Our Overview

GPX Enterprises, L.P. (GPX) is a private investment firm, focused on the sponsorship, development and management of selected private equity investments.

Working with private capital, GPX leverages its broad insight and collective resources to acquire, invest in, and/or establish companies with strong growth potential. GPX also provides corporate finance and M&A advisory services, assisting selected clients with a wide range of strategic and corporate transactions.

Our collective expertise, limited portfolio size, flexibility and focused approach are all geared towards a single goal — the success and growth of our investments, which translates to outstanding returns for our investors.

Investment Approach

The GPX Investment Approach

GPX is dedicated to the concept of “active investing”— capitalizing on our partners’ experience and resources to become directly involved in the operations and management of our portfolio companies. It is an approach that emphasizes greater focus on a limited portfolio, and is designed to generate superior operating performance and investment returns.

GPX raises private capital separately for each transaction that the firm sponsors. This allows the firm to better leverage its broad financial contacts in order to select the best sources and form of capital for each company and situation. It also gives us significant flexibility.

GPX invests its own capital side-by-side with its investors in every transaction that it sponsors.

GPX has a rigorous investment process that spans the entire investment cycle, from deal sourcing and origination through exit, and is designed to maximize overall returns:

  • Deal Origination
  • Drawing on a wide range of long-standing relationships established by its partners, GPX seeks transactions with significant potential for high returns through a vast proprietary network of sources.
  • Financing and Execution
  • The significant experience of GPX partners in mergers and acquisitions, investment banking, recapitalizations, and other corporate advisory work, coupled with extensive relationships with sources of private capital and leading financial lenders, positions us as a singular resource for any corporate finance need of our companies.
  • Value Enhancement
  • With a keen eye focused on operational effectiveness, sales management and growth, and strategic and financial issues, GPX goes “beyond capital” and mere financial engineering to help its portfolio companies realize profitable revenue growth and greater operational performance.
  • Exit Options
  • Our extensive experience in identifying financial alternatives and sources of liquidity makes us highly qualified to match the right exit strategy for the investment at hand. In addition, since GPX is not bound by the common requirements of traditional funds, we are able to time our exit events in order to maximize value; we are not afraid to hold profitable investments for long periods of time.

Active Investing

The partners of GPX have significant hands-on management expertise, gained through direct operating experience with companies both publicly traded and private, domestic and international, in multiple and often complex industries representing all stages of development.

Our strategy is to leverage this experience to achieve superior returns on a select group of private investments. We call it active investing. And it means we invest more than capital; we also invest our experience, passion, insight, and the other assets gained through decades of hands-on management and operational success.

This focused strategy and hands on operating experience is what sets GPX apart from other private equity sponsors. The true essence of active investing is the value that GPX brings to each investment. We have a vested interest in the performance of every GPX company, and so our approach is anything but passive.

Investments

Direct Investments

Commitment

Our Commitment to You

Our Investors, Partners, Employees, Friends & Family

At GPX, we have a passion for excellence and a commitment to delivering the highest standards of professionalism and integrity in all of our transactions.

We succeed only when we exceed the expectations of our investment & operating partners.

We encourage innovation, accept accountability and always strive to make educated decisions that will have a positive effect on our business.

We realize the importance of every individual working on our team. We all share a sense of commitment and passion in how we approach our investments.

We are committed to the Communities in which we live and work and strive to participate in local events that will have a positive effect on the families and businesses within those communities.

We strive to provide unbiased, honest and valuable advice at all times.

We encourage you to partner with us in an effort to improve execution and operating performance and ultimately increase company value.

Culture

These Principles are the Foundation of GPX

They are the tools that have built a culture that values people and results, and which has remained unchanged over three decades in business.

Commitment
Philanthropic Focus
Passion for excellence
Delivering Value
Commitment to Community

Our Guide to Giving

Our Commitment as an organization has always been to the Communities in which we live and work and strive to participate in local events that will have a positive effect on the families and businesses within those communities.

The Gravina Family has also created a Family Foundation as an avenue to give back to the Communities where we live and work. Click to learn more about this active local Foundation.

We are happy to share our time and talents with numerous local organizations including:

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Our Commitment to Community

Leadership

Headquartered in the Philadelphia region, with offices in Philadelphia PA, Princeton NJ and Haverford PA, GPX Enterprises, L.P. and its affiliates are owned and controlled by founding partners, Thomas Gravina and Michael Peterson. The Company’s executive team and Advisory Board are composed of proven senior corporate executives, entrepreneurs, private equity and venture capital investors, and seasoned and respected business leaders whose experience and knowledge guide GPX’s investment strategy.

