Bravo Gets New Title At Thoma Cressey –

SAN FRANCISCO – Thoma Cressey Equity Partners in November promoted associate Orlando Bravo to principal.

The promotion was made “in recognition of how well he has done since he joined us, in terms of identifying good investment opportunities and completing them,” said Partner Lee Mitchell. The new title will not change Bravo’s primary responsibilities at the firm. He joined Thoma Cresey in 1998 after receiving a joint M.B.A. and law degree from Stanford University.

Based in the firm’s San Francisco office, Bravo focuses mostly on information technology deals, Internet services investments and consolidation investments in regional franchises, such as funeral homes and waste-management companies. His responsibilities include researching the IT space to find deal opportunities, as well as management teams with which Thoma Cressey can create portfolio companies. This often is done through a series of acquisitions.

While in graduate school, Bravo worked as an associate at Seaver Kent & Co., a leveraged buyout firm, and prior to that, he worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Morgan Stanley & Co.

In the past year, Bravo has co-led a number of deals with Thoma Cressey Partner William Liebeck, totaling $140 million in three IT companies, including NerveWire Inc., Eclipse Networks (Pty) Ltd. and Connect Tech Inc., and $60 million in two franchise-consolidation deals including, Meridian Morturary Group Inc. and Century Waste Solutions Inc.

Thoma Cressey, headquartered in Chicago, is a private equity firm that seeks management teams in high growth and fragmented industries, helping entrepreneurs build companies through a series of acquisitions. The firm is investing its latest fund, the $450 million Thoma Cressey Fund VI, which wrapped in May 1998. About 90% of the fund already is invested in or committed to the information technology, business services, health-care services and marketing sectors.

The firm is led by partners Carl Thoma, Bryan Cressey, Robert Manning, Mitchell and Liebeck, along with prinicipals David Mayer and Bravo.