Chris Zakhem

Chris Zakhem currently serves as a Senior Vice President at Portage Point Partners where he is responsible for conducting financial and operational analysis, developing key performance indicators, supporting value creation initiatives, constructing 13-week cash flows, analyzing working capital assessments and assisting in the overall implementation of value maximization strategies.

Prior to joining Portage Point, Chris was a Private Equity Associate at Incline Equity Partners, a middle market private equity firm that managed over $2.4 billion and focused on investing in manufacturing, distribution and business services companies. He was responsible for evaluating, analyzing and performing due diligence on new investments as well as monitoring portfolio companies. During his time at Incline Equity Partners, Chris closed the acquisition of two platform companies and a total of seven add-on acquisitions. He drove primary due diligence to determine fundamental drivers of historic and future growth while managing third party due diligence streams. Chris also prepared and presented materials to the investment committee and served as the main contact for lending partners. He also covered three portfolio companies – a specialty manufacturer of horticulture, erosion control and other environmental products, a distributor of fasteners and parts to industrial and medical end markets and a franchisor platform of facility services. Chris worked closely with management teams to create financial and other KPI trackers while executing growth and operational strategies. He attended and participated in all board and strategy meetings.

Previously, Chris was an Investment Banking Analyst in the Services & Industrials Group at William Blair where he focused on advising firms on sell-side and buy-side merger and acquisitions opportunities. He closed the sales of a facility services provider specializing in airports, a technology services provider to the insurance industry, an environmental services company, a manufacturer of emergency lighting and several others. Prior to William Blair, Chris was an Investment Banking Analyst at Duff & Phelps where he sold a manufacturer of rotationally molded plastic products and a distributor of optical networking equipment.

Chris graduated with High Honors from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and minor in Chemistry.