After almost a decade of helping mid-market technology companies navigate digital disruption and become market leaders, private equity firm Black Dragon Capital℠ is continuing to break the mold. The diverse management team of Black Dragon Capital℠ is taking the lead in helping companies to transform and grow, constantly taking its portfolio companies to new heights.
Black Dragon Capital℠ is a high-performing private equity firm founded and led by a diverse team that has a track record of outstanding operating and investment success. Driven by a team of experienced industry professionals, its unique approach which combines deep domain operating expertise with proven investment success has yielded positive results.
At the helm of this ambitious firm is award-winning entrepreneur, successful investor, and recognized author Louis Hernandez, Jr.
Hernandez has made a name for himself in the industry for his experience in leading companies through high growth situations, spearheading major transformations within organizations and diversifying products to increase profitability. As an executive himself, Hernandez knows what it means to work hard to grow a company.
Transforming the Industry
Louis Hernandez Jr.‘s recent track record with Payveris, Avid Technology, and Open Solutions reflects his diverse set of talents and experience.
Payveris was founded by Hernandez to address an acute need for community-based financial institutions as they struggled to remain relevant as the customers shifted to digital tools for engagement and payments. He and his team felt there was a better way to create a state-of-the-art, real time money movement platform that reinforced the uniqueness of community based financial institutions. Working from a room above his garage in Glastonbury Connecticut, Hernandez designed and architected a vision for Payveris, which has become a market leader.
The multimedia software technology company, Avid Technology, was struggling to keep up with the digitization of the media landscape until Hernandez was brought in as CEO in 2013. During his 5-year tenure, he was able to spearhead the creation of innovative new products and introduced cloud-based subscriptions. Hernandez also led the creation and execution of a new cloud-based ecosystem, and a software-based digital strategy that ultimately turned the company around.
Prior to Avid Technology, Hernandez served as the chairman and CEO of award-winning banking technology leader Open Solutions. Under his leadership, the company was repeatedly recognized as one of the world’s fastest-growing enterprise banking systems, helping to reshape the global landscape for banking technology. Open Solutions is now a part of Fiserv.
Black Dragon Capital’s℠ Methodology And Commitment To Diversity
As founder and CEO of Black Dragon Capital℠, Hernandez leverages over three decades of experience in the ever-evolving technology industry.
His performance history and success is a testament to his belief that diversity is a crucial element of successful teams. Under Hernandez, Avid Technology experienced dramatic improvements in ethnic diversity (an increase of 50%) and gender diversity (an increase of 13%). The numbers of female managers were also increased by 40%, creating a strong foundation for long-term success and the creation of promising organization leaders.
With Hernandez at the helm, it is no surprise that Black Dragon Capital℠ has a 75% ethnic or gender diversity. The firm employs The Black Dragon Leadership Index℠, to evaluate and nurture its talents while identifying opportunities for more diverse leadership.
This process greatly complements Black Dragon Capital’s℠ methodology of combining deep domain operating expertise with proven investment success. All professionals and advisors affiliated with the firm have a unique combination of operational expertise and investment success in the industries that Black Dragon Capital℠ invests in. Their familiarity with these industries allows the team to make key decisions that highlight the strengths of the companies, helping it to transform and reach its goals. As a result, the firm has established deep industry relationships that continue to enable them to spot easy-to-miss golden opportunities and generate a proprietary deal flow.
Technology and the Future of the Economy
BDC’s diverse team is paving the way.
Over the past decade, businesses have slowly come to realize that the future of the economy is deeply intertwined with technology. For businesses to be future-ready, they must be able to adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape – this is a truth that has been critically reinforced by the global pandemic. In this new normal, business agility can unlock growth at a pace faster than ever before.
Having invested extensively and exclusively in industries such as eCommerce, financial technology, and media & sports, Black Dragon Capital℠ has a proven track record of elevating businesses to the most competitive level. The firm invests heavily in cloud computing which transforms the workflow, predicts, and detects potential security risks, and empowers decision-makers to receive actionable insights from real-time data and turn them into agile solutions.
Now that America is nearing the tail-end of the pandemic, the biggest takeaways from the past year and a half will only pave the way for an inflection point in cloud disruption. As that happens, diverse teams like Black Dragon Capital℠ can readily leverage their deep industry expertise and operating experience to create greater opportunities for the technology industry and beyond.