Mr. Donovan is a Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Houlihan Lokey’s Private Funds Group, where he focuses on leading origination initiatives and overseeing the firm’s primary capital advisory business line. He is based in the firm’s Chicago office.
Mr. Donovan has more than 25 years of financial services experience and has focused the past two decades specifically on private capital advisory experience. He has originated, executed, distributed, and been a member of teams that have completed more than 500 capital raises and secondary transactions, aggregating nearly $450 billion. Mr. Donovan has held various positions of leadership in the private capital-raising industry and has significant experience across different strategies in private equity buyout, growth, and private credit funds.
Prior to joining Houlihan Lokey, Mr. Donovan was Founder and Global Head of the Private Capital Advisory Group at Greenhill & Co., where he built the business into a 35-person team with offices in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, London, and Hong Kong. Before that, he spent two years at Mercury Capital Advisors as Partner, Head of North America Private Equity, and was part of selling the business to Investcorp in 2019. Earlier, Mr. Donovan worked in the capital-raising groups at Lazard and Credit Suisse for 13 years. Mr. Donovan also helped launch Rede Partners, a boutique placement agent, where he served as a Founding Partner in 2012.
Mr. Donovan holds a B.B.A. from Southern Methodist University.