Christopher Pace joins growth equity shop to help raise money, manage portfolio

Pace, most recently an investment counselor at Bernstein Global Wealth Management in Los Angeles, said he plans to start working at Vintage Fund Management, also of Los Angeles, later this month. Pace declined to discuss fundraising for this article. But according to a Form D, the firm as of early March had raised $19.1 million of an offering amount of $100 million for Vintage Capital Partners II LP, suggesting it may still be in the market.

Investing $5 million to $20 million at a time, Vintage Fund Management specializes in making growth equity investments in companies whose owners are looking for money to help grow, as opposed to cashing out. The firm also invests in buyouts and other kinds of transactions. Target companies generate $20 million to $250 million in revenue, at least $3 million in EBITDA, and they tend to have market-leading, defensible positions in basic industries. The firm’s website lists six portfolio companies, including eScreen Inc., a company that provides pre-employment screening services to other businesses.

Pace spent 1998 to 2010 as a portfolio manager and general partner at a funds-of-funds business called WestLB Mellon Asset Management before its acquisition in 2009 by Siguler Guff & Co. Pace said that Vintage Fund Management has less than $100 million in assets under management; its first fund, raised mainly from wealthy investors, closed around 2004, he said.

Among executives listed on the website are Fred Sands, chairman; Mark Sampson, managing partner; and Thomas Webster, vice president.