Habib Gorgi

Habib Y. Gorgi is the founder and a senior advisor of Nautic Partners, LLC, a Providence, Rhode Island–based private equity firm. He built the firm with partner Bernie Buonanno out of a Fleet Bank spinoff. Before founding Nautic in its current form (he joined the successor entity in 2000), Gorgi served as President of Fleet Equity Partners — the predecessor firm — from 1986 to 2000. Earlier in his career he worked in banking at BankAmerica and Fleet Bank. He earned an A.B. from Brown University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University (1983).

Under Gorgi's leadership, Nautic grew into a major middle-market buyout player focused on healthcare, industrials, and services. By 2021, when Blackstone acquired a significant minority stake in the firm, Nautic managed roughly $7.7 billion; the firm's most recent flagship, Nautic Fund IX, closed on about $1.5 billion of commitments. Preqin's 2021 ranking named Nautic the eighth most consistent top-performing buyout fund manager in the world, with three funds in the top quartile. Gorgi has since transitioned from day-to-day leadership into a founder/senior-advisor role.

Over his career Gorgi has held numerous board seats, including at Ariba, FTD.com, Simonds Industries (director since 1995), IOS Brands, and MACTEC, Inc. (where he served as Chairman), among other privately held companies. Today he is also an advisor to Catalyst Health Ventures, a Boston-area healthcare venture firm, and sits on the advisory board of the marketing-analytics/AI startup Leavened.

Beyond investing, Gorgi is active in the Rhode Island civic community. He was part of the ownership group that acquired the Pawtucket Red Sox (PawSox) and relocated the team to Worcester, and he serves on the advisory board of Brown University's Carney Institute for Brain Science. He is also associated with the nonprofit SquashBusters. He is regularly listed among Rhode Island's wealthiest and most influential figures by GoLocalProv.

• Operating-company focus: His core track record is in control buyouts of middle-market companies in healthcare, industrials/manufacturing, and business services — the sectors he built Nautic around.
• Founder/management partnership: Nautic's model centers on backing strong management teams and building durable, consistent performers rather than chasing hype — reflected in Preqin ranking its funds among the most *consistent* top performers.
• Healthcare venture interest: As an advisor to Catalyst Health Ventures, he is engaged with early-stage healthcare and medical-device/health-tech companies.
• Selective angel/advisory bets: Personally, he engages as an angel/advisor with early-stage companies such as Leavened (AI-driven marketing mix modeling), indicating openness to data/AI-enabled B2B software.
• New England ecosystem: He is anchored in the Providence/Boston corridor and is a visible supporter of the Rhode Island startup and civic community.