Houston, Texas Private Equity Firm

About Freestone Partners

Founded in 2001, Freestone Partners is a Houston-based private equity firm that seeks to invest in and support middle market businesses.  We have successfully acquired and exited many companies in our history.  While we are not operators, we come from backgrounds that connect investing to middle market business management and ownership.  We work in partnership with experienced management teams to execute growth strategies.

Things we believe:

  1. In the end, it is always about people. No company or transaction is successful without people, and success is more about the people than the deal.
  2. While we have a track record of success, we rely on the skills of others to grow and prosper. Everyone has unique skills and abilities.  We seek to contribute our skills and encourage our partners to use their skills to achieve our common goals.
  3. We are intentional in our focus on the lower middle market. Larger companies might make more money, but we prefer creating opportunities for growth for our companies’ management and employees.  We believe success in the middle market improves the lives of families and communities, while also generating attractive returns for investors.

Our promises to you:

  1. We promise to keep all your information confidential.
  2. We promise not to waste your time.
  3. We promise to never contact your employees, vendors or customers without your permission.
  4. We promise to use the information provided exclusively for our consideration in investing in your company.
  5. We promise to give you transparent feedback on our interest in your company.
  6. We promise to answer your questions with honesty.
  7. We promise to meet any deadlines we set with you or your team.
  8. We promise to respect the legacy of the company and foster a culture in which employees can take pride.
  9. We promise to be authentic in our advice and supportive in both boom times and lean times.
  10. We promise to bring our skills to bear while respecting and supporting the skills of management and others within the company.

Investment Team

Mark Leyerle

Partner
mleyerle@freestonepartners.com

Mark has experience in commercial banking, investment banking, and private equity investments. Mark began his career as a middle market lender with a predecessor to JP Morgan Chase. He later joined the world’s leading oilfield service investment bank, now known as Simmons Energy. Prior to co-founding Freestone Partners in 2001, Mark spent seven years in private equity as a principal with CCG Venture Partners and Crimson CCG Capital Management. He also served as the Chief Financial Officer of a technology company that was successfully sold to a strategic acquirer. After growing up in Plano, Texas, Mark received his BBA summa cum laude from Baylor University and earned his MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

Scott Clingan

Partner
sclingan@freestonepartners.com

Scott has experience in commercial banking, mergers and acquisitions, financial consulting, private equity investments and turnaround management. Scott began his career as a middle market lender with a predecessor to JP Morgan Chase. He then joined what is now BNP Paribas as a corporate lender and later became the head of Corporate Development with Encompass Services Corporation, a Fortune 500 company. After leaving Encompass, Scott became a financial consultant and individual investor. For the ten years prior to joining Freestone, he served companies with revenues from $5 million to $1 billion in a variety of financial capacities while making equity investments. A native of Kansas, Scott received his BBA in Finance from Arizona State University before moving to Houston in the 1980s.

Michael Alley

Principal
malley@freestonepartners.com

Michael has experience with middle market companies and debt capital markets, including leveraged finance portfolio management, debt restructuring, private equity, and high yield investing.  Michael began his career at ORIX Corporation in Dallas, TX. After working with ORIX for five years, Michael earned his MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in 2015. He interned with Freestone in 2007 and 2014 before joining full time in 2015.  Born in the Midwest, but transplanted to Houston during childhood, Michael graduated summa cum laude from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University where he earned a BBA in Finance. Michael is a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder.