Deven Petito

Deven H. Petito is a Managing Director at Mill Road Capital Management LLC, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based private investment firm founded in 2004 that brings private-equity-style governance and capital to publicly traded micro-cap companies in the U.S. and Canada. He joined the firm in 2014 and sits on its Management Committee. At Mill Road he is responsible for originating and executing both public and private equity transactions and for portfolio-company monitoring, and he leads new idea generation and investment due diligence for the firm's public equity portfolio. The firm reports having roughly $1.0 billion in assets under management, and Petito has led over twenty investments during his tenure.

Before Mill Road, Petito began his investing career in the Private Equity Group at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), where he was involved in the firm's investments in Dollar General Corporation (NYSE: DG) and Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASO), focusing on the retail and consumer sectors. Prior to KKR, he worked in the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley.

Petito holds an A.B. in Economics from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

He is active as a director and board observer on portfolio companies. He was appointed to the board of Superior Industries International, Inc. (NYSE: SUP), a manufacturer of aluminum wheels, on January 11, 2024, pursuant to a cooperation agreement between Superior and Mill Road. In January 2026 he became a non-voting board observer at Alta Equipment Group Inc., and he has been involved in Mill Road's private holdings such as Mother's Market & Kitchen. In 2024–2025 Mill Road nominated him for election to the board of Landsea Homes as part of an activist campaign.

• Invests in publicly traded micro-cap companies (U.S. and Canada) using a private-equity fund structure — the opposite of angel/seed investing.
• Targets companies the firm views as "misunderstood and mispriced by the public markets," then works to unlock value through engagement and governance.
• Uses three core playbooks: (1) building large block positions in public equities and engaging with management/boards; (2) providing primary/structured capital of any type to fund growth or deleverage; and (3) orchestrating take-private transactions.
• Emphasizes a "distinctive private equity approach that allows for lengthy due diligence and for the size of an investment to scale progressively with our understanding of the target company."
• Sector-agnostic within small-cap: retail, consumer products, industrials, manufacturing, business services, energy, and healthcare.
• Frequently seeks board representation or observer seats as part of the engagement model.