dave@parkergale.com
312-698-6300

Dave entered the private equity business upon joining William Blair & Company from Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division in 1987. At William Blair, he partnered with Tim Murray and other colleagues to build the firm’s merchant banking capabilities, which were ultimately known as William Blair Capital Partners. While at William Blair, Dave and his Partners raised, invested and managed four private equity funds over a 17-year period. In 2004, the team leading WBCP established Chicago Growth Partners on an independent basis while continuing to manage the William Blair funds. Since 2004, Dave has served as Managing Partner and Co-Founder of CGP. Collectively, the William Blair and CGP funds totaled $1.5 billion in committed capital. Over the past 30 years, Dave has served as a board member of numerous privately-held companies, primarily in the education, healthcare and technology services markets.

Dave received his MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BA in history from Princeton University. He served as Board Chair of the Golden Apple Foundation from 2007 to 2016 and remains on its Executive Committee. Golden Apple is a non-profit organization dedicated to recruiting, developing and supporting excellent teachers in schools of need throughout Illinois. He is also a board member of the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL), a Chicago non-profit organization that creates schools of excellence by developing highly effective teachers and transforming education outcomes in Chicago’s lowest performing schools. AUSL manages 31 Chicago Public Schools serving nearly 18,000 students.

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