Pacific Avenue Capital Partners

The firm's three Managing Partners — Chris Sznewajs, Jason Leach, and James Oh — lead investment decisions. Each appears on the firm's website as part of the founding leadership group that has closed over 120 combined transactions, including more than 50 corporate carve-outs, across their careers.

Pacific Avenue focuses on corporate divestitures and carve-outs in the middle market, approaching corporations directly rather than competing in broad auctions. The firm targets non-core business units that parent companies want to shed, then applies an in-house operational playbook to stand them up as independent entities. Its Paris office extends origination into European corporate divestiture programs.

Pacific Avenue explicitly seeks underperforming businesses that are operationally intensive but not distressed. The firm states it is 'comfortable with operationally-intensive businesses that are underperforming, but not distressed,' distinguishing its strategy from pure turnaround or distressed-debt investing.

Pacific Avenue executes both platform acquisitions and bolt-on add-ons, with a portfolio that spans corporate carve-outs and founder transitions across North America, Europe, and India. The firm does not publicly disclose whether it raises commingled funds or uses deal-by-deal capital, but its AUM reporting references 'active Pacific Avenue-managed investment partnerships.'

The firm's portfolio reaches the United States, Canada, Europe, and India. The investment team operates from Manhattan Beach, California and Paris, France. Pacific Avenue's website lists geography filters for Canada, Europe, India, and the United States across its current and realized investments.

The firm invests across industrials, building products, business services, automotive, healthcare technology, specialty chemicals, distribution, capital equipment, consumer, and food. Its portfolio page lists these industries — and notably excludes technology, software, and financial services, suggesting a deliberate focus on tangible, operationally intensive sectors.

Pacific Avenue uses a codified three-phase operating playbook: pre-close stabilization work, a structured first-100-days plan addressing pricing, SKU rationalization, and cost reduction, and an onward optimization phase. The firm's in-house operators — with a claimed 100+ years of combined operational experience — execute directly rather than outsourcing to consultants.