Eric Gurry
Managing Partner
Eric Gurry leads the Akoya Capital team in initiating, structuring, negotiating and closing transactions on behalf of the firm's management partners. Eric's 15 years of business experience includes a unique combination of investment, operations and transactional expertise, with a demonstrated record of generating significant returns for investors. His experience includes investing and trading as a hedge fund portfolio manager; M&A transactional work as both principal and advisor; P&L and business development responsibility for a business unit; and managing during a period of distress at a public company.
Prior to joining Akoya, Eric was a managing director with Aragorn Managers LLC/Aragorn Capital, L.P., a hedge fund he helped found in 2002. At Aragorn, Eric focused on deep value, stressed and distressed corporate investment opportunities with compelling risk/reward ratios and mid- to long-term time horizons, actively participating in portfolio company restructurings and operations where appropriate. Eric co-managed the fund, with direct responsibility for lead generation, investment research, technology, investment decisions and ongoing monitoring of investments. In addition, Eric served as chief compliance officer when Aragorn became an SEC-registered investment advisor in 2006.
Before moving into fund management, Eric was senior vice president for business development and internet operations for RBC Mortgage, formerly known as Prism Financial Corp., then the largest pure retail residential mortgage originator in the country. There Eric evaluated, negotiated, closed and integrated acquisitions that added $2 billion of mortgage volume, growing Prism's core business by 25 percent. He also grew Prism's available internet customer base from a few hundred thousand to more than 5 million customers by developing, structuring and negotiating affinity marketing partnerships with leading companies. And, as a member of Prism's senior management team, Eric was instrumental in Prism's eventual sale to Royal Bank of Canada, remaining involved post-sale to integrate Prism into RBC's strategy and operations.
Earlier, Eric was an associate at Kirkland & Ellis specializing in private equity and mergers and acquisitions – there he evaluated, structured, negotiated and executed various acquisitions and divestitures, restructurings and fund formations. Eric also has served as a consultant to numerous companies ranging from local retailers to Fortune 500 corporations on subjects including operations, technology, finance and strategy.
Eric has an MBA in finance, accounting and entrepreneurship and a JD with high honors (Order of the Coif) from the University of Chicago, as well as a BA magna cum laude in American history from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Turnaround Management Association and is licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois.