Christopher Hammond

Christopher Hammond is a Nashville-based investment and finance professional whose career spans public accounting, healthcare finance, and lending/investing in lower-middle-market transactions. According to a published professional bio, he holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. The same bio traces a career through Ernst & Young (E&Y), Heller Financial, GE Capital, Calvert Street Capital Partners, Gen Cap America, Physicians Capital, and Harbert Mezzanine Partners. He has been based in Nashville since 2009.

His Harbert connection — and the [hidden] email — ties to Harbert Mezzanine Partners, the Nashville-based subordinated-debt arm of Harbert Management Corporation now branded Harbert Credit Solutions. That group, founded in 2000 and headquartered at 333 11th Avenue South, Suite 410, Nashville, TN 37203, provides subordinated debt paired with equity participation (typically ~$5–15 million per deal) to growth-oriented private middle-market companies for organic growth, acquisitions, recapitalizations, and management buyouts. A 2017 Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) registry lists him there under the "Capital Provider – Mezzanine Lender" category.

More recent public listings (business-broker directories such as BizQuest/BizBuySell and aggregators like RocketReach) place him as a Vice President at Alliant Capital Advisors LLC, a Nashville lower-middle-market M&A advisory/business-brokerage firm, with Harbert Mezzanine Partners cited as a prior role in his career history. However, Alliant's current public team roster does not list him, so his present-day employer is not cleanly confirmed from public sources. The consistent, verifiable through-line is his identity as a Nashville credit/mezzanine and lower-middle-market M&A professional rooted in his Harbert tenure.

Harbert Management Corporation itself is a Birmingham, Alabama–headquartered alternative-asset manager founded in 1993 by Raymond J. Harbert, managing roughly $8 billion across real assets and private-capital strategies (real estate, growth equity, credit, infrastructure, and more), with a Nashville office that houses its credit/mezzanine business.

• Instrument: Subordinated (mezzanine) debt structured alongside equity participation — a yield-plus-upside profile, not pure equity venture bets.
• Stage & size: Lower-middle / middle-market, established companies; Harbert Credit Solutions deals run roughly $5–15 million.
• What makes a "yes": Per the firm's stated criteria, strong and stable cash flows, an experienced/capable management team, a clear growth trajectory, and a defined exit strategy.
• Use of capital: Financing for organic growth, acquisitions, recapitalizations, and management buyouts — situations where a profitable business needs flexible junior capital.
• Personal lens: His background in public accounting (E&Y) and healthcare finance (Physicians Capital, GE Capital, Heller Financial) suggests comfort with cash-flow underwriting and healthcare/services businesses.