Riva Ridge Capital Management

Jason B. Hesse serves as Founder and Chief Investment Officer with portfolio-manager-level responsibility. Before launching the firm in 2012, Hesse invested in structured credit and principal situations at Goldman Sachs and later worked as an analyst at Lone Pine Capital, the $15B-plus Tiger Cub manager. The firm's structure suggests a single-decision-maker model rather than a committee-driven process.

Riva Ridge runs a concentrated, long-biased fundamental equity strategy layered with opportunistic credit and special-situations investing. In practice, the firm operates closer to a distressed-for-control or catalyst-driven shop that uses public markets to execute. The portfolio holds 10-15 positions on average, with holding periods typically measured in years, not quarters.

Riva Ridge operates as an external manager open to institutional and qualified individual investors. The firm closed its flagship fund to new subscriptions relatively early, however, to protect capacity in a concentrated strategy where oversized asset bases would erode the small-portfolio advantage core to its investment thesis.

The firm targets companies undergoing corporate complexity: spinoffs, post-bankruptcy recapitalizations, sector dislocation, or management transitions where sell-side coverage is weak and traditional long-only managers are structurally unable to participate. The investment process emphasizes downside protection, hard-catalyst identification, and free-cash-flow generation as non-negotiables.

No. Riva Ridge is an independent partnership, not a subsidiary of a multi-boutique platform or a spinout with retained parent-company economics. The firm's independence is central to its investment posture, allowing it to make illiquid, complex, or career-contingent bets without the calendar constraints or risk-committee oversight found at larger institutional managers.