Tim Bernica

Tim Bernica is a Partner at Milton Street Capital, a Houston-based private equity firm specializing in control investments in the North American lower middle market industrial sector. He joined the firm in 2018 as a Vice President and was promoted to Partner in February 2022. He sits on Milton Street's Investment Committee, with responsibilities spanning transaction evaluation and execution, portfolio company management, deal sourcing, and employee onboarding and training.

Before Milton Street, Bernica spent roughly three years at The Sterling Group, another Houston private equity firm, where he worked extensively on Sterling's building-products distribution consolidation platform. Earlier in his career he worked at Lazard (Lazard Frères), the global investment bank, in advisory/financial roles.

Bernica holds a B.S. in Systems Engineering and a B.A. in Economics (with an engineering business minor) from the University of Virginia, where he studied from 2009 to 2013. He is based in Houston, Texas.

He currently serves on the boards of Milton Street portfolio companies IC Biomedical and ZXP Technologies. When announcing his promotion, Managing Partner Francis Carr described Bernica as "exceptionally bright and hardworking," noting that he shares the firm's values and has worked with the team over a multi-year relationship.

• Invests as a control/majority private equity buyer — not seed or angel capital — acquiring established, profitable industrial businesses rather than early-stage startups.
• Targets the industrial lower middle market: niche manufacturing, value-added distribution, rental, and commercial/industrial services.
• Sweet spot is companies with approximately $5–20 million of EBITDA and enterprise values generally under $100 million, with the firm deploying roughly $20–50 million of equity per platform.
• Comfortable with complex situations — corporate carve-outs, consolidation/roll-up platforms, and underperforming or turnaround businesses.
• Value-creation approach centers on active engagement: strategy development, human-capital management, and operational and commercial improvements to build durable businesses (firm-stated thesis).
• Personal deal experience is rooted in distribution consolidation (built at The Sterling Group) and hands-on board-level portfolio work.