Jeffrey Schwartz

Jeffrey B. Schwartz founded Corbel Capital Partners in 2013 and serves as the firm’s Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer. Corbel describes itself as a Los Angeles-based private equity firm managing SBIC and Special Opportunity funds that provide structured debt and equity investments to lower middle-market businesses.

Before founding Corbel, Schwartz was a Managing Director at The Gores Group, where he led negotiation and execution of acquisitions and divestitures in the U.S., primarily in consumer products and retail. A conference biography states that, while at Gores, he led investments into J. Mendel and Big Strike, served on those boards, and deployed more than $150 million of capital.

Earlier, Schwartz worked in Ares Management’s Private Equity Group in Los Angeles, completing leveraged buyouts, distressed debt, and structured equity investments. The same speaker biography credits him with six platform acquisitions at Ares and board roles at General Nutrition Centers, Nortek, Samsonite, Stream Global Services, WCA Waste, White Energy, and Tinnerman Palnut.

Schwartz began his finance career in investment banking, first in Wasserstein Perella & Co.’s mergers and acquisitions group and then in Lehman Brothers’ financial sponsors group. He earned a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

• Corbel’s stated focus is to provide “flexible capital solutions” for lower-market and middle-market businesses through structured debt and equity.
• The firm invests in both minority and majority transactions, including growth capital, rescue capital, minority recapitalizations, majority recapitalizations, special opportunities, and independent sponsor financings.
• Corbel’s typical structures include unitranche debt, debt with equity participation, convertible debt, participating or convertible preferred equity, and common equity.
• For performing companies, Corbel looks for stable, growing, asset-light businesses with profitable operating histories, strong management teams, large addressable markets, leading market share, and M&A opportunities.
• For turnarounds and special situations, Corbel looks for previously performing companies with near-term cash-flow issues, resilient business models, quality enterprise or asset value, identifiable recovery potential, and proven historical profitability.
• Corbel emphasizes strategic and operational support, including M&A execution, business development, personnel recruitment, operational analytics, and capital-structure optimization.