC in 2009 and has more than 10 years of alternative investment experience. He will continue to primarily be responsible for sourcing, analyzing, executing and managing direct private debt and equity investments in middle market companies within the financial services sector.

VPC has also added four new hires, growing the firm’s capabilities in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles:

• Derrick Cruz joins VPC as Vice President in the Los Angeles office. Mr. Cruz is responsible for origination, fundamental analysis, transaction execution and management of direct private debt and equity investments into small cap and lower middle market companies. Mr. Cruz also actively works on value creation initiatives and strategic alternatives for VPC’s investments. Previously, Mr. Cruz was a vice president at Tricadia Capital. He was also an investment professional at KKR & Co. L.P. and General Atlantic. Mr. Cruz started his career at Goldman Sachs in its Investment Banking division.
• Vartan Pogharian joins as Vice President in the New York office. Mr. Pogharian is based in VPC’s New York office and is responsible for origination, analysis, execution and management of VPC’s private equity and credit investments across multiple industries, including specialty finance. Previously, Mr. Pogharian was a vice president in Strategy & Corporate Development at Springleaf/OneMain. His prior experience includes working in the private equity group of HBK Capital Management and G3 Capital. Mr. Pogharian started his career at J.P. Morgan in the Global Mergers & Acquisitions Group.
• John Holman, Senior Associate – Based in the Los Angeles office, Mr. Holman is a former associate in Houlihan Lokey’s financial restructuring group. Prior to Houlihan, Mr. Holman practiced law at Latham & Watkins in New York.
• Chris Spanel, Associate – Based in the Chicago office, Mr. Spanel is a former investment banking analyst at Credit Suisse.

“For 10 years, we’ve been growing our firm with talented experts who enable us to identify unique investment opportunities in the middle market,” said Richard Levy, CEO and founder of VPC. “Our team and collective expertise across the U.S. are our greatest assets and we remain optimistic about the future market opportunities.”

Regarding Welch, Brendan Carroll, Senior Partner and co-founder of VPC, said, “Tom has been an integral part of our success at VPC, leading investments in complex sectors and financing situations and helping advance our expertise. His knowledge of the non-bank financial services sector has allowed us to sharpen our firm’s strategy and develop investment solutions that accelerate value creation. On behalf of everyone at VPC, I congratulate Tom on this well-deserved promotion.”