Ken Trent

Ken Trent is an operator-turned-investor who spent most of his career building and running industrial and manufacturing businesses before joining private equity. Early in his career he worked as an investment banker at Lehman Brothers, leaving during the dot-com era of the late 1990s to move to San Francisco and start companies — an entrepreneurial run in which he sold one business at a profit, broke even on another, and lost money on a third. He also served as Director of Business Development for Click Services, Inc. and MasterKey, Inc., and holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Illinois.

Trent's defining operating achievement was Professional Power Products, Inc. (PPPI), a designer and manufacturer of large, custom-engineered integrated electrical power generation systems used by technology companies and offshore oil-and-gas explorers. As President and owner, he grew the company from roughly $3 million to more than $40 million in annual revenue over about a decade. In 2013 he sold PPPI to Power Solutions International (PSI), remaining involved through the transition (serving in a senior operating capacity such as COO around the time of the acquisition).

In August 2016, Hidden Harbor Capital Partners appointed Trent as an Operating/Executive Partner, where he works alongside the investment team to source, evaluate, and drive the operational performance of industrial businesses — leveraging his hands-on experience in both high-growth and turnaround situations. Managing Partner John Caple cited Trent's "proven track records in both high growth and turnaround situations" and his "strategic network of relationships." Later in 2016 Trent also took on leadership at United Enertech as President/Executive Chairman, consistent with the operating-partner model in which a PE partner steps into hands-on portfolio-company leadership.

Note that Hidden Harbor's Operating/Executive Partners function as senior industry executives attached to the firm and its portfolio companies rather than as check-writing venture or angel investors. That distinction matters for founders: Trent's value is operational and control-buyout oriented, not seed-stage capital.

• Invests as part of Hidden Harbor's control private-equity strategy — buying established lower/lower-middle-market industrial and business-services companies, not writing seed/angel checks despite any "angel" label on aggregator data.
• Target company economics: up to ~$500M revenue and up to ~$30M EBITDA, explicitly including underperforming or unprofitable "turnaround" businesses; add-on acquisitions of any size.
• Sector emphasis on Trent's domain of expertise: industrial manufacturing, automotive, supply chain/distribution, energy/power generation, chemicals, and adjacent business/environmental/facilities services.
• Deal types: founder- and family-owned company recapitalizations (with flexibility on whether owners roll equity into the new structure) and corporate carve-outs.
• Value-creation orientation: as an operating partner, the "yes" is driven by a clear operational thesis — companies where hands-on leadership, growth acceleration, or a turnaround plan can materially improve performance, backed by strong strategic market positioning.
• Geography: North America–headquartered businesses only.