Delivering strategic and financial advisory services to clients worldwide — with the depth of an institution and the judgment of a partner.
Phoenix Partners LLC is a Los Angeles-based strategic advisory and private equity firm. With over forty years of experience spanning institutional platforms and independent deal work, we deliver strategic and financial advisory services to clients worldwide.
We operate at the intersection of investment banking and private equity — a position that creates genuine advantages on both sides. Our advisory clients benefit from a principal’s perspective. Our investment partners benefit from a banker’s discipline. Few firms can credibly claim both.
We collaborate with clients as an integral part of their senior management team, contributing to organic growth, buy-side M&A initiatives, and corporate development — committed to fostering relationships and driving value-focused strategies that endure.
Phoenix Partners provides strategic and financial advisory services for select mandates where deep sector knowledge and long-standing relationships create a genuine informational advantage. Our practice is deliberate rather than broad — we take on the clients and situations where we can contribute most meaningfully at the senior level.
We originate and manage M&A processes end-to-end, and we are actively engaged by private equity firms as a trusted advisory partner — providing corporate development, strategy, and M&A execution support from within the portfolio, not from across the table.
That inside position — the result of decades operating as both advisor and principal — is what distinguishes Phoenix Partners from a conventional advisory firm.
Because we operate on both sides of the transaction — as advisor and as sponsor — our investment banking clients gain a perspective that most investment bankers cannot offer: we know exactly what a disciplined private equity buyer is looking for, and we structure and position accordingly.
Phoenix Partners operates as a fundless sponsor — raising dedicated capital for each transaction rather than managing a committed fund. This is a deliberate choice, not a constraint. Without the pressure of fund-life return timelines, we focus entirely on the right deal, at the right time, with the right partners.
We partner with leading private equity firms and family offices on a transaction-by-transaction basis, contributing deal origination, sector expertise, and hands-on management partnerships through the life of each investment. Our investment banking relationships are a consistent source of proprietary deal flow — an advantage that a conventional fundless sponsor cannot replicate.
Currently, our principal’s attention is committed to two platform-building efforts in distinct sectors, each at a meaningful stage of development.
With over forty years of experience, Brion focuses on delivering strategic and financial advisory services to clients worldwide. His expertise spans corporate advisory, strategic planning, and buy-side mergers and acquisitions — enabling organizations to achieve their long-term objectives and navigate complex business challenges.
At Phoenix Partners, Brion collaborates with clients as an integral part of their senior management team, contributing to organic growth, buy-side M&A initiatives, and corporate development. He is committed to fostering key client relationships and driving value-focused strategies that support growth and sustainability.
Brion began his career founding a Chicago-based marketing services firm before joining KKR in New York under mentor Ted Ammon — where he worked alongside senior leadership on landmark leveraged buyouts including RJR Nabisco, Beatrice, and Safeway, and supported corporate and business development for a KKR portfolio company. He has led Phoenix Partners for over three decades.
Richard Mager brings more than thirty years of investment banking and operating leadership to Phoenix Partners, where he leads advisory M&A and Corporate Finance mandates. He founded and ran his own middle-market investment bank for fifteen years, advising public and private companies across the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Hong Kong. His operating experience runs equally deep: he has served as CEO, President, CFO, and CRO, giving him a management team’s perspective on what it takes to build and run a business, not just sell one. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia.
Dr. Noah Silverman is part of Phoenix Partners' Corporate Development and Strategic Planning team, working alongside Brion G. Rouchon. For three decades, he has served as Mr. Rouchon's trusted technology and strategic advisor, bringing deep quantitative and analytical rigor to corporate strategy and decision-making. Dr. Silverman holds a PhD in Statistics from UCLA and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Hong Kong.
Cody Crook brings a cross-functional background spanning buy-side M&A advisory, sell-side M&A advisory, in-house corporate development, and strategy consulting. His perspective is shaped by having sat on multiple sides of the table: advising corporations and financial sponsors on strategic growth initiatives as a management consultant, driving acquisition strategy for an operating company as its head of strategy and corporate development, and running both buy-side and sell-side M&A advisory teams that have closed multiple transactions for institutional private equity firms. That range gives him a practical understanding of what financial sponsors and management teams each need to get a deal done and how to create value for all shareholders once a deal is closed. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Bob Lewis brings transaction-level execution experience across mergers and acquisitions, corporate development, and strategic advisory mandates. Working closely with firm leadership, Bob supports client engagements from origination through closing and into post-transaction management partnerships.
Cindy Ryan supports firm operations and principal activities across our Los Angeles, New York, and London offices — ensuring that client relationships and engagement workflows are managed with precision and discretion.
We welcome conversations from management teams, intermediaries, and aligned capital partners.