Leadership | Team Group | Pine Brook Partners

Howard H. Newman

Mr. Newman is a managing partner of Pine Brook, which he co-founded in 2006. He is also a member of the Firm’s Management Committee and Investment Committee. Mr. Newman represents Pine Brook as a board director of Elevation Resources Holdings LLC.

Prior to co-founding Pine Brook, Mr. Newman was with Warburg Pincus for 22 years, most recently as vice chairman and senior advisor, and as a senior member of the firm’s management and investment committees. At Warburg Pincus, he led or co-led the energy, financial services, media, real estate and general investment practices. Before joining Warburg Pincus, Mr. Newman spent 10 years in energy and financial services investment banking at Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated.

Over the course of his career, he has been a director or observer on the boards of more than 45 companies, including 18 public companies. Mr. Newman’s previous board experience includes Bill Barrett Corporation, Encore Acquisition Partners, Gryphon Exploration Company, Kosmos Energy LLC, J. Makowski Company, The Marine Drilling Companies Inc., Newfield Exploration Company, Spinnaker Exploration Inc. and Targa Resources, Inc., as well as Cox Insurance Holdings PLC, Dime Bancorp, Inc., RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd., SLM Corporation and TAC Bancshares, Inc.

In addition to overseeing Pine Brook’s portfolio, Mr. Newman is a trustee of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and serves on the board of the Tunisian American Enterprise Fund. During the term of Governor George Pataki of New York, Mr. Newman was an advisor on energy policy and a senior advisor to the Long Island Power Authority. Mr. Newman has served as a chairman of the Yale Alumni Fund and as a member of the Yale University Council and the advisory board of the university’s Climate & Energy Institute.

Mr. Newman holds a B.A. in Economics (magna cum laude with Distinction) and an M.A. in Economics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University. He was a Marshall Scholar at Cambridge University.

Richard Aube

Mr. Aube joined Pine Brook in July 2011 and is a managing partner. He is responsible for managing the Firm’s energy investment activities. He is also a member of the Firm’s Management Committee and Investment Committee. Mr. Aube represents Pine Brook as a board director of Accelerate Resources Holdings, LLC, GR Energy Services Holdings LP, Pursuit Oil & Gas, LLC, Saguaro Resources Ltd and Strategic Funding Source Holdings, LLC (d/b/a Kapitus).

Mr. Aube has 29 years of experience in the energy sector. Prior to joining Pine Brook, Mr. Aube was with D.E. Shaw & Company, a multi-strategy global investment firm, where he was a managing director responsible for co-managing the firm’s North American private equity effort. Previously, Mr. Aube was a partner with J.P. Morgan Partners, a multibillion-dollar private equity firm affiliated with JPMorgan Chase, where he focused on growth equity and buyout investments in the energy and industrial sectors. Earlier in his career, he was a partner with the Beacon Group, an investment and advisory firm.

Mr. Aube holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College.

W. Dana LaForge

Mr. LaForge joined Pine Brook in June 2020 and is a partner on the financial services investment team. He is also a member of the Investment Committee. Mr. LaForge represents Pine Brook as a board director of Amedeo Holding Company Limited, Belmont Green Limited, Clear Blue Financial Holdings and Fidelis Insurance Holdings Limited.

Mr. LaForge has over 20 years of private equity investment and management experience. Prior to joining Pine Brook, Mr. LaForge was a managing director and head of the North American financial institutions investment banking groups at Bankers Trust, Alex Brown, and Deutsche Bank. Mr. LaForge also served as a partner of several entrepreneurial investment businesses and private equity funds focused in financial services, where he worked closely with the portfolio companies. These businesses included Brera Capital Partners and Colonnade Financial Group, a spin out from Deutsche Bank created to manage a private equity portfolio.

Mr. LaForge holds a B.S. in Commerce and Accounting from Washington & Lee University and an M.B.A from Harvard Business School. Mr. LaForge also serves as a director of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation and as Chairman of the Board of the Myeloma Investment Fund.

Elan Stukov

Mr. Stukov joined Pine Brook in July 2018 and is the chief financial officer and the chief compliance officer.

Prior to joining Pine Brook, Mr. Stukov was a fund controller at Strategic Value Partners. Previously Mr. Stukov spent seven years at Alinda Capital Partners where he was responsible for the financial reporting and operations of several infrastructure investment funds and co-investment vehicles. Mr. Stukov began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he was a senior auditor in their Alternative Investments Asset Management practice.

Mr. Stukov holds a B.S. in Accounting from Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Michael J. Martinez

Mr. Martinez joined Pine Brook in June 2019 and is the chief operating officer and general counsel.

Prior to joining Pine Brook, Mr. Martinez was a vice president and associate general counsel at CCMP Capital Advisors, LP. Previously, Mr. Martinez was as an associate at Latham & Watkins LLP in the Investment Funds Group and at Sidley Austin LLP in the Investment Funds, Advisers and Derivatives Group.

Mr. Martinez holds a B.S. in Finance from Georgetown University, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Joseph M. Gantz

Mr. Gantz is a founding partner, an executive advisor and a member of the Investment Committee.

Mr. Gantz has extensive experience in corporate senior management and is an experienced and successful investor. In 1996 and 1997, respectively, he played an integral role in the successful turnaround of Seymour Housewares Corp., a portfolio company of Chase Capital Partners, and Fitz & Floyd, Inc., a portfolio company of ML-Lee Acquisition Funds II, LP, a joint fund managed by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Merrill Lynch. He served as the chairman and/or CEO of Empire Brushes, Inc., Seymour Housewares Corp. and PECO Pallet. In 1998, he became a founding partner of an SBIC fund focused on investing in creative retail concepts, consumer products and financial services companies.

Mr. Gantz holds a B.A. in History from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.