Dedicated to helping Pacific Lake's top-performing operating companies achieve even greater success.
Pacific Lake’s Value Creation Team is dedicated to assisting search fund CEOs identify and drive value in their organizations. The team has the ability and flexibility to engage on a variety of strategic issues, several of which are highlighted below.
Former Chairman and CEO of Iron Mountain
When Richard took over Iron Mountain in December 1981, the firm had 70 employees and $3 million in sales, mostly from storing documents in several underground vaults in the Catskills. Over the past 25 years, Richard turned the Boston-based company into an industry giant. Iron Mountain now has 17,000 employees and $2.3 billion in annual sales, a market capitalization of over $5 billion, and stores documents and data on five continents.
Richard, a graduate of Harvard Business School, now resides in Florida.
Chris Hendriksen is a Partner at Pacific Lake Partners where he brings experience as a successful executive and operator. Chris and his search fund partner Andy Schoonover acquired VRI, a provider of remote patient monitoring solutions, in October 2007. As CEO, Chris led VRI through a decade of rapid growth and an exit to a private equity partner. Chris remained at the helm of VRI through 2018, and now serves as a board member. During his ten years as CEO, VRI grew revenue nearly 10x from $7 million in 2007 to over $60 million, and grew equity value by more than 25x. During his tenure, the company grew from approximately 40 employees at acquisition to more than 400 employees.
Operating Partner at Pacific Lake Partners
Don is an Operating Partner with Pacific Lake Partners. Don is focusing on replicable, sustainable sales growth across the Pacific Lake network. He is an active investor and LP in several PE/VC funds. He is an experienced senior executive who successfully helps build companies both domestically and internationally in broad range of software and business services. Prior to joining Pacific Lake Don was and Operating Partner with Primus Capital in Atlanta for 6 years.
Vice President at Pacific Lake Partners
Federico de la Balze joined Pacific Lake in 2019 after graduating from Harvard Business School. Federico previously worked at Boston Consulting Group in New York. At BCG, Federico specialized in developing strategy, growth, and pricing initiatives across a number of industries. Federico was part of the NY Public Sector sales team and helped build that practice from scratch in the New York Metro area. Federico also holds a B.S. in Management Science and Engineering, and an M.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering, from Stanford University.