Managing Director
Solange Velazquez is a Managing Director in Financial Sponsors. She joined the firm in 2024.
Solange joined the firm in 2024 and has 15 years of experience advising clients across a broad range of M&A transactions.
Solange leads our sponsor coverage efforts across the Midwest region, working with middle-market and upper middle-market private equity firms, as well as select alternative investment managers and family offices. Previously, she covered the transportation and auto tech sectors as a member of our Technology group.
Prior to Solomon, Solange was a Managing Director in the Technology Investment Banking group at William Blair & Company. She was focused on the transportation technology subsector and led the firm’s coverage effort.
As a result of her deep market expertise and strong relationships with key investors and clients, Solange was selected as one of the “2023 Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A” by Mergers & Acquisitions magazine. Throughout her career, she has been a key deal team member in 30+ transactions and created over $20 billion of value for her clients.
Select transaction experience includes:
Solange began her career at Genworth Financial (formerly GE Financial) as a senior finance analyst and in their Finance Leadership Development Program.
Solange holds an MBA with concentrations in Finance, Accounting, and International Business from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance and a second major in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
By Solange Velazquez , Managing Director, Transportation Technology Parking is easy to overlook — until it fails: A delivery driver circles the block as traffic backs up. A garage sits half-empty while nearby retailers lose customers. A rideshare pickup competes with a bike lane, a loading zone, and a parent trying to get children safely…
By Solange Velazquez , Managing Director in Technology From investment to dealmaking, AI was, unsurprisingly, the main topic of conversation at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Show, the largest gathering of franchised new car and truck dealers in the United States, held in Las Vegas last month. Investors remain bullish on a specific segment…
As housing markets remain dynamic and loan volumes fluctuate, mortgage lenders face increased pressure to accelerate underwriting while maintaining rigorous compliance and risk controls. Underwriting has traditionally been a slow process, requiring manual review of income documents, identity verification, and credit risk across multiple data sources. Today, digitization and AI are reshaping the mortgage underwriting…
For years, companies have invested heavily in collecting customer data from web clicks and app usage to purchase histories and demographics. Traditional Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) were designed to unify this data, remove silos and empower marketers to make more informed decisions. However, CDPs typically require copying data into separate systems, such as data warehouses.…
In the modern maritime industry, data has evolved from a passive byproduct of operations into a strategic asset that drives decision-making, enhances efficiency, and mitigates operational risk. As global trade becomes increasingly complex and regulatory environments more demanding, the ability to harness and analyze data is critical. At the heart of the maritime data transformation…
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are poised to generate as much as $4.4 trillion in productivity gains across some of the world’s largest industries, including banking, technology, healthcare, retail, and logistics, according to McKinsey’s 2025 analysis. As last-mile delivery becomes an increasingly critical and costly part of the supply chain, machine learning is proving especially…
By Solange Velazquez , Managing Director When most people picture an automobile dealership, they think of a showroom lined with rows of shiny new cars. But auto dealerships have two lines of business: sales of new/used cars and fixed operations, and the latter is by far the larger profit center. In the first part of…
By Solange Velazquez , Managing Director While all businesses work to maximize profits and minimize losses, auto dealerships operate on exceedingly tight margins, which means business owners must go to great lengths to protect and grow their bottom lines. In the first part of this series , we explored how advanced technology helps improve the…
By Solange Velazquez , Managing Director For over a century, the automobile has been synonymous with freedom and independence. Whether cruising down the highway in a convertible or packing up the family for a road trip, the car is an iconic symbol of American culture as depicted in countless films, television shows, and advertising campaigns. …
Introduction Quantum computing, a technology conceived in the early 1980s, has the power to revolutionize industries including finance, healthcare, logistics, and more. Although classical computers will continue to be necessary for day-to-day tasks, quantum computers (QCs) are far better equipped to handle more complex problems. For example, QCs can factor large numbers exponentially faster than…
