Terrence Lapier

Terry is the founder and senior partner of Pierpont, a private equity and strategic advisory firm. Terry is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School where he focuses on corporate growth challenges with nationally known CEO’s and teaches top rated courses in Entrepreneurial Value Creation leadership and Private Equity.

During the last 25 years, Terry has had extensive experience in creating value for corporate enterprises. He has been a CEO for several portfolio companies, and a principal in and/or adviser to more than one hundred private equity transactions, management buyouts, startups, retail and entertainment venues, market entry strategies, joint ventures, alliances, corporate rollups, M&A transactions and real estate investments in the United States and globally. Terry is presently CEO of Cambridge Health Education and Chairman of Wellington Funeral Services.

Prior to Pierpont, Terry spent seven years as senior managing director of the Bechtel family’s (one of the top five family net worth’s in the United States) affiliate for private investments, real estate investments and advisory services, where he arranged and managed joint ventures, acquisitions, corporate and partnership alliances and real estate investments. During this time, he initiated and negotiated complex transactions with internal and third-party board of director members, corporate CEO’s and CFO’s and government ministers.

Before joining Bechtel, he worked for seven years as partner and managing director of Colony Ventures Group, a merchant banking and real estate investment concern. Earlier in his career, he was a senior vice president with Wells Fargo (then Dominion Bankshares) and an assistant vice president with BankAmerica (then Security Pacific), in their respective investment and mortage banking groups.

Terry received his Ph.D. in International Economic Comparison from the London School of Economics and graduated from Wharton’s Advanced Management Program. He received his bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship. Terry’s book, Competition, Growth Strategies and the Globalization of Entrepreneurial Firms has been widely read at Wharton, MIT, Johns Hopkins and other business schools worldwide. He is on Syracuse University’s Chancellor’s Council and its Athletic Department’s Board of Advisors, and is on the Board of Advisors for the London School of Economics. He was on the Board of Director’s of the National Federation of Independent Business and Chair of its Young Entrepreneurs Foundation in 2010.