Collectively, the firm brings decades of business and investment experience to each transaction and portfolio company.

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Thomas Gravina

Thomas J. Gravina was elected Chairman of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine’s (PCOM) Board of Trustees on November 10, 2021. He has served as Vice Chairman since 2015 and has been a Trustee since 2003.Gravina will remain as Chairman of the PCOM Foundation Committee and will continue serving on the Finance, Audit, Executive and Compensation Committees.

From 1987-2000, Gravina served as president and CEO of ATX Communications, which he built into one of the largest privately held telecommunications companies in the U.S. In 2000, he led the multibillion-dollar merger between ATX and publicly traded CoreComm and Voyager.net, continuing as President and CEO of the combined venture until 2005, when he transitioned to Chairman of the Board until the company was sold to Broadview Communications in 2006.

Gravina is currently Executive Chairman of Evolve IP, a company he co-founded in 2006. Evolve IP is a cloud technology company, serving commercial clients in the U.S. and various other countries around the world. Evolve IP has been named as one of America’s 50 Best Places to Work (Inc. Magazine), Best Entrepreneurial Companies (Entrepreneur Magazine) and Fastest-Growing Technology Companies (Deloitte Fast 500). In his current role, Gravina oversees Evolve IP’s global M&A strategy and philanthropic efforts. He also is Executive Chairman of GPX Enterprises, a private investment company he co-founded in 2007, with interests in real estate, manufacturing, software, consumer health, cloud technology and financial services.

From 2009-2018, Gravina was a member of the Board of Directors of FS Investment Corporation, a NYSE-listed business development company. He has also served on the Board of Directors of FS Energy and Power Fund, chairing the nominating and corporate governance committee, as well as the FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund.

The Philadelphia Business Journal/Wharton Business School named Gravina to the CEO Hall of Fame and he has previously been recognized as a 30 Under 30 and a 40 Under 40 honoree. He has also been inducted into The Philadelphia Hall of Fame for Junior Achievement.

Gravina supports several charitable organizations through the Thomas and Tracey Gravina Family Foundation, which develops partnerships with organizations that provide basic human services like food and shelter, youth development, education, wellness, community building and encouragement. He and members of his various businesses have helped raise more than $12 million for 45 charities across the United States. He also currently serves on the boards of a number of charitable organizations, including the Herb it Forward Foundation and the Center City District Foundation.

Gravina earned a bachelor of science degree in business administration from Villanova University in 1984, and is an active alumnus serving on the President’s Leadership Committee as well as a member of the 1842 Heritage Society. He is also a 2018 recipient of the Villanova University Joe Walters Special Recognition Award.

Gravina currently resides in Haverford, PA, with his wife Tracey and their three children.

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Michael Peterson

Michael A. Peterson is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a non-partisan organization dedicated to addressing America’s fiscal challenges and building a stronger economic future. The Foundation engages in grant-making, partnerships and research to educate citizens and foster solutions to put America on a sustainable fiscal path. Michael sets the Foundation’s policy direction and strategy, shaping its major programs and initiatives.

Michael combines his dedication to public service with extensive private sector experience as an entrepreneur, operator and investor. In 2007, he co-founded Evolve IP, an award-winning telecommunications company named as one of America’s 50 best places to work (Inc. Magazine), best entrepreneurial companies (Entrepreneur Magazine) and fastest growing technology companies (Deloitte Fast 500). Michael also co-founded GPX Enterprises, L.P., which makes direct investments in operating businesses and real estate. Previously, he held a number of corporate finance positions, leading and executing transactions totaling several billion dollars. Michael also currently serves as the CEO of Peterson Management, LLC, which manages the Peterson family investments.

Michael is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and serves on the boards of the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Partnership for New York City. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of New York, and Business Executives for National Security. He has received the Corporate Community Achievement Award from the Northside Center for Child Development and the Visionary Award from the Committee for Economic Education. Additionally, he has established his own foundation, which focuses on a variety of philanthropic areas.

Michael graduated Magna Cum Laude and with Honors from Brown University, where he was awarded the Taubman Prize for his thesis. He received his Master’s degree from the London School of Economics. Michael lives in New York with his wife, Tara Peters, and their two children.