Richard Venegar
President and CEO

Richard Venegar is President and CEO and an Officer of Milestone Growth Fund, Inc. He has over 27 years of private equity experience, with a strong focus on emerging underserved markets. Mr. Venegar joined Milestone in February 2007. Prior to Milestone, he was a senior vice president of Pacesetter Capital Group, a $250 million private equity fund based in Dallas, Texas. While at Pacesetter, Mr. Venegar managed a $30 million portfolio and concentrated on managing some of the firm's most difficult portfolio companies, focusing on restructurings, workouts and turnarounds. Moreover, he became the acting President of one of Pacesetter's portfolio companies, leading a turnaround in less than six months. Prior to Pacesetter, Mr. Venegar was co-founder and managing partner of Levmark Capital Fund, a buyout fund that, under his leadership, generated a net return within two years of over $34 million on $13.5M of invested capital. Prior to Levmark Capital, Mr. Venegar was an executive at Equico Capital Corporation, one of the first and most successful SSBICs in the nation. Before Equico Capital, Venegar was a senior field operations analyst for the Ford Motor Company.

Mr. Venegar has experience in a wide range of industries including food, packaging, media, consumer goods, telecommunications, printing, consumer retail and electronics. He has worked on a wide range of deals with transaction sizes ranging from under $1 million to $150 million. He has also completed buyouts, venture capital, turnarounds, restructuring, and mezzanine financing projects.

Mr. Venegar is a member of the boards of advisors/directors/trustees of Metropolitan Economic Development Association (MEDA), the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC), the University of Minnesota's Carlson Funds Enterprises, and the Council on Crime and Justice. Mr. Venegar is a graduate of the University of Michigan, with a Bachelor's of Arts degree in Journalism. He earned an M.B.A. with a finance concentration from Tulane University Graduate School of Business.

Back to top