Evanston Partners

Managing Members William V. Glastris, Jr. and Jeffrey D. Ellis lead the firm’s investment activity. Glastris has operated in the lower-middle market since 1983, including thirteen years as a Founding Principal of Prospect Partners, where he helped deploy $470 million across three funds. Ellis combines principal investing experience from High Street Capital with leveraged finance and M&A expertise from Wells Fargo and Macquarie Capital.

The firm relies on the extensive personal networks of its principals, built over decades in the Chicago lower-middle market. William Glastris spent his early career at Golder, Thoma & Cressey and LaSalle Capital Group, and Jeffrey Ellis developed relationships through High Street Capital and Wells Fargo's Leveraged Finance Group. The firm's advisor network — including M&A lawyer Sy Peck and corporate development consultant Joseph Feldman — further expands its origination reach.

The firm does not publicly reference a blind-pool fund structure and appears to operate primarily on a deal-by-deal basis, with principals and investor-advisors committing personal capital to each acquisition. This permanent-capital approach aligns with managing member William Glastris's prior model at Prospect Partners, which raised discrete institutional funds, but allows Evanston Partners to avoid forced exit timelines.

The firm focuses on lower-middle-market companies that are already profitable and have established niche market positions. It does not publish specific revenue or EBITDA thresholds, but its existing portfolio — ranging from a regional driveaway logistics provider to specialty food manufacturers — suggests a focus on small, cash-flow-positive businesses where management teams seek a partner for a recapitalization, acquisition, or long-term growth build.

The firm invests principal and advisor capital directly into each portfolio company and does not promote a formal co-investment program for outside limited partners. Its public materials position the firm as a direct equity partner to management teams rather than a fund-of-funds or club-deal syndicate serving external allocators.

Managing Member Jeffrey Ellis serves as CFO and a director of portfolio company Auto Driveaway Transport Logistics, where he has executed over thirty add-on acquisitions of formerly franchised offices. This deep operational embed illustrates a hands-on, operator-partner approach rather than a purely financial-oversight board role.

Managing Member William Glastris serves as Chairman of the Board of Fabretto Children’s Foundation, an Evanston-based nonprofit. There is no disclosed affiliated family office, foundation asset pool, or multi-generational perpetual trust structure tied directly to the firm's investment activity.