Private Equity and Investment Banking Veterans Introduce Live Oak Merchant Partners
January 13, 2020
Financial veterans Rick Hendrix and Gary Wunderlich are proud to announce the formation of a new venture, Live Oak Merchant Partners, a private investment and advisory firm serving best-in-class middle-market companies.
Live Oak Merchant Partners draws upon over 90 collective years of experience and accompanying resources, having invested in businesses, served as trusted advisors, and created sustainable shareholder value. The firms’ managing partners have provided capital and advice to family-owned, financial sponsor-backed, and public companies, collectively ranging from $5M to over $5B in equity value.
“Our goal is to support and advise companies ready for their next phase of growth,” said co-founder Gary Wunderlich. “We look forward to putting our experience to work, particularly during a critical point in a company’s trajectory. Though we are working in a variety of industries, our shared end goal for Live Oak portfolio companies is to support them in creating exceptional outcomes for customers, employees, and owners.”
The Live Oak team comprises former CEOs and senior executives with decades of experience leading teams and businesses through growth, restructuring, capital formation, and successful exits.
Rick Hendrix serves as co-founder and managing partner of Live Oak Merchant Partners. Prior to co-founding Live Oak, Mr. Hendrix served as the chairman and CEO of FBR & Co (NYSE: FBRC), a full-service investment banking and brokerage firm, from 2009 until its successful merger in June 2017 with B. Riley Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ: RILY). Prior to becoming CEO of FBR, Hendrix served in a number of different senior executive roles within the investment banking and merchant banking divisions of FBR. Prior to joining FBR in 1999, Hendrix spent 12 years with PNC Bank in its commercial and investment banking groups.
Over the course of his career, Hendrix has worked extensively with issuers and investors focused on companies in the financial services, real estate, energy, industrial, and business and consumer services sectors. He has led dozens of initial equity offerings, raising tens of billions of dollars for founder-led and sponsor-backed companies. During his tenure as CEO of FBR, Mr. Hendrix also was instrumental in the founding and initial capitalization of numerous “Newcos” that built successful franchises within the banking, insurance, and real estate sectors. Additionally, Hendrix has considerable experience advising chief executives, boards of directors, and large shareholders regarding strategy, capital structure, and capital access.
Gary Wunderlich is co-founder and managing partner of Live Oak Merchant Partners. Wunderlich is focused on investment originations and investor relations. Prior to co-founding Live Oak, Wunderlich was the founder and CEO of Wunderlich Securities, Inc., a full-service investment banking and brokerage firm, from 1996 until its successful merger in July 2017 with B. Riley Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ: RILY). Following the merger, Wunderlich served as a director of RILY from August 2017 to July 2018 and remained CEO of Wunderlich (rebranded B Riley Wealth) until November of 2018.
As CEO of Wunderlich, Wunderlich was involved in all aspects of company growth from a virtual start-up into a full-service investment bank. Firm-wide revenues grew to over $120 million in 2017, reflecting a CAGR of approximately 30% over 23 years. In addition to wealth management and institutional fixed income, Wunderlich oversaw an investment banking department that was a manager or co-manager of 151 transactions raising over $21.5 billion in proceeds for issuers in the three years prior to its merger with B Riley. Wunderlich Securities, Inc. was ranked as one of the fastest growing private companies in America by Inc. Magazine in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Robert Feinstein is a managing partner of Live Oak Merchant Partners. Previously, Feinstein was a Partner of Compass Point, which grew from four employees to 55 during his 11-year tenure and launched an investment banking group that has been an underwriter for initial public offerings, follow on offerings, and 144A transactions, completing over one hundred transactions while working with a vast array of financial service companies.
Prior to joining Compass Point in 2008, Feinstein was a founding partner at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc. At FBR, Mr. Feinstein held senior positions in the firm’s Institutional Sales Department, and most recently served as Senior Managing Director of Sales, Private Wealth. Prior to his 20 years at FBR, Feinstein was a Senior Vice President at Johnston, Lemon & Co. in their institutional sales group.