Incline Equity Partners

Managing Partner Jack Glover leads the firm, with Partners Justin Bertram and Leon Rubinov forming the senior investment team. The group worked together at PNC Equity Partners before the 2011 spinout. All three are based in Pittsburgh, where the partnership structure concentrates decision-making across the concentrated vertical teams.

Incline targets companies generating $5 million to $25 million in EBITDA. The firm pursues control equity positions, typically as the first institutional capital in a business. Structures include outright buyouts, corporate carve-outs from larger parents, and recapitalizations that allow founder-owners to de-risk while retaining minority stakes.

Incline was formed in 2011 when the private equity team of PNC Equity Partners executed a management buyout and rebranded as an independent firm. The separation closed any formal capital or governance ties to PNC. The team retained its Pittsburgh base and the middle-market buyout strategy it had prosecuted inside the bank since at least the 1990s.

Incline does not invest in technology startups, early-stage ventures, real estate, natural resource extraction, or highly regulated healthcare providers like hospital systems. The firm explicitly concentrates on specialized light manufacturing, value-added distribution, and business services — avoiding sectors where it lacks operational playbooks or where regulatory hurdles complicate control-position buyouts.

The firm integrates operational improvement into its deal teams rather than siloing it in a separate consulting arm. Incline's partners and principals bring industry-specific operating experience — particularly around pricing, supply-chain reconfiguration, and sales-force effectiveness — to acquired businesses. This embedded approach suits a concentrated portfolio of founder-and-family transitions where operational lift is a central thesis.