MiddleGround hires ex-FO exec Paras for business development

MiddleGround Capital, a spinout from Monomoy Capital, hired Christen Paras, an executive from family office CoBe Capital, to run business development, according to a person with knowledge of the firm. –(Buyouts)

Paras’s LinkedIn profile has been updated with the new role, saying she joined MiddleGround in April.

Paras joined MiddleGround as the firm moves through its debut fundraising, targeting $425 million with a $450 million cap. The firm has raised about $248 million so far and held a first close around year-end, Buyouts reported.

She was one of three professionals MiddleGround added recently, bringing staffing to 19 professionals. The others include Lindsay Quintero, formerly an investment banking analyst at Harris Williams, as an associate, and Greg Haddix as a vice president on the operations team. Haddix formerly worked at Toyota.

MiddleGround has made one investment out of the new fund. The firm in July 2018 acquired Alco Manufacturing, which makes steel, aluminum and brass products for industrial and consumer end markets.

Ex-Monomoy Partner John Stewart and Directors Lauren Mulholland and Scot Duncan left the firm in 2017 and formed MiddleGround last year.

Stewart and Duncan both have extensive operating experience in their backgrounds at Toyota. Stewart spent years as a manager at Toyota. He joined Monomoy in 2007 and was made partner in 2016. He rose to co-lead PE investments and also headed the operations group, he said in his LinkedIn profile.

Duncan started at Monomoy in 2008, prior to which he also worked at Toyota in engineering and production. Mulholland, who joined Monomoy in 2011, was an associate at Macquarie Group.

The firm last year received a $75 million anchor commitment from Archean Capital Partners, a joint venture of Veritable and Moelis Asset Management.