Scott Smith

Scott is a Managing Director and Co-Head of Sponsor Coverage at Capstone Partners. With more than 25 years of investment banking experience, he specializes in advising private equity firms and corporate clients on strategic transactions. Throughout his career, he has developed an extensive network of longstanding relationships across the financial sponsor and broader M&A communities. In his role at Capstone, he helps oversee the firm’s Sponsor Coverage Group while covering several key sponsor relationships.

Prior to joining Capstone, Scott was a Managing Director in Baird’s Financial Sponsors Group, where he advised private equity clients and expanded sponsor relationships across the middle market. Before Baird, he was recruited to Goldman Sachs as a founding Managing Director of both the Cross Markets Group and the Financial and Strategic Investment Group, helping establish and grow the firm’s financial sponsor coverage platform.

Scott has held senior financial sponsor coverage roles at several leading investment banks, including Lazard, Piper Sandler, and Goldman Sachs. He opened Lazard’s Charlotte, NC office in 2008 and spent nearly eight years building and growing the firm’s sponsor coverage practice in the Southeast. Earlier in his career, he advanced from Associate to Managing Director at Bowles Hollowell, First Union, and Wachovia, following investment banking and private equity roles with Lehman Brothers and Berkshire Partners.