Kate Carlson

Kate Carlson is a Managing Director at Franklin Park, an independent, 100% employee-owned, SEC-registered private-markets investment firm founded in 2003 and headquartered in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania (Greater Philadelphia), with an additional office in Sandyford, Dublin, Ireland. The firm provides institutional and high-net-worth clients access to private equity, private debt, and venture capital through fund-of-funds vehicles, co-investment funds, and customized advisory accounts.

She joined Franklin Park in 2007. In her role she is responsible for the analysis and evaluation of private equity investment opportunities, monitoring client portfolios, conducting industry research, and interacting with clients on investment and monitoring matters — i.e., the manager-selection and portfolio-oversight work of an institutional LP rather than direct startup dealmaking.

Prior to Franklin Park, Carlson worked at GMAC Mortgage and at Standard & Poor's. She earned a B.S. in Finance from Villanova University and is a CFA charterholder and member of the CFA Institute. Public records list her as a member of Franklin Park's leadership team.

• Operates as an institutional limited partner (LP), not an angel — Franklin Park commits capital to and co-invests alongside private-market fund managers rather than writing first checks into startups.
• Coverage spans the full Franklin Park mandate: private equity (growth equity, buyout, turnaround), private debt (senior, mezzanine, structured capital, royalties, specialty finance), and venture capital (seed, early, and late stage — primarily technology and life sciences).
• Her personal focus is manager due diligence and portfolio monitoring: evaluating GP track records, strategy, and team quality, then tracking those funds' performance for clients.
• Franklin Park positions itself on independence and alignment — fully employee-owned, with senior management citing 350+ combined years of investment experience and long tenure working together (an average of ~17 years).

Because Carlson's work is at the fund-of-funds / LP level, there is no public record of individual angel or seed deals attributable to her personally. Franklin Park's exposure comes through commitments to underlying private equity and venture funds (GPs) and selective co-investments; the firm does not publicly disclose its specific fund commitments or co-investment positions, and none could be attributed to Carlson by name from primary sources. *(No fabricated deal list is included here, per the accuracy requirement.)*