Investment Professionals
Mark Hughes
Managing Partner
Mark is the founder of Kilroy Partners. Mark is responsible for leading and managing the firm, as well as sourcing, evaluating and managing the firm’s investments. Mark has a track record of success in private equity and investment banking, focused on lower middle market, distressed and special situations.
Prior to founding Kilroy, Mark was a Managing Director and member of the investment committee for both Private Equity and Credit strategies at Comvest Partners, an operationally-focused middle market investment firm with over $2 billion of AUM.
Prior to Comvest, Mark worked as a Managing Director at Tejas Securities Group and Unterberg, Towbin where he was in a senior capacity in principle investing and advisory roles.
Mark graduated from the School of Business at Rutgers College and was a teammate on the Varsity Baseball Team.
Justin Chen
Partner
Justin is a Partner at Kilroy Partners. He is responsible for all aspects of the investment process, including sourcing, transaction execution and portfolio company oversight.
Prior to joining Kilroy Partners, Justin spent eight years at Comvest Partners, an operationally-focused middle market investment firm with over $2 billion of AUM, where he was a Vice President in both Private Equity and Credit strategies. At Comvest he was responsible for evaluating, executing and monitoring investments across a variety of industries. He was also a founding member of Comvest’s Strategic Growth Fund, a control buyout fund focused on investing in lower middle market companies typically below $75 million in enterprise value.
Prior to joining Comvest, Justin worked at Canaccord Genuity, a middle market investment bank, where he focused on M&A and public and private financings across the manufacturing, technology and clean tech sectors.
Justin graduated from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.
Operating Partners
Yogen Rahangdale
Since 2010, Mr. Rahangdale led the investments in Kay Manufacturing, Empire Die Casting, and Whitehall Industries. Mr. Rahangdale is Chairman and CEO of both Kay Manufacturing and Empire Die Casting and held the same role at Whitehall Industries until he exited the business in late 2016.
Prior to owning and overseeing these businesses, Mr. Rahangdale spent 13 years at American Axle, a leading multi-billion dollar automotive supplier, in a number of roles, including President, Chief Operating Officer, Vice Chairman and Chief Technology Officer where he was responsible for investing over $3 billion in capital expenditures over his tenure.
Prior to American Axle, Mr. Rahangdale was employed for 12 years at Chrysler Corporation where he led all paint operations and plant modernization activities. Prior to Chrysler, Yogen was employed at Volkswagon.
Yogen has an Engineering degree from APS University in India and an MBA from Michigan State
Michael DeDomenico
From 2000 to 2013, Mr. DeDomenico was the Chairman and President of NuCO2, the largest and the sole national supplier in the United States of bulk CO2 systems and bulk CO2 for carbonating and dispensing fountain beverages. He led the growth of the business from $16 million in EBITDA in 2000 to over $115 million in EBITDA prior to the $1.1 billion sale in 2013 to Praxair, a multi-billion dollar industrial gas company. During his tenure, Mr. DeDomenico sold a stake of the business to a private equity firm and continued to run the business until the ultimate sale to Praxair.
From 1998 to 2000, Mr. DeDomenico was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Praxair Distribution, Inc., a subsidiary of Praxair Inc. Prior to 1998, Mr. DeDomenico had been employed by Union Carbide Corp. in various capacities from 1969 and when Praxair was spun-off by Union Carbide in 1992, he was named president of Praxair Canada and later president of Praxair Europe.
Mr. DeDomenico has a BS degree in Economics and Finance from Hofstra University and an MBA degree from Georgia State University.
Robert Mintz
Mr. Mintz has a 30 year successful track record of developing products, broadening distribution channels and driving operating efficiency at food manufacturing businesses. Mr. Mintz’s unique understanding of the consumer, customer and supply chain allows him to create and build products and brands that provide high margin revenue growth for mass market, traditional grocery and club customers.
Mr. Mintz is currently the founder and CEO of Euro Fresh Foods which is a leading provider of prepared protein products for food service and retail customers. Prior to Euro Fresh Foods, Mr. Mintz was the founder and CEO of Rupari Food Services from 1993 to 2013.
Rupari was a leading food service manufacturer and branded retail distributor of pre-cooked and sauced meat products, with a focus on pork ribs and other barbeque products. During his tenure, Mr. Mintz diversified the Company’s operations from meat import and sourcing to meat cooking and processing capabilities, secured the exclusive license to market pre-cooked ribs under the Tony Roma’s brand name and drove increased market share through channel distribution. Mr. Mintz grew revenues substantially and in 2011 sold Rupari to a private equity firm.
Nizar Elias
Mr. Elias has over 25 years of experience building and growing manufacturing businesses, with a focus on highly engineered applications in the sensor and control segment. Most notably, Mr. Elias was the former President of Dynalco Instruments & Controls and Barksdale Controls (both divisions of Crane Co. – NYSE:CR), where he had full P&L and functional responsibility for global businesses with manufacturing operations in the US, Germany and China. Barksdale is a manufacturer of Electro-Mechanical Instruments, Valves, and Controls focusing on industrial and motion controls in the Fluid Power, General Industry, Transportation, Oil & Gas, Petro-Chemical, Power Generation, and Marine sectors. Dynalco Instruments & Controls is a manufacturer of Electronics, Diagnostic Systems and Electro-Mechanical Instruments, speed sensors and Controls for Reciprocating Compressors and Engines.
Prior to Crane, Mr. Elias served as General Manager at Knürr, a division of Emerson Network Power, which was a manufacturer of server rack enclosures. Mr. Elias has also served as VP of Strategy & Business Development at Mecmann–Bosch Rexroth, a multinational $280 million manufacturer of industrial automation products and engineered systems. Additionally, Mr. Elias held several management positions in Marketing and Sales roles at Mannesmann, Rexroth and Festo.
Mr. Elias has a BS degree in Industrial Engineering from Northeastern University and an MS in Engineering Management and MBA degree from the University of Southern California.
Jim Newell
Since 2011, Mr. Newell has been the President of Brookhaven Rail, a rail class III rail carrier located in Long Island.
Mr. Newell has over 42 years of experience in transportation / rail operations including all phases of budgets, cost analysis, logistics, asset utilization, supply chain management, manpower, safety, engineering, mechanical, labor relations, and network train movements.
From 2004 to 2011, Mr. Newell was the President of TLA Rail Logistics, a waste by rail business.
From 1978 to 2004, Mr. Newell held a number of management positions for CSX Transportation, one of the nations leading transportation suppliers and Class I railroad, and ended his tenure as the General Manager of Network Operations.