James Athanasoulas

James "Jamie" Athanasoulas is a private-markets investor whose career has centered on private credit and, more recently, lower-middle-market private equity. He holds a BBA from Georgetown University and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and began his professional career as a manager at Bain & Company.

He spent roughly 13 years at Bain Capital Credit (formerly Sankaty Advisors), where he rose to Managing Director, originating, structuring, underwriting, and managing debt and equity investments in the middle market. During that time he served as an Executive Officer and Treasurer of Bain Capital Specialty Finance — an externally managed specialty finance company focused on lending to middle-market companies — from its inception until his 2018 departure.

In August 2018, Athanasoulas joined HarbourVest Partners in Boston as a Managing Director, teaming with fellow Managing Director Peter Lipson to build and lead the firm's private credit / direct-lending investment program. He remained a Managing Director on HarbourVest's private credit team until retiring from the firm at the end of June 2025.

In 2025, following his HarbourVest retirement, he joined Union Capital Associates, LP as a Partner. Union Capital is a long-established (founded 1968) private equity firm investing in founder-led, family-owned businesses in the lower-middle market, with a stated emphasis on operational improvement "and processes, not financial engineering," and more than $450M of committed capital across its funds.

• Focus is on established private companies, not startups: control-oriented private equity in founder-led, family-owned businesses (Union Capital), and middle-market private credit/direct lending (HarbourVest, Bain Capital Credit).
• Target size (Union Capital): family-owned businesses generally between $20M and $200M in revenue.
• Operational, not financial-engineering, approach: Union Capital pairs portfolio companies with experienced operating executives (the firm counts several current or former CEOs on staff) and emphasizes "people and processes."
• Private credit conviction: at HarbourVest he helped build the firm's direct-lending platform during a period the firm publicly described as a "golden era" / thriving environment for private credit and direct lending to middle-market borrowers.
• Sectors: broad and cash-flow-oriented — food, BPO, group purchasing, manufacturing, restaurants, marketing services (Union Capital's historical areas), plus diversified middle-market lending.