About Us

South Highland Ventures LLC (SHV) was founded to source, diligence, and manage direct VC/PE investments for family offices and institutional investors. By leveraging its decades of investment, investment banking, and operations experience, SHV naturally evolved to become a one stop shop to provide a full suite of capital investment, M&A, advisory, and operations services.

SHV focuses on growth companies with a clear competitive advantage in underserved markets up to and including the middle market. With our proven fund management and operations experience, we are a true partner to our investors and companies. We understand trust is earned, not given.

SHV at a Glance

  • 40+ years of direct investment, investment banking, and operations experience.
  • 150+ transactions worth over $1.3B in total enterprise value.
  • Nearly 50 M&A deals and 20 VC/PE backed company boards.
  • Exclusive and off market VC/PE deal flow.
  • Highly skilled in turn arounds, change management and special situations.
  • Lead investor and advisory experience in a variety of industries.
  • Experts in advising companies navigating early stage to mid-market growth stages.

Industry Focus

The South Highland Ventures team has experience in a variety of industries as direct investors, investment bankers, and operators.  These industries include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Agriculture
  • Automotive & Transportation
  • Business Services
  • CleanTech
  • Consumer Packaged Goods
  • Energy, Power & Infrastructure
  • Environmental, Industrial Hygiene & Safety
  • Healthcare
  • Industrial & Manufacturing
  • Maritime
  • Real Estate
  • Software
  • Technology
  • Telecommunications

 

Our Founder

Ron Ondechek, Jr.

Ron Ondechek, Jr.

Managing Director & Founder

Ron is a Managing Director & Founder of South Highland Ventures LLC. He is an operations focused executive with over 15 year of experience as a fund manager and entrepreneur. Ron specializes in supporting early stage to mid-market companies throughout the growth and exit process and presided over 100 VC/PE transactions worth over $1B in total company value.

Ron began his career as a refinery engineer and project manager for ExxonMobil and became an E&P securities analyst for AG Edwards & Sons, Inc. before joining Altira Group LLC. Altira is an energy services and technology private equity firm with over $400 million AUM. Ron was also the Fund Manager for Shreveport’s first and oversubscribed angel investment fund, New Louisiana Angel Fund 1 LLC, and he was a Principal in the Sustainable Growth Fund, a €500MM senior mezzanine convertible debt fund.

At the board level, Ron participated as an active board director or observer for over 20 PE backed companies and is an adviser to several early stage and mid-market companies. Ron is a first generation college graduate and has a BS in chemical engineering from Penn State University with a MBA from Tulane University.