Moontower

Managing Partner Russell Valdez and Partner Connor Stewart lead the firm. Valdez was formerly the Chief Investment Officer of Wafra, a roughly $30 billion AUM alternative investment manager, where Stewart served as Managing Director for financial services. Day-to-day, principals Sean McKeon and Code Sternal drive deal execution alongside a lean team of vice presidents and analysts.

Moontower does not publicly disclose a proprietary origination engine, but its founding team’s two-decade network in real assets and financial services — built during their tenure at Wafra and prior — forms the core of their sourcing. The studio model also implies a relationship-driven approach, with operating partners and a deep bench of industry executives contributing to deal identification and operational diligence.

Moontower is structured as a private investment studio, not a single-family office. It manages third-party capital through a private equity platform targeting control and control-oriented investments in real assets and financial services. The firm’s generational-horizon language and operational, studio-based model are distinct from a standard fixed-life, commingled fund manager.

Moontower focuses on buyout, expansion and late-stage growth equity. The firm seeks control-oriented positions where it can deploy operational talent and strategic capital to transform businesses. It does not publicly discuss venture-stage, seed or early-growth investing outside of established, later-stage platforms.

Moontower’s website centers its practice on real assets and financial services. While the firm does not publish an explicit exclusion list, its team backgrounds, operating-partner roster and stated mission do not reference technology venture, consumer brands, healthcare or life sciences, implying a deliberate sector concentration.

Moontower markets itself as a private equity studio that invests directly into operating companies. The firm does not describe itself as a fund-of-funds or as a limited partner in third-party private equity vehicles. Its model relies on direct control and structured equity positions executed through its in-house investment and operating team.

There is no ownership or legal relationship between Moontower and Wafra. Russell Valdez, Moontower’s managing partner, was Wafra’s Chief Investment Officer and Connor Stewart was a Managing Director there before co-founding Moontower in 2022. The two firms operate independently, though the founders’ joint tenure at Wafra shaped Moontower’s real-asset and financial-services focus.