Bernard Buonanno

Bernard V. Buonanno III is a Managing Director at Nautic Partners, a Providence, Rhode Island–based middle-market private equity firm that invests in the healthcare, industrials, and business services sectors. A Providence native, he earned an A.B. from Brown University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Early in his career he worked at Prudential-Bache Capital Funding.

He joined Fleet Equity Partners in 1993 and stayed through 2000, when the team spun out to form Nautic Partners; he has been with Nautic ever since. His investment specialty is services businesses, and he sits on the firm's Executive and Investment Committee. Nautic describes its managing directors — a group that includes Habib Gorgi, Scott Hilinski, Chris Crosby, Douglas Hill, Chris Corey, Chris Pierce, and James Beakey alongside Buonanno — as having worked together for well over 100 combined years.

Over his tenure, Buonanno has served on the boards of numerous Nautic portfolio companies, reflecting the firm's control-oriented model in which partners take active governance roles. Outside of investing, he has been active with Brown University athletics, including roles associated with the Brown University Athletic Hall of Fame.

(Note on identity: Bernard V. Buonanno III should not be confused with his father, Bernard V. Buonanno Jr., a Providence attorney who served on the R.I. Convention Center Authority; the daughter of Bernard Jr. is retail executive and gubernatorial candidate Helena Buonanno Foulkes. This profile covers the Nautic Partners managing director, "III.")

• Invests through Nautic Partners' institutional buyout funds, taking control stakes in established middle-market companies rather than making seed/angel bets.
• Sector focus: healthcare, industrials, and business services — with Buonanno's individual specialty in services investments.
• Targets profitable, established businesses where Nautic can partner with management, add capital and governance, and build value over a multi-year hold.
• U.S.-focused; deals are sourced and executed from Nautic's Providence, RI headquarters.
• Nautic's scale has grown steadily across fund cycles (Fund IX $1.5B in 2019, Fund X $3.0B in 2021, Fund XI $4.5B in 2024), indicating an appetite for larger middle-market platforms over time.