Liberty Hall Capital Partners

Taylor Pickett, the firm's founder and managing partner, leads all investment decisions. Before launching Liberty Hall in 2011, Pickett was a principal at The Carlyle Group focused on aerospace and defense. The firm also includes partners with operational backgrounds in A&D manufacturing, but ultimate investment committee authority sits with Pickett.

The firm's thesis is that aerospace and defense supply chains are structurally different from general industrials — longer qualification cycles, tighter regulatory oversight, and higher engineering barriers deter generalist funds. Liberty Hall's limited partnership agreement restricts capital deployment to A&D, making it one of the only pure-play funds in the space. This exclusivity helps differentiate the firm when competing for deals against larger generalist managers.

Liberty Hall invests exclusively through direct control buyouts, not fund commitments or minority stakes. The firm seeks platforms with $20 million to $200 million in revenue where it can deploy an operational playbook built around lean manufacturing, engineering-led sales, and add-on acquisition strategies within the A&D supply chain.

The firm sources through founder-owner transitions, corporate carve-outs from larger industrial conglomerates, and bankruptcy-driven restructurings within the A&D supply chain. Liberty Hall does not bid on prime contractor programs — it targets tier-2 and tier-3 suppliers where capital constraints or succession issues create entry points below the radar of strategic acquirers like Raytheon or Lockheed Martin.

Exits follow a dual-track approach: sales to strategic buyers, typically larger tier-1 suppliers or international industrial groups seeking A&D exposure, and sales to larger private equity firms executing roll-ups. The 2019 sale of AIM Aerospace to Sekisui Chemical and the 2022 sale of Comply365 to Accel-KKR illustrate both tracks.