Christopher McGowan

Chris McGowan is the General Partner of CJM Ventures (“CJMV”), a Chicago private-equity investment firm.

McGowan’s private equity career began 25 years ago with AEA Investors in New York City, after earning an undergraduate degree in theoretical mathematics from Columbia University’s College of Arts and Sciences, and following two years of mergers and acquisitions training at Morgan Stanley.

After completing an MBA at Harvard Business School, he joined Madison Dearborn Partners (“MDP”), where he co-headed their basic industries practice for the last five years of his 12-year career there. At MDP, he oversaw more than $2 billion of equity investments focused on growth equity and buyouts globally in the industrial, consumer, and energy and power sectors. He continues to serves on the Board of prior MDP portfolio company Boise Cascade (Chairman of Audit Committee, NYSE: BCC) and formerly served on or advised the boards of Smurfit Kappa Group (LN: SKG), BWAY Holdings, FirstWind, US Power Generating, OPENLANE, The Illinois Venture Capital Association, and others.

In 2011, with the help of MDP leadership and mentors, McGowan formed CJMV, a private equity firm focused on buyouts and growth equity investments in companies located near Chicago and London. CJMV's current portfolio includes OPTO International, an Illinois-based manufacturer of retail shelving and display systems; Cedar Capital, a Chicago-based asset management firm; and Ingenica Solutions, a UK-based health care information technology company. CJMV’s former portfolio companies include Autism Home Support Services (“AHSS”), the largest provider in Illinois of home-based therapy for children on the autism spectrum. He is also a board member of 8th Light, BigStep Cloud, Campus Cubed, Kinzie Capital, Leadership Lyceum, and is a Board observer for Psycle, and SonarMed.

Since Spring 2012, McGowan has taught at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business (“Booth”), and currently serves there as an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, and as an Investor in Residence and Faculty Advisor to Booth’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In Fall 2019, he begins his ninth year teaching Booth’s Sterling Partners Investment Thesis Challenge and his seventh year co-teaching Booth’s Private Equity and Venture Capital Lab. He also conducted the Oxford-Chicago Global Private Equity Challenge for the last four years.

McGowan is an active angel investor and currently serves as Chairman of the Limited Partner Advisory Committee for Hyde Park Venture Partners Fund I (and a member of Fund II’s Board), on the Board of Directors and Portfolio Advisory Board of Hyde Park Angels, and as Chairman of the Advisory Board for Valley Growth Ventures. His angel investments include Agent.ai, Blueprint, Brilliant, Catalytic, Chowbus, Clearcover, Codeverse, Dispatch, EVA Automation, ExplORer, Farmers Fridge, FarmLogs, FourKites, GeoFeedia, Hologram, Human Predictions, Kenna, LandscapeHub, Luxury Garage Sale, Markit, MAX Analytical, Nanograph, NuCurrent, Occasion, Packback, Pangea, Partyslate, Polyphotonix, PopularPays, Provi, ShipBob, SonarMed, StreamLink, Techstars, TransparentC, Truss, TurboAppeal, Vertex and YCharts.

McGowan married his high school sweetheart, Sandy, and they have three children: one recent graduate of Walter Payton College Prep, and two attending the University of Chicago’s Laboratory Schools (“Lab”). At Lab, McGowan served for nine years on its Board of Directors including four years leading Lab’s Development Committee (two as Chair, two as Co-Chair), including oversight for Lab+, the School’s $80 million capital campaign. McGowan is the former President of Friends of Walter Payton College Prep (and former Chair, Annual Fund), and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Court Theatre at the University of Chicago, as well as the SHSAA Board of Trustees for Stuyvesant High School, where he attended with Sandy in New York City.