Our Leadership
Terry LaPier is the founder and Senior Partner of Pierpont, a private equity and strategic advisory firm. From 1996 to 2013, Terry served as a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he worked closely with nationally recognized CEOs on corporate growth challenges and taught highly rated courses in Entrepreneurial Value Creation and Private Equity, with an emphasis on business analytics.
Terry is deeply immersed in the global academic, business, and government arenas. Over the past 25 years, he has built an extensive record of creating value for corporate and government enterprises. As CEO of Cambridge Health and a leader of multiple companies, Terry has served as a principal and/or adviser in more than one hundred transactions; spanning private equity, management buyouts, startups, retail and entertainment ventures, market entry strategies, joint ventures, alliances, corporate rollups, mergers and acquisitions, and real estate investments in the United States and internationally. He is sought after for highly sensitive and confidential engagements with top CEOs and boards across corporate and nonprofit sectors, and continuously pursues new acquisitions and assignments that draw on his research, advanced analytics capabilities, strategic platform, and global network.
Terry’s strategic scenario planning, analytical expertise, and operational experience help each company develop the right capabilities to create lasting value. He complements his corporate growth platform with personalized strategies encompassing geofencing, Google Analytics, social media optimization, and proprietary growth software. Pierpont has a strong track record of successful corporate exits.
Prior to founding Pierpont, Terry spent seven years as Senior Managing Director of the private investment affiliate of the Bechtel family; one of the largest privately held companies in the United States; where he arranged and managed joint ventures, acquisitions, corporate and partnership alliances, and real estate investments. In that role, he initiated and negotiated complex transactions with internal and third-party board members, CEOs, CFOs, and government ministers.
Before joining Bechtel, Terry served for seven years as Partner and Managing Director of Colony Ventures Group, a merchant banking and real estate investment firm. Earlier in his career, he held positions as Senior Vice President at Wells Fargo (then Dominion Bankshares) and Assistant Vice President at BankAmerica (then Security Pacific), in their respective investment and mortgage banking groups.
Terry received his Ph.D. in International Economic Comparison from the London School of Economics and Political Science, completed the Advanced Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and earned his undergraduate degree from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He is a Babson College Entrepreneurship Teaching Fellow.
Terry’s book, Competition, Growth Strategies and the Globalization of Entrepreneurial Firms, has been widely read at Wharton, MIT, Johns Hopkins, and business schools around the world. He is a member of the Economic Club of Washington and the National Association of Scholars, and serves on the North American Board of Advisors for the London School of Economics. He previously served on the Board of Directors of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and as Chair of its Young Entrepreneurs Foundation. Terry is a member of the Syracuse University Chancellor’s Council and was an active member of Syracuse University’s Sports Program Advisory Board for more than 20 years, supporting coaching leadership and scholar-athletes across the men’s and women’s lacrosse, football, and field hockey programs.
He serves on the boards of several organizations, including as a Trustee of Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Sibley Hospital Foundation and as a Board of Visitors member for both the Conway School of Nursing and the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America. He also serves on the corporate boards of Cambridge Health, Wellington Services, Wellington Investors, Cambridge Education, and Crossroads, a 501(c)(3) organization, and previously served on the board of Colony Investors.
Terry’s core interests include job creation, capitalism, social entrepreneurship, free enterprise, and competitiveness initiatives in the United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is a Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, dedicated to serving the sick and the poor. To learn more, visit www.orderofmalta.int.
Partners
Stephen Garchik
Stephen Garchik has spent his career founding, developing and growing successful businesses, maximizing his partners’ investments, and giving back to the community. He understands how to create sustainable business opportunities that offer winning outcomes for all parties involved. He also understands the importance of helping the greater community and how such assistance benefits and strengthens everyone, not just those who are the direct recipients of the aid.
Steve is a co-founder or original investor of the following enterprises: Cambridge Health Education; Pegasus Tower, a Virginia company which erects and leases cellular towers; Celom, a consortium for a cellular company in Liberia and Guinea Conkray; Championship Golf Management, owner and manager of multiple golf courses in Florida and Pennsylvania; LISCR, the Liberian ship registry company; and New River Valley Radio Network, which owned and operated several Virginia radio stations.
Steve has been a real estate developer and owner for 32 years. He and his partners at The Evans Company of McLean, Virginia and SJM Partners Inc. of Palm Beach, Florida have developed over 10 million square feet of office space, residential properties, self-storage projects, retail space, and industrial projects. His clients have included the Army Corps of Engineers, National Science Foundation, Booz Allen Hamilton, the University of Maryland, K-mart, Sprint, Mobil Oil, Northwestern Mutual, Lehman Brothers, the Marriott family, the United States Postal Service, and several residential golf course communities.
Steve serves on the board of several non-profit institutions. His Bachelor of Science and MBA are from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.