Lee John (L.J.) Updike - Partner

L.J. is a seasoned investment professional who brings a wealth of investing experience to STS Capital Partners where he is highly regarded for his strategic deal making capabilities. He combines his extensive experience in strategy, finance, marketing, and negotiation/deal structuring to ensure successful customized strategic transactions that meet the needs of STS clients.

L.J. has had extensive international experience having lived and worked in both Europe and Africa. He has also earned an international MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus, a leading European business school.

Prior to joining STS Capital, L.J. managed a Venture Capital fund with SIC Fund Management where he led a team of investment professionals who identified, appraised, recommended, closed, and monitored venture capital investments and divestitures. He also represented the fund on numerous boards of directors. Working on both sides of the transaction table negotiating both investments and divestitures for the fund, he developed a sharp sense for the leverage of a strategic investor versus a financial investor-a very important value addition in M&A advisory.

L.J. began his investing career initially as an analyst and then as a fund manager for Cirne Financial Services, a subsidiary of Ciel Investment. He managed seven institutional pension funds as well as a publicly listed mutual fund. He was a key member of management committee that made strategy, marketing and operations for the company. He also assembled and led a committee that analyzed and developed new strategies for the publicly listed mutual fund. When the company merged, he moved into private equity.

While earning his MBA, L.J. worked at Royal Dutch Shell where he developed a target list of potential acquisitions based on strategic fit, constructed a framework for financial evaluation and modeled results to establish valuation range. He then made a recommendation of acquisition targets and bid size to an executive leadership team and followed up on execution.

Over his career, L.J. has gained valuable expertise in financial services, leisure & tourism, oil & gas, textiles, agriculture, chemicals, and biotech.

L.J. is a married father of two boys living in Houston, TX with his wife of ten years who is a high level manager with Royal Dutch Shell. L.J. enjoys investing, philanthropy, good food and wine, and sports when he gets a chance including skiing, tennis, sailing, scuba and basketball. He has completed one marathon and has begun planning for another.