Campfire Capital

Campfire Capital was founded in 2008 and has grown around one guiding principle: do what is right. The Campfire leadership team has nearly a century of collective strategic advisory and financial services experience. Campfire has the experience and extensive network to provide access to capital through a broad array of means and a wide range of clients.

Campfire Capital participates in bond and equity syndications for investment grade companies, provides a wide range of Investment Banking and Corporate Finance services to middle market companies and acts as a Fund Placement Agent to funds of all asset classes. See services for a description of Campfire’s capabilities.

Campfire Capital is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business ("SDVOSB") and is an active supporter of veterans’ initiatives.


Firm Overview

Campfire is wholly-owned by its partners so is truly independent. Over the past two decades, our senior bankers have advised on hundreds of transactions while working at investment banks and financial institutions including Credit Suisse, DLJ, Evercore, GE Capital, Lazard and Merrill Lynch.

Campfire Capital is a broker-dealer registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA") and a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation ("SIPC").

Leadership Team

Peter W. Gaudet

President

Peter Gaudet is the Founder and President of Campfire Capital. Mr. Gaudet has over 20 years of experience in the financial industry. Prior to 2013, Mr. Gaudet was the President of Axonic Capital LLC, a $1.5 billion structured credit hedge fund business and institutional asset manager in New York City. Prior to Axonic, Mr. Gaudet worked as a consultant for Flintlock Capital (a Paul Tudor Jones spinoff commodities hedge fund). Before Flintlock he was a Senior Managing Director and COO of ICP Capital in the US and UK. Prior to ICP, Mr. Gaudet ran Alternative Investment businesses at Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) and Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette (DLJ) Asset Management. He started his financial career at Merrill Lynch.

Mr. Gaudet graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1991 with a B.S. in economics and served three years active duty and eight years reserve duty, earning the rank of Captain as a Field Artillery Officer in the U.S. Army.

Colonel (R) John Graham, PhD

Managing Director and CTO

John Graham, PhD is a Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer at Campfire Capital. Colonel (R) Graham has been a US Amy Officer for thirty years, fifteen of which has been in non-dilutive financing of and organization design for advanced Science & Technology for the Warfighter. John is focused on the evaluation of and development of companies operating at the leading edge of technology and those seeking to transition science to the market. He has extensive applied and theoretical background in leadership development and mentoring in high stress environments.

John's last tour in the Army was as the West Point Chief Scientist where he built a University-wide research enterprise by partnering with DOD agencies such as DARPA, DTRA, Army Research Laboratories, and numerous Program Executive Offices while generating new methods to work with commercial organizations across the United States. This role built on John's extensive experience as founder of numerous military R&D and operational enterprises.

Prior to Chief Scientist, John led the multinational forces in the security of the Capital City of Afghanistan, Kabul, for the 2014 Presidential Elections. That tour was the subject of a six part mini-series "The Fighting Season." Earlier in his career, John served in various roles in Space Command, the 10th Mountain Division, and the 82nd Airborne Division. He has taught courses in Leadership, Change Management, Cognitive Science & Orbital Mechanics and has multiple technical publications. John holds a PhD in Computation from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.S. in Cognitive Systems Engineering from The Ohio State University, and a B.S. from the United States Military Academy. In service to the United States Army, John is a combat-decorated Space Operations, Airborne Ranger qualified, Cavalry Officer.

Colonel (R) Jack Jacobs

Advisor

Col. Jack Jacobs (RET) is an advisor to Campfire Capital. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Rutgers University and entered the U.S. Army in 1966 as a Second Lieutenant through the ROTC program. He served as a platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne Division, executive officer of an infantry battalion in the 7th Infantry Division, and commanded the 4th Battalion 10th Infantry in Panama. A member of the faculty of the US Military Academy at West Point, Jacobs taught international relations and comparative politics for three years, and he was a member of the faculty of the National War College in Washington, DC.

He was in Vietnam twice, both times as an advisor to Vietnamese infantry battalions, and he is among the most highly decorated soldiers from that era, having earned three Bronze Stars, two Silver Stars and the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest combat decoration. Jacobs retired as a Colonel in 1987. He was a founder and Chief Operating Officer of AutoFinance Group Inc, one of the firms to pioneer the securitization of debt instruments; the firm was subsequently sold to Key Bank. He was a Managing Director of Bankers Trust, where he ran foreign exchange options worldwide and was a partner in the institutional hedge fund business, and he founded a similar business for Lehman Brothers. He retired in 1996 to pursue investments.

He is a principal of The Fitzroy Group, a firm that specializes in the development of residential real estate in London and invests both for its own account and in joint ventures with other institutions. He serves on a number of charitable boards of directors and is the Co-Chairman of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. Jacobs holds the McDermott Chair of Humanities and Public Affairs at the US Military Academy at West Point, and he is an on-air analyst for NBC News, where he was an Emmy nominee in 2010 and 2011 and a recipient of the 2011 Murrow Award for his work on the Nightly News segment "Iraq: The Long Way Out." Colonel Jacobs is also the author of the Colby Award-winning memoir, "If Not Now, When?," released by Penguin in October 2008.


Services

  • Bond and Equity Syndications
    • Campfire participates in investment grade corporate bond and equity syndications
  • Investment Banking
    • Strategic Advisory Services
    • Capital Structure Advisory
    • Debt and Equity Placement
    • Institutional Equities
    • Project Finance Advisory
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Liability Management and Restructurings
  • Capital Placements for alternative investments
    • Private Equity Funds
    • Hedge Funds
    • Structured Credit Funds
    • Real Estate Funds

Veterans Initiatives

Campfire Capital is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and is an active supporter of veterans initiatives with an emphasis on supporting organizations that work to assist veterans in transition back to civilian life.

Peter Gaudet is a co-founder of ProVetus (www.ProVetus.org) and is on the ProVetus Advisory Board. ProVetus is a Columbia University based veterans support organization, working in partnership with The NYU Langone Medical Center, The US Department of Veterans Affairs, The NYC Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs, The Headstrong Project, UniteUS, and Team Red, White & Blue. ProVetus provides peer-trained mentors to military veterans to help them successfully transition to the civilian sector and become our country's next generation of citizen leaders. ProVetus mentoring focuses on five critical domains; Employment/Education, Housing, Family/Legal, Social/Physical and Medical.

Members of the Campfire Capital leadership team include a Medal of Honor recipient and the former Chief Scientist of West Point.


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Campfire Capital is registered in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Massachusetts, Indiana, Virginia, and Florida.