Managing Partner

Stenning Schueppert

Stenning is the Managing Partner of Evolution Strategy Partners and purposely founded the firm to bring the value of collaboration, open communication, and lasting relationships back to the private equity industry. With over 25 years of proven experience in getting deals done and growing portfolio companies both organically and through acquisitions, he will state his greatest accomplishment to be the lasting, trusted relationships he has built over the years.

Prior to building Evolution, Stenning was a Managing Director of Altos Partners. He was also the co-founder of CenterGate Capital, a $365M lower middle market private equity firm, where Stenning established many of the organization’s protocols. Stenning also served as the Senior Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development for Total Safety, a private equity-backed company focused on energy and industrial market worker safety, where he completed eleven acquisitions and played a key role in the company’s sale from DLJ/Credit Suisse to Warburg Pincus. Prior to Total Safety, Stenning was a Principal at Eos Partners and H.I.G. Capital. He began his career in management strategy consulting with Bain & Company and subsequently entered the private equity industry as an Associate at GTCR Golder Rauner.

Stenning serves as Chairman of the Board of Westco, Allied Underground and DiPonio Contracting.

Stenning earned a M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a B.A., with Honors, from Northwestern University. He is a proud Eagle Scout – living the Oath and Law each day – and has held senior leadership roles in the local Scouts BSA since 2016.

Senior Associate

Sean Ryan

Sean is a Senior Associate at Evolution and is involved with all aspects of the firm’s investment process. He is fascinated by the different businesses he encounters daily with Evolution and loves getting to know the operators that drive their success.

Sean has spent the majority of his career working in the industrials and business services sectors. Prior to Evolution, Sean worked at EY in corporate strategy and innovation strategy consulting, serving clients ranging from manufacturers to metals recyclers to medical device companies. Additionally, Sean has worked for Focus-Strategies Investment Banking and Ironspring Ventures, an early-stage, industrial-focused VC firm. Directly out of college, Sean spent a year of service with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.

Sean an MBA degree from the McCombs School of Business and a BA from Boston College.

Advisory Board Member

K. Rick Turner

Rick joined Evolution as an Advisory Board Member in 2019, where he has lent his expertise and counsel. From 2019 to 2021, Rick served on the board of UGI Corporation (NYSE: UGI) and from 2012 until 2019, he served on the board of AmeriGas Propane (NYSE: APU). From 2002 to 2018, Rick served on the board of Energy Transfer Equity (NYSE: ETE) where he chaired the compensation committee for several years. He was also a director of Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE: ETP) from 2004 to 2011, Sunoco LP (NYSE: SUN) from 2014 to 2018, and North American Energy Partners (NYSE: NOA) from 2003 to 2016. In addition, Rick served on audit committees and numerous conflicts committees for the aforementioned public companies. Notably, ETE/ETP and NOA were private equity investments that he led for The Stephens Group, LLC.

Rick is known for partnering with entrepreneurs, business founders, managers and sponsor groups to develop and cultivate successful enterprises that value employees and customers while creating value for shareholders over the long term. Employed by Stephens’ family entities from 1983 until 2011, he lastly served as a board member and Senior Managing Director of The Stephens Group, leading the investment initiatives of the private equity practice and managing the Houston, Texas office. He first became a private equity principal in 1990 after serving as the Assistant to the Chairman, Jackson T. Stephens. His areas of focus have been oil and gas exploration, mid-stream operations, processing industries, and power technology. His investment experience has run the gamut from start-ups to large public companies. Rick began his career with Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Company and is a non-practicing Certified Public Accountant. Rick received his B.S. from the University of Arkansas.

Advisory Board Member

David Lytle

Prior to joining Evolution as an Advisory Board Member, David was Chief Commercial Officer for Saddle Butte Pipeline, a Yorktown Partners backed midstream developer of approximately 200 miles of greenfield gas and oil gathering, processing and terminaling infrastructure in the Bakken and Powder River Basin. David previously served as Vice President of Business Development for Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, executing multiple long term contracts supporting $3.4 billion of expansion and managing subsidiary Gulf South’s technical services groups including engineering, construction, compression, GIS, right of way, communications and gas storage. He began his career with Koch Industries where he was promoted through various positions including project engineer/manager, plant manager, West Coast Operations Manager and General Manager of Business Development.

