Brings deep expertise to help spearhead firm’s efforts in wealth management & wealth technology industries
BOSTON, June 27, 2023 – Great Hill Partners, a private equity firm that invests in high-growth, disruptive companies, today announced that John Wernz has joined the firm as an Executive-in-Residence. In this role, Mr. Wernz will work with Great Hill to identify and pursue investment opportunities within the wealth management and wealth technology industries.
Mr. Wernz joins Great Hill after more than 13 years as the Chief Marketing and Interim Chief Growth Officer of Wealth Enhancement Group (WEG), one of the fastest growing financial planning groups in the United States. During his decade-plus career at WEG, Mr. Wernz developed and executed multichannel organic and inorganic growth strategies, resulting in the firm’s expansion from $2 billion in AUM to over $50 billion. Previously, he was the Chief Advertising Officer of Marketing Architects, a national marketing agency that specialized in customer acquisition programs in the financial services industry. He is a co-founder of and currently serves as an Executive Director for Datalign, a wealth technology company connecting users to financial advisors. He also serves on the advisory board of LifeYield and is a member of the Board of Directors of Choice Bank. Mr. Wernz earned a degree in Finance from Gustavus Adolphus College.
“John brings incredibly valuable insights and a successful track record of rapidly scaling and driving transformative growth for innovative and industry leading companies within the wealth management space,” said Matt Vettel, Managing Director at Great Hill Partners. “In a fragmented market poised for significant expansion, we have no doubt John will be a crucial member of our team.”
“Great Hill has built an impressive fintech portfolio and positioned itself as a trusted partner to some of the most talented entrepreneurs, executives and disruptive companies in the fintech sector,” said Mr. Wernz. “I’m eager to join the team to help drive further success for the firm and its portfolio at this important and dynamic time for our industry.”
“The wealth management space presents a significant investment opportunity for Great Hill as positive tailwinds continue to propel the market, and we’re confident that John’s leadership experience and robust network will be invaluable,” added Nick Cayer, Managing Director at Great Hill Partners.
Great Hill is an active financial technology and software private equity investor, having completed more than 70 total investments in these industries. Representative investments include MineralTree (acquired by Global Payments), Affinipay (acquired by TA Associates), Confirmation.com (Acquired by Thomson Reuters), BillMatrix (acquired by Fiserv), Versapay, One Inc, BlueSnap, Vanco, Jumio, Enumerate and Paytronix.
About Great Hill Partners
Founded in 1998, Great Hill Partners is a private equity firm targeting investments of $100 million to $500 million in high-growth companies across the software, digital commerce, financial technology, healthcare, and digital infrastructure sectors. With offices in Boston and London, Great Hill has raised over $12 billion of commitments and invested in more than 95 companies, establishing an extensive track record of building long-term partnerships with entrepreneurs and providing flexible resources to help middle-market companies scale. Great Hill has been recognized for its industry leadership, being ranked #3 in the 2022 HEC Paris-Dow Jones Mid-Market Buyout Performance Ranking on March 9, 2023, which evaluated fund performance of 563 leading private equity firms between 2009-2018. For more information, including a list of all Great Hill investments, visit www.greathillpartners.com.
