Thomas E. Lynch
Senior Managing Director & Founder
Mr. Lynch founded Mill Road Capital in 2004 and serves as Chairman of the Mill Road Capital Management Committee.
He is responsible for overall management of the Firm and oversees the investment process and portfolio management for all Mill Road Capital Funds.
Mr. Lynch began his investing career at Blackstone and has since founded and organized two investment firms.
At Blackstone, Mr. Lynch was the first professional hired to work exclusively in the private equity group.
He served as a Managing Director responsible for investing Blackstone Capital Partners I and Blackstone Capital Partners II.
Mr. Lynch then founded Lazard Capital Partners, the domestic private equity investing arm of Lazard.
Mr. Lynch has served on the boards of over 15 public, private, and not-for-profit organizations, including Panera Bread (former ticker “PNRA”), Noodles & Company (ticker “NDLS”) and Physicians Formula (former ticker “FACE”). Mr. Lynch has served on not-for-profit boards in education and the performing arts.
Prior to becoming an investment professional, Mr. Lynch worked in advertising and was a consultant and project manager at Monitor Group, a management consulting firm founded by Michael Porter.
Mr. Lynch earned a BA with honors in Political Economy and Philosophy from Williams College, an MPhil in Politics from Oxford University (graduating first in his class), and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Justin C. Jacobs
Managing Director
Mr. Jacobs joined Mill Road Capital in September 2005, prior to the formation of Fund I. He is a member of the Mill Road Capital Management Committee and is responsible for overseeing and managing the Firm’s governance investments.
Mr. Jacobs previously worked at LiveWire Capital, an investment and management group focused on operationally intensive buyouts of small companies. In addition to leading and executing investment opportunities at LiveWire, Mr. Jacobs held operational positions in numerous portfolio companies, including interim Chief Operating Officer.
Prior to LiveWire, Mr. Jacobs was an investment professional at Blackstone, where he worked on transactions in a range of industries including oil refining, cable, telecommunications, dredging, and utilities. At Blackstone, Mr. Jacobs worked on investment teams that deployed approximately $450 million of equity capital. In addition, he had an active role in the raising of Blackstone Capital Partners III, a $4.0 billion private equity fund.
Mr. Jacobs currently serves on the board of directors of Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (ticker “NGS”) and Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Inc. (ticker “SWP”). He formerly served as a director of Ecology & Environment (former ticker “EEI”), Galaxy Nutritional Foods Inc., Lignetics, Inc., Mother’s Market & Kitchen, National Technical Systems, Inc. (former ticker “NTSC”), PRT Growing Services Ltd., Rubio’s Restaurants, Inc., and School Specialty Inc. (former ticker “SCOO”).
Mr. Jacobs earned a BS with dual concentrations in Finance and Accounting from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia where he graduated Beta Gamma Sigma, the highest academic distinction in the undergraduate business program.
Deven H. Petito
Managing Director
Mr. Petito joined Mill Road Capital in 2014 and is a member of the Mill Road Capital Management Committee. He is responsible for origination and execution of private equity transactions as well as portfolio company monitoring and management. He also leads new idea generation and investment due diligence for Mill Road’s public equity portfolio.
During Mr. Petito’s tenure at Mill Road, he has been involved in the execution and oversight of Mill Road’s private equity investment in Mother’s Market & Kitchen and serves as a member of its board of directors. Within Mill Road’s public equity portfolio, he has led over twenty investments.
Mr. Petito began his investing career in the Private Equity Group at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), where he was involved in the firm’s investments in Dollar General Corporation (ticker “DG”) and Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. (ticker “ASO”). Prior to KKR, Mr. Petito worked in the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley.
Mr. Petito holds an AB in Economics from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Eric T. Yanagi
Managing Director
Mr. Yanagi originally joined Mill Road Capital in 2008 and returned in 2014 following his graduation from business school. He is a member of the Mill Road Capital Management Committee. Mr. Yanagi has responsibility for both governance and public investing and is materially involved in all financings of private companies.
Mr. Yanagi currently serves on the board of directors of Performant Financial (ticker “PFMT”), Contrail Asset Management, Mother’s Market & Kitchen, R.G. Barry Corporation, and Skullcandy, Inc. He previously served as a director of School Specialty Inc. (former ticker “SCOO”) and Vision7 International (formerly known as Cossette Inc.). Mr. Yanagi also served as a special consultant to Physicians Formula (former ticker “FACE”) and was involved in Mill Road’s investments in National Technical Systems (former ticker “NTSC”) and PRT Growing Services (former ticker “PRT”).
Prior to joining Mill Road, Mr. Yanagi was an investment professional at Nautic Partners, a middle-market private equity firm focused on healthcare, industrials, and services. Earlier in his career, he was an investment banker in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Credit Suisse.
Mr. Yanagi earned an AB (cum laude) in Economics from Princeton University and an MBA (with Honors) from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Ms. Heberle joined Mill Road Capital in 2010 and has day-to-day responsibilities for the Firm’s public market operations. In this capacity, Ms. Heberle is responsible for Mill Road’s trading and shares responsibility for the overall management of the Firm’s public equity portfolio with Mr. Petito.
Ms. Heberle led Mill Road’s portfolio investments in the gold and base metals mining industry and has worked on public investments across the aerospace & defense, consumer, energy, manufacturing, retail, and services sectors. Ms. Heberle was also involved in Mill Road’s structured investment in National Technical Systems (former ticker “NTSC”).
Ms. Heberle began her career at Blackstone, where she worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory group in New York. She then moved to London to serve as one of five original professionals in Blackstone’s newly launched M&A and Restructuring Advisory business in the United Kingdom, which grew to a team of over 30 professionals during Ms. Heberle’s tenure.
Ms. Heberle earned a BS (summa cum laude) in Economics with Concentrations in Finance and Accounting from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was also a Joseph Wharton Scholar.
Greg Gittes
Senior Associate
Mr. Gittes originally joined Mill Road Capital in 2019 and returned in 2023 after gaining operating experience working as a Financial Analytics Manager at Seaboard Corp., an agribusiness and maritime shipping conglomerate.
Prior to joining Mill Road, Mr. Gittes worked in the Consumer & Retail Investment Banking Group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Mr. Gittes earned a BS in Applied Mathematics - Economics from Brown University.
Scott Isenburg
Senior Associate
Mr. Isenburg joined Mill Road in 2020. Previously, he worked in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group at J.P. Morgan.
Mr. Isenburg earned a B.S. in Business Management & Administration from Bucknell University.
Mario Robbins
Associate
Mr. Robbins joined Mill Road Capital in 2021. Previously, he worked in Natural Resources at Bank of America.
Mr. Robbins earned a B.B.A in Finance from Howard University.
Jeh Bains
Associate
Mr. Bains joined Mill Road Capital in 2022. Previously, he worked in the Global Energy Investment Banking Group at Moelis & Company.
Mr. Bains earned a B.A. in Economics from Rice University.