David received his B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Kansas and a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Advisory Board Member

Scott Donaldson

Scott Donaldson joined CIC Partners in 2017 as a Sector Partner focused on investments in industrial products and services companies. Prior to joining CIC, Scott was a Partner of Austin Ventures and its successor entities where he co-led the middle market investment practice for nearly a decade. Earlier in his career, Scott was a vice president and founding partner of Silver Oak Services Partners, a private equity associate with Willis Stein & Partners, and an investment banking analyst with Thomas Weisel Partners.

Scott serves as a director of TSU One. He formerly served as a director of DynaGrid Construction Group. He was also formerly a director of various other private companies including BenefitMall, Delta Rigging & Tools, ENTACT Environmental Services, Kovach Building Enclosures, Magnablend, Sterling Foods, and Surveying And Mapping. Scott is a graduate of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Harvard University.

ADVISORY Board Member

Heather Schueppert

Heather is an Advisory Board Member, who proactively partners with portfolio businesses to build, launch and elevate their brands to increase overall awareness and equity value. In this role, she also collaborates with the Evolution investment and operations teams to oversee the corporate and external communications strategy and execution. Heather brings almost 30 years of proven experience and results in integrated marketing, brand strategy, corporate communications and change management with a specialty in new-to-market launches and high growth advancement.

Prior to her collaboration with Evolution, Heather served as Chief Marketing Officer to Unified Women’s Healthcare, where she established and scaled the Marketing department to drive increased revenue and overall company growth. She led the integrated strategies and implementation of all marketing, communications and brand initiatives and took the initiative to launch new programs including the company’s first intranet, reputation management platform and corporate philanthropy program. Before her time at Unified, Heather was President of a marketing and strategy consulting firm that successfully developed competitive edge and industry insights for over 150 clients. She began her career at Leo Burnett, USA, where she specialized in Business Development and Client Services. Throughout her career, Heather has prioritized relationship development and team mentoring and takes great pride in being a leader and impact player.

Heather earned her B.S. in English and Communications at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and was a proud Lifelong Learner and Guest Lecturer on Semester at Sea, Institute for Shipboard Education. She is an active community volunteer and has held adult leadership roles for the past 10 years with the Boy Scouts of America.

Portfolio Board Member

Stephanie C. Stokes

Stephanie C. Stokes is an active Portfolio Board Member of Evolution Strategy Partners, and the founder of Structured Leaders, a consulting firm focused on improving financial performance for small to medium sized companies.

A resourceful, seasoned executive with over 25 years multi-national experience working in Financial Reporting, Operational Finance, Financial Planning and Analysis, Accounting and Internal Audit, Stephanie is recognized as an operating partner focused on metrics and analytics with a proven track record of successful value creation and cost reduction initiatives. She has experience interacting with Boards, Audit Committees and PE firms while communicating complex accounting and tax related issues and has worked with companies through various acquisition, financing, sale, divestiture and recapitalization activities. Over her career, she has successfully driven value and positive impact as the CFO of The Nitsche Group, the CFO of the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas, the Vice President of Accounting and Controller for Insight Communications, Assistant Controller for Moody’s, and Director of Finance and Administration for LSG Sky Chefs.

Stephanie serves on the Boards of Allied Underground and [the currently Confidential Infrastructure Services Company].

She began her career in public accounting with Arthur Andersen, LLP and holds both Certified Public Accountant and Certified Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis certifications and a BBA from Baylor University.

Co-Investment Partner

Chris Weidenhammer

Chris is the managing partner and co-founder of Tillery Capital. During his more than 20 years as an investor, he has led and/or played a significant role in 17 platform investments and 17 add-on acquisitions, across a wide range of industries, with an aggregate transaction value in excess of $1.3 billion. During this period he has invested more than $240 million in equity and completed more than $1.3 billion in financings. He serves on the board of directors of each of Tillery Capital’s portfolio companies.

Previously, Chris was a Principal at H.I.G. Capital, a leading private investment firm, where he was responsible for sourcing, financing, completing, monitoring and exiting leveraged equity investments. He served on the board of directors of seven portfolio companies. Prior to H.I.G., Chris was with two different middle market private equity investment firms specializing in the acquisition of manufacturing and distribution businesses where operational improvements were a principal element of the investment strategy, where he was responsible for sourcing, financing, completing, monitoring and exiting leveraged equity investments.

Prior to becoming a professional investor, Chris spent more than nine years in engineering and manufacturing management positions in operating companies and a management consulting firm. Chris has an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Indiana University, a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.