George Hinton

George “Bo” Hinton is a healthcare investment banker and former private equity investor. Public sources identify him as a founder and managing director of Coker Capital Advisors, a healthcare-focused middle-market investment bank founded in 2009.

Before Coker, Hinton spent roughly seven years at Carousel Capital Partners, a Charlotte-based middle-market private equity firm with approximately $800 million under management, where he evaluated healthcare companies for investment or acquisition and worked on M&A, debt, equity, real estate financings, joint ventures, and restructuring transactions.

Earlier in his career, Hinton worked in Wachovia’s healthcare investment banking group, now part of Wells Fargo Securities, advising middle-market healthcare companies and investor groups on M&A and public and private debt and equity financings. He earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1999 and played varsity football, including on Dartmouth’s 1996 undefeated Ivy League championship team.

In 2018, Fifth Third Securities agreed to acquire Coker Capital Advisors. Fifth Third said Coker’s leadership team had more than 100 years of combined healthcare transaction experience and had executed transactions with aggregate value above $65 billion. In March 2023, Raymond James hired Hinton, McNeill Wester, and Tim VanBenthuysen from Fifth Third’s Coker Capital unit to expand its healthcare investment banking practice.

• Focuses on middle-market healthcare services rather than seed-stage startups; Coker was described as advising transactions generally below $1 billion in enterprise value.
• Strong bias toward healthcare businesses with scale, growth visibility, and limited reimbursement or regulatory headwinds.
• Has emphasized companies that help reduce system cost or move care to lower-cost settings; in Becker’s, Hinton described interest in services that “favorably plays the cost trend.”
• Particularly active in physician services and behavioral health, both described by The Deal as areas of high private equity interest.
• Less focused on life sciences and early-stage venture-type work; Coker’s relationships were described as centered on buyers and investors interested in mature businesses.
• Advises founder-owned, sponsor-backed, and healthcare services companies on sale processes, capital raising, strategic alternatives, and consolidation opportunities.