The ILEX Group

Co-managing partners Bill Perlstein and Rick Knop share responsibility for all investment decisions. Both have been with the firm since its 1998 founding. Unlike larger platforms where investment committees rotate junior partners through screening, ILEX's partners remain directly involved in origination, diligence, and post-close portfolio governance. No third managing partner has been added in the firm's operating history.

ILEX has historically operated on a deal-by-deal basis rather than raising blind-pool institutional funds. The firm assembles equity capital from a recurring network of family offices, wealth managers, and high-net-worth co-investors for each acquisition. This episodic structure frees ILEX from deployment-pressure deadlines that committed fund vehicles carry, though it also caps total assets under active management at any given time.

The firm's geographic focus is structural, not casual. McLean, Virginia sits inside the densest concentration of federal contractors, cleared IT service providers, and specialized government-services businesses in the United States. Perlstein and Knop have spent decades cultivating referral relationships with the lawyers, accountants, and trade-association executives who advise founder-sellers in this corridor. The resulting deal flow is predominantly proprietary and lightly intermediated, which the firm considers its core competitive advantage.

ILEX pursues control-oriented buyouts, management buyouts, and recapitalizations — not minority growth equity or venture-stage investments. The firm targets founder-led businesses with enterprise values generally below $50 million, where the next generation of family management or a senior operating executive is seeking a liquidity event alongside a capital partner. The investment horizon is patient, often spanning five to ten years, consistent with the firm's episodic capital model.

The ILEX Group operates as an independent partnership and is not a subsidiary or affiliate of any larger financial institution, bank, or publicly traded asset manager. The firm has no disclosed parent entity, and its co-investor base is composed of private family offices and individual high-net-worth participants rather than institutional limited partners traditionally anchored to large fund platforms.

ILEX's deal-by-deal model effectively turns every transaction into a co-investment event, as equity capital is raised per acquisition from the firm's recurring network. The firm has not publicly disclosed a practice of participating as a minority co-investor in transactions led by other general partners. ILEX's partners position themselves as lead or control sponsors rather than passive co-investors alongside larger institutional funds.

ILEX has historically avoided capital-intensive manufacturing, commodity-exposed industrial businesses, and consumer-facing retail. The firm's portfolio concentration in government services, enterprise software, cybersecurity, and specialized healthcare services reflects an aversion to sectors where founder value is tied to physical-asset scale or brand marketing spend rather than recurring contract revenue and intellectual property. The firm has not disclosed any positions in real estate, energy, or financial services.