Kestrel Capital Group is a Chicago-based private equity firm with over 45 years of experience. We have completed hundreds of debt and equity financings for businesses across all stages of an enterprise’s life-cycle.
Bill Harlan
Bill is a Principal & Founder of Kestrel Capital Group and has spent over 25 years financing and investing in lower middle market businesses. He has deep experience in ownership change and leveraged transactions. Though he and Steve founded KCG in 2011, Bill remains a Partner in the wind-down of Prism Capital, having joined coincident with the firm raising Prism Mezzanine Fund.
His experience prior to Prism includes nine years at American National Bank (now part of JP Morgan) where he helped form ANB Mezzanine Corporation (predecessor to Chase Mezzanine) after holding positions in the workout and commercial banking groups. Bill also worked for Golub Capital and CID Equity Partners.
Bill serves on the board of directors of First Financial Credit Union and is active in several industry and not-for-profit groups. Bill served on the President’s Council of the Museum of Science and Industry and the board of the Chicago Chapter of Association for Corporate Growth, and continues in leadership roles at other not-for-profit organizations. Bill received an MBA from University of Chicago and a BA from University of Notre Dame.
Steve Vivian
Steve is a Principal & Founder of Kestrel Capital Group and has spent over 20 years financing and investing in growth oriented companies. He has deep experience as a principal investor across all stages of an enterprise’s life cycle, including start-ups. In addition to founding KCG in 2011, he remains a Partner in the wind-down of Prism Capital, having joined as the fund group’s second full-time professional in 1999. Prism invested in 40 companies across two funds.
Experience prior to 1999 included Banc of America Securities in the leveraged finance and private placement groups, as well as four years at Parker Hannifin, primarily in pneumatic machine components division.
Steve has been an active industry leader, having served as a past Chairman of the Small Business Investors Alliance, or SBIA (formerly known as NASBIC). He was also active in the inception of the Illinois Venture Capital Association and serves on the President’s Leadership Council of The Chicago Field Museum. Steve received both an MBA and a BS in General Engineering from the University of Illinois and has been a frequent speaker on the Urbana / Champaign campus, as well as at other colleges and universities. He also serves on the faculty of the Venture Capital Institute and has served on the board of numerous other not-for-profit entities.