Ashley Gray

Ashley Gray is a Michigan-based private-equity and M&A professional with more than a decade of experience across investment banking, advisory, corporate finance, and operations in the lower-middle market. She earned both her Master of Business Administration and her Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and Accounting (with Honors) from Grand Valley State University's Seidman College of Business. Over her career she reports having participated in more than 35 transactions representing over $500 million in combined value.

She built her transaction experience at Cascade Partners, a Southfield, MI middle-market investment bank and private investment firm, where she supported sell-side deals, capital raises, and business valuations for privately held companies. She was notably involved in the sale of Capitol Supply to Style Crest, Inc., executed during the COVID-19 period. On June 28, 2021, Cascade promoted her to Director, where she led deal origination and transaction execution and managed a team of analysts and associates across healthcare, precision metal manufacturing, plastic thermoforming, business services, and industrials. Her earlier career also included roles at Charter Capital Partners, DTE Energy, and Great Expressions Dental Centers.

Before returning to investing, Gray served as Finance Director at ArtiFlex Manufacturing, a privately held tier-one automotive supplier, where she oversaw acquisition activity, business analytics, and banking relationships — giving her direct operator experience inside a portfolio-scale company. In August 2024, Aquila Equity Partners announced it had hired her as a Managing Director; Managing Partner Gary N. Lewis described the incoming professionals as "tremendously talented" additions who fit the firm's "team-oriented and entrepreneurial culture."

At Aquila, an entrepreneurial lower-middle-market private investment firm, Gray is "involved in all areas of the firm's activities from deal sourcing, underwriting, and transaction execution to supporting our portfolio company partners." She is active in the region's deal community as a Board Member of ACG West Michigan and a member of ACG Detroit and ACG Western Michigan (a recent ACGWM Member of the Year finalist), and she serves as a Supervisory Board Member of Orsa Credit Union.

• Invests through Aquila Equity Partners in profitable lower-middle-market operating companies generating $1M–$20M in adjusted EBITDA — established businesses, not startups.
• Highly flexible structures: majority ownership, shared-control transactions, minority investments, mezzanine, and growth capital, with flexible/patient holding periods rather than a fixed fund clock.
• Sector emphasis on business services, healthcare, consumer & retail, and distribution, extended by her own operating and advisory background in manufacturing, building products, industrial & field services, and technology.
• Positions as "a flexible and entrepreneurial alternative to traditional private equity," intentionally partnering with a *small* group of companies so the team can devote significant resources to each — appealing to founders/families who want an operator-minded, relationship-driven partner rather than a purely financial buyer.
• Her operator credential (Finance Director at a tier-one auto supplier) means she evaluates deals with an eye toward operations, banking relationships, and post-close value creation, not just financial engineering.