Castle Harlan, Inc., the New York based global middle market private equity firm, today announced it has promoted Heather L. Faust to managing director.
The firm also announced that Heidi Petroff and Eric Schwartz have been appointed vice presidents.
“These promotions recognize the contributions these professionals make to Castle Harlan, as well as our firm’s strong commitment to recruit, develop and reward talent and to build a new generation to lead the firm into the future,” said John K. Castle, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Leonard M. Harlan, Chairman of the Executive Committee.
Faust, a vice president of the firm before her promotion, joined Castle Harlan in 2008. She currently serves as a director of Baker & Taylor, the world’s largest distributor of books and value-added services to libraries. She has been on the boards of IDQ Holdings and Ames True Temper.
“Heather is particularly effective in working with company management teams to identify and implement growth opportunities,” said Howard D. Morgan, Co-President of Castle Harlan. “Whether the business is book and media distribution, aftermarket automotive air-conditioning products or lawn and garden equipment, she has helped executives build their companies and Castle Harlan’s investment in them.”
“Faust also has an extensive network of contacts that enables her to find potential investment opportunities,” said William M. Pruellage, also Co-President of the firm. “We cast a wide net seeking investment opportunities across a broad array of sectors to find the handful of deals that we believe will make good investments. Heather is very effective at deal-sourcing both opportunities that are competitive and those that are offered to us on a proprietary basis.”
Prior to joining Castle Harlan, Faust was a management consultant at McKinsey & Co., where she advised and directly assisted clients in defining and implementing key strategic and operational business transformations. Beginning in late 2003, she was a temporary employee of the Department of Defense and worked in Baghdad helping Iraqi businesses get re-established.
“The work was intense and challenging,” she said. “But it was extremely rewarding to work with the Iraqi business people to rebuild and strengthen the country's private sector.” Faust graduated cum laude from Princeton University with a B.S.E in Operations Research and Financial Engineering, and she holds an M.B.A from the Harvard Business School.
Eric Schwartz recently returned to Castle Harlan in New York after two years of working in Sydney at the firm’s Australian affiliate, CHAMP Private Equity, as part of a longstanding series of staff exchanges between the two firms. Prior to his assignment in Australia, he had taken a leave from Castle Harlan to attend the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he earned an M.B.A. with the distinction of Arjay Miller Scholar.
Before joining Castle Harlan in 2009, Schwartz was an investment banking professional at Citigroup. He graduated cum laude from Duke University with a B.S.E. in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering.
Heidi Petroff also was part of the staff-exchange program with CHAMP. She came to Castle Harlan in 2012 from Australia and now is a permanent employee of Castle Harlan. While at CHAMP, she was involved with mergers, acquisitions and realizations of many of the firm’s investments across a range of industries. She served on the boards of directors of many CHAMP portfolio companies including Alleasing Pty Ltd. and Accolade Wines Pty Ltd.
Petroff previously had been part of the private equity team at Macquarie Group, the large international investment bank based in Sydney. While there, she focused on the group’s healthcare holdings. Petroff holds two degrees from the University of Western Australia, a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in quantitative finance and a Bachelor of Laws.
About Castle Harlan
Castle Harlan, founded in 1987, invests in controlling interests in the buyout and development of middle-market companies in North America and Europe. Its team of 18 investment professionals has completed 53 acquisitions since its inception with a total transaction value in excess of $11 billion. Castle Harlan, along with its affiliates, has managed investment funds with equity commitments of over $6 billion. The firm traces its roots to the start of the institutionalized private-equity business in the late 1960s. Castle Harlan’s current portfolio of companies includes Shelf Drilling Holdings Ltd., a leading provider of shallow-water drilling services in Asia, Africa, India and the Middle East; Pretium Packaging LLC, one of the country’s leading manufacturers of custom-designed specialty plastic containers for the food, pharmaceutical, personal-care and household markets; and Baker & Taylor, the world’s largest distributor of books and entertainment products to libraries and retailers.