OUR TEAM
RENA CLARK, MANAGING PARTNER
Rena Clark is a Managing Partner at Laurel Oak Capital Partners, with almost 25 years of general management, private equity and entrepreneurial experience. Rena is a former Partner with GenNx360 Capital Partners, a private equity industrial middle market buyout firm with $1.1B in committed capital. While with GenNx360, she led or co-led transactions across a range of industrial sectors with aggregated company revenues of $1.01B and representing ~$350M in total investments.
Prior to joining GenNx360 in 2007, Rena served as CEO of two private equity backed lower middle market manufacturing companies including a turnaround and a corporate carve-out. In both instances, she was able to grow top line revenue and improve profitability and earnings. Also during her professional career, she held roles with General Electric, Bain & Co., Harvard Business School and The Kraft Sports Group.
Along with serving on the Initiative for Competitive Inner Cities (ICIC) board, Rena is a trustee at both Lasell College and The Carroll School where her daughter attends. She also serves as a Boys & Girls Club of Boston overseer and a Bethel AME Church trustee where she is a member of the Finance Committee.
Rena holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering with honors from Lamar University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Key Experiences
LinkedIn Profile
Prior to joining GenNx360 in 2007, Rena served as CEO of two private equity backed lower middle market manufacturing companies including a turnaround and a corporate carve-out. In both instances, she was able to grow top line revenue and improve profitability and earnings. Also during her professional career, she held roles with General Electric, Bain & Co., Harvard Business School and The Kraft Sports Group.
Along with serving on the Initiative for Competitive Inner Cities (ICIC) board, Rena is a trustee at both Lasell College and The Carroll School where her daughter attends. She also serves as a Boys & Girls Club of Boston overseer and a Bethel AME Church trustee where she is a member of the Finance Committee.
Rena holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering with honors from Lamar University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Key Experiences
- Executed successful turnaround of lower mid-market sponsor-backed portfolio company & executed a MBO
- Led a successful ‘stand up’ of a specialty chemical carve-out
- Successfully led the acquisition and the 100-Day Plan launch of several buyouts; oversaw, from the Board, several cost-out initiatives, including a key precision machining in-sourcing effort
LinkedIn Profile
EMANUEL SLATER, MANAGING PARTNER
Emanuel Slater is a Managing Partner at Laurel Oak Capital Partners, and has over 15 years of business experience, including: driving business strategy implementation, designing and implementing financial and operational efficiencies, investing in middle market private equity companies and performing financial analysis and asset valuation.
Since 2008, Emanuel has focused on optimizing business performance of middle market private equity portfolio companies (including turnaround execution) and driving critical financial and operational efficiency initiatives for large, global financial institutions.
Prior to Laurel Oak, Emanuel’s focus was to lead the execution of the most critical financial and operational efficiencies for the US operations of Deutsche Bank, achieving over $100bn in balance sheet efficiencies, and over $50bn in risk-weighted asset efficiencies. Prior to this work, Emanuel worked as a Manager at Deloitte Consulting and at Diamond Management & Technology Consultants in Strategy & Operations, driving strategy execution of critical financial and operational initiatives for blue-chip clients. Emanuel also served as Financial Consultant to the CEO of a lower middle market defense contractor, leading turnaround execution with 92% revenue growth and 186% growth in profitability.
Previously, Emanuel worked at Lehman Brothers in its Global Principal Strategies, Private Equity Group where he focused on private equity investments in middle-market companies and co-investments with bulge bracket financial sponsors in large cap leveraged buyouts.
Prior to Lehman, Emanuel worked at Goldman Sachs in its Special Situations Group where he focused on debt and equity investing in middle-market companies. Emanuel also worked at Goldman in its Mortgage-Backed / Asset-Backed Securities Group.
Emanuel holds a BA from Princeton University and MBA from Harvard Business School.
Key Experiences
LinkedIn Profile
Since 2008, Emanuel has focused on optimizing business performance of middle market private equity portfolio companies (including turnaround execution) and driving critical financial and operational efficiency initiatives for large, global financial institutions.
Prior to Laurel Oak, Emanuel’s focus was to lead the execution of the most critical financial and operational efficiencies for the US operations of Deutsche Bank, achieving over $100bn in balance sheet efficiencies, and over $50bn in risk-weighted asset efficiencies. Prior to this work, Emanuel worked as a Manager at Deloitte Consulting and at Diamond Management & Technology Consultants in Strategy & Operations, driving strategy execution of critical financial and operational initiatives for blue-chip clients. Emanuel also served as Financial Consultant to the CEO of a lower middle market defense contractor, leading turnaround execution with 92% revenue growth and 186% growth in profitability.
Previously, Emanuel worked at Lehman Brothers in its Global Principal Strategies, Private Equity Group where he focused on private equity investments in middle-market companies and co-investments with bulge bracket financial sponsors in large cap leveraged buyouts.
Prior to Lehman, Emanuel worked at Goldman Sachs in its Special Situations Group where he focused on debt and equity investing in middle-market companies. Emanuel also worked at Goldman in its Mortgage-Backed / Asset-Backed Securities Group.
Emanuel holds a BA from Princeton University and MBA from Harvard Business School.
Key Experiences
- Experience driving complex financial and operational efficiencies for large global institutions
- Experience serving as investor and driving financial and operational efficiencies for middle market companies
- Executed successful turnaround of middle market private equity portfolio company
- Experience in various industries including industrials, defense contractors, business services, financial services and retail
LinkedIn Profile
