William Henry

William ("Bill") Henry is a Partner at CenterOak Partners, a Dallas-based private equity firm he helped launch in 2014 alongside Randall Fojtasek, Michael Salim, Lucas Cutler, and Jason Sutherland — a group of former senior executives from Brazos Private Equity Partners. At CenterOak he serves on the Firm's Investment Committee and leads its operational and accounting diligence functions, while also assisting with portfolio company monitoring and reporting. His role is weighted toward operations, finance, and value creation rather than pure deal origination.

Henry brings more than 20 years of experience as a business advisor and operator, with expertise spanning operations, accounting, finance, business development, and project management. Before CenterOak, he co-founded HS Advisory, a firm that provided diligence and advisory services to private equity sponsors and their middle-market portfolio companies. Earlier, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of a Brazos portfolio company, where he led the business to a successful exit — giving him direct operating-CEO experience that complements his diligence background.

Earlier in his career, Henry was a Partner at Arthur Andersen in its Audit and Transaction Advisory Services practice, primarily delivering transaction advisory services to middle-market private equity groups. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Abilene Christian University.

As part of his portfolio responsibilities, Henry has served on numerous CenterOak company boards. He currently sits on the boards of HomeTown Services, HK Solutions Group, and Entomo Brands, and has previously served on the boards of Turf Masters Brands, Wetzel's Pretzels, Vivify, FullSpeed Automotive, and TruRoad.

• Invests through CenterOak's control-buyout strategy in lower-middle-market U.S. companies — not startups. CenterOak Equity Fund I closed at its $420M hard cap; Fund II (2021 vintage) is reported at roughly $690M.
• Target financials: $7–35M EBITDA, $50–500M enterprise value, with $50–150M of equity invested per platform.
• Transaction types: buyouts, recapitalizations, non-core corporate carve-outs, and buy-and-build platforms in closely-held and founder/family-owned businesses.
• Sectors: business services (facilities management, engineering, environmental, machinery maintenance), industrial services (outsourced industrial operations, specialty distribution, industrial technology), and consumer essential services (residential services, auto aftermarket).
• What makes them say yes: strong, experienced management teams; leading niche market positions; and clear potential for both organic and acquisitive (M&A-driven) growth. CenterOak emphasizes operational improvement as its core value-creation lever — squarely Henry's domain.
• Henry's personal value-add is operational and accounting diligence plus post-close monitoring, reflecting CenterOak's hands-on, operationally intensive ownership model.