Steve Duke

Steve Duke is a Partner at Harvest Partners and head of the firm's Structured Capital strategy (HP SCF). He joined Harvest in 2014 and has spent his tenure sourcing and executing non-control, structured-equity investments across the firm's core sectors, with particular responsibility for Business Services and Healthcare Services. In January 2018, Harvest named him a Partner and co-lead of the structured-capital business, an elevation from his prior role as Managing Director (a promotion to Managing Director had been announced in January 2017 alongside colleague Sean Murphy). At the time, Harvest Partner Thomas Arenz said, "We are pleased to recognize Steve and Sean and welcome them as our partners."

Before Harvest, Duke was a Principal at CCMP Capital, where he completed private equity transactions across the Healthcare, Consumer/Retail, and Energy industries. Earlier, he was an Associate at Bear Growth Capital Partners, an affiliate of Bear Stearns Merchant Banking, and he began his career as an analyst at Barrington Associates, a boutique middle-market investment bank.

Duke holds a B.A. in Economics from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He sits on (or has sat on) the boards of numerous Harvest SCF portfolio companies, including ConnectiveRx, Fortra, Integrity Marketing Group, and Signant Health currently, and previously LAZ Parking, Acrisure, Magnit, and DCA (Dental Care Alliance).

• Non-control structured equity. HP SCF positions itself as a "non-control investor" seeking to provide flexible structured capital to market leaders — its stated mission is to generate "private-equity-like returns with debt-like risk."
• Instruments used: PIK Preferred Equity or HoldCo PIK Notes, Convertible Preferred Equity, and Common Equity / Warrants — sized at $50M to $400M per deal.
• What earns a "yes": market leadership in large, growing end-markets; recurring revenue; and high, durable free-cash-flow generation.
• Use cases: platform capital, acquisition/M&A funding, minority recapitalizations, and customized structured equity that complements existing sponsors' and entrepreneurs' capital structures.
• Sectors he personally covers: Business Services and Healthcare Services, within the broader HP SCF mandate spanning Commercial Services, Consumer Services, and Software.