Hill Path Capital

Hill Path runs a concentrated, hybrid strategy that mixes public-market PIPEs with private buyouts in mature consumer sectors. The firm holds seven to ten positions at a time and aims for five-year-plus holding periods. Its posture is operationally active — it frequently seeks board representation and pushes for management changes.

Scott Ross founded Hill Path Capital, registered since 2015. He was previously a partner at Apollo Global Management. Ross was previously a partner at Apollo Global Management, where he focused on distressed and special-situations investing. That restructuring and operations-heavy background directly shapes Hill Path's approach to consumer-company turnarounds (per Bloomberg, 2021).

Hill Path's highest-profile position was SeaWorld Entertainment, which it began accumulating in 2017. The firm eventually became the largest shareholder, installed a new CEO, and navigated the company through the pandemic-era tourism collapse. It sold the stake in May 2024 when the company — renamed United Parks & Resorts — was valued at roughly $4.4 billion (per Bloomberg, May 2024).

The firm's disclosed public portfolio has been heavily concentrated in travel, leisure, and casual dining. Its known positions include SeaWorld Entertainment, Miller's Ale House, and Wheels Up. While it does not formally exclude other sectors, its investment committee has consistently executed within a consumer-and-services mandate.

Hill Path does not rely on auction processes for its core positions. The firm builds large stakes in publicly traded companies through open-market purchases and direct negotiations, often over months or years. This approach gives it an activist posture from the start, securing board seats and driving restructuring plans that are harder to execute in competitive bidding.

No. Hill Path Capital is structured as a private equity firm that manages external institutional capital. It raised its first fund with roughly $1 billion in commitments and has closed a larger second fund. It is not affiliated with a single-family wealth source.

Scott Ross spent more than a decade at Apollo Global Management, where he became a partner and senior member of the private equity team. His work there included distressed-for-control investments, operational turnarounds, and complex corporate carve-outs — a skill set that directly informed Hill Path's consumer-activism playbook.