Penn
Hill
Capital
FOUNDERS
PennHill Capital was created by former principals at Ares Management with a broad history of investing across a variety of industries, investment types, and capital structures, as a Los Angeles-based private equity firm pursuing opportunities in the industrial, energy transition, and technology-enabled services sectors.
JESSE
YANOCHA
Founder & Managing Partner
PRESTON
HAYES
Founder
Prior to founding PennHill Capital, Jesse was most recently a Partner in the Private Equity Group at Ares Management Corporation, where he spent over a decade sourcing, underwriting and executing investment opportunities. He has experience investing and partnering with companies across a variety of different capital types – debt to equity – and different stages of growth – growth equity to late stage cash flowing businesses.
Having sat and operated at the board level across all investment types, his experience is key to his and PennHill’s ability to work with management to build and invest in executable growth plans for all their partners.
Prior to joining Ares, Jesse invested in credit opportunities at GSO Capital Partners, where he spent his time evaluating both public and private debt across a variety of industries. Additionally, he worked in investment banking at Credit Suisse focusing on leveraged finance.
Jesse holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Economics with concentrations in Finance and Operations / Information Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.
With over 14 years of private equity and investment banking experience, Preston has an extensive background in partnering with companies of various sizes and development stages to help them raise capital and accelerate their growth trajectory.
Most recently a Principal in the Private Equity Group at Ares Management, Preston spent over a decade structuring deals across a variety of investment types, including leveraged buyouts, greenfield project development, minority/shared control growth equity, and distressed balance sheet recapitalizations & restructurings.
Partnering with management teams to create and execute on multifaceted value creation plans is a core tenant behind Preston’s co-creation of PennHill. He believes his experience in the board room and in the field can help grow companies regardless of their size or stage of development.
Preston was most recently focused on energy and infrastructure projects, where he has spent a significant amount of time analyzing the impact that technology, globalization and decarbonization has and will have across all industries, not just those tied to energy. He also has experience in tech-enabled services, healthcare, and consumer / retail.
Prior to joining Ares, Preston was an investment banking generalist at Jefferies, where he worked in the Restructuring & Recapitalization and Leveraged Finance groups.
Preston holds a B.S. degree from the Wallace E Carroll School of Management at Boston College where he graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Honors Program.