Scott Daum

Scott Daum is a Managing Director at Parallel49 Equity, a lower middle-market private equity firm that, together with its predecessor Tricor Pacific Capital, has invested capital since 1996 and has managed over C$1.2 billion of investor commitments. He joined the firm in 2005 and is based in its Lake Forest, Illinois office. In his role he is involved in all aspects of the firm's activity — business development, acquisitions, operations, and investment, divestiture, and management decisions.

Before joining Parallel49, Daum spent roughly ten years at GE Capital as a Senior Vice President in the Global Sponsor Finance group. During that tenure he held multiple roles spanning account management, risk underwriting, and new-business development — a background in leveraged/sponsor finance that maps closely to the firm's buyout-oriented strategy.

Daum earned an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (roughly 1999–2001). Beyond his day-to-day at Parallel49, he served as President of Sierra Lake Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that raised $300 million in its September 2021 IPO before being liquidated; that team was led by CEO Charles Alutto, with CFO Robert Ryder and COO Ross Berner.

• Invests via control acquisitions — public or private company buyouts, management-led buyouts, recapitalizations, and carve-outs of subsidiaries from larger companies.
• Targets profitable, cash-generative lower middle-market businesses with $5–30M EBITDA and $25–150M enterprise value; the firm is currently investing its fifth fund (~$300M+ / ~C$400M committed).
• Concentrates on three sectors: specialty manufacturing, business services, and value-added distribution.
• Explicit "no" list: the firm states it "will not invest in start-ups, new technologies, turnarounds or companies active in real estate development, gaming, restaurant or primary resource sectors." Founders seeking seed or venture capital are outside this mandate.
• Emphasizes operational partnership and buy-and-build growth — e.g., portfolio company Road Safety Services completed 11 add-on acquisitions and grew EBITDA more than 20x over the hold period.