Dan Cremons has spent his career working with private equity-backed companies, playing across most of the positions on the field: investor, board member, CEO, and advisor. At Alpine Investors, a SF-based investment firm, Dan helped launch the firm’s CEO-in-Training program, now widely viewed as the gold standard for developing leaders in PE-backed companies. He also served on the board of Wrench Group, one of the early residential services roll-ups, giving him a front-row view into how to drive value creation in companies like Turnpoint’s.

Today, Dan works directly with PE-backed companies to sharpen their leadership, align their teams, and accelerate value creation. He recently co-founded Ascend, an executive accelerator built specifically for leaders in private equity-owned businesses. He’s also the bestselling author of Winning Moves, and teaches a top-rated course on small-business value creation at Chicago Booth.

Dan writes and speaks regularly on what it really takes to lead and grow a PE-backed company. His work is grounded in lived experience, a bias for simplicity and pragmatism, and a belief that great value creation stories are rooted in great leadership.

After years in San Francisco and Chicago, Dan is living the suburban dad life in Cincinnati, where he spends his time perfecting homemade pizza, driving the kids to activities, and hiding out in the neighborhood coffee shop writing, reading, and chatting. He’s a loyal Cincinnati sports fan, which means he has developed a high tolerance for disappointment.