Richard de Silva

Managing Partner at Lateral Investment Management

Speaker

Richard de Silva is the Founder, Managing Partner and Chair of the Investment Committee at Lateral Investment Management, LLC. With 27 years of experience in the industry, Mr. de Silva launched Lateral with a strategy to allocate first institutional growth capital to independent, owner-operated middle market businesses underserved by typical buyout firms. Under his leadership, the firm has a highly differentiated track record of turning successful, profitable companies into market leaders.

Prior to Lateral, Mr. De Silva served as a Managing Director at Highland Capital Partners, a global venture capital and growth equity firm that has raised $7 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 300 companies including 50 IPOs, 40 Unicorns and such leading companies as Lululemon, VistaPrint, FastClick, Qihoo 360, New York Times Digital and CheckFree. At Highland, Richard focused on first institutional growth and buyout investments in leading technology and business services companies.

Mr. de Silva co-founded IronPlanet, a marketplace for construction equipment, which sold to Ritchie Brothers (NYSE:RBA) for nearly $800 million. He worked as a strategy consultant in the media and technology practice of Oliver Wyman Consulting.

Mr. de Silva received an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and an AB from Harvard College.