MBA Summer Associate

St. Louis, MO

Lewis & Clark Capital (LACC) is the private equity investing arm of a family office (Lewis & Clark Holdings). We take a selective, pragmatic, and operator-focused approach to investing in the lower middle-market, and partner with successful founders and operators to help realize their vision of moving beyond success to significance. Our approach is defined by 5 pillars:

  • Operator Focused: We are a team of experienced operators who actively partner with managers to drive business transformation.
  • People First: Talent acquisition and people development has underpinned our prior successes and will continue to be a major focus.
  • Patient Capital: We maintain a long-term focus, with a sense of urgency to realize near term objectives.
  • Entrepreneurship: We are invested & experienced across a broad swathe of industries and sizes with emphasis on entrepreneurial situations.
  • Data as our backbone: We believe the key to scaling is to create robust measurement & reporting, to drive efficient decision making.

We seek candidates who are intellectually curious, motivated, enjoy rolling up their sleeves and understanding business operations, and are driven to challenge status quo using facts and data.

Job Description:

The MBA Summer Associate will work in a small team environment, providing support toward the achievement of the firm’s investment and value-creation objectives. They will play an active role in portfolio company support, including the identification, development, and execution of key strategic initiatives designed to drive growth and operational efficiency. In addition, they will contribute to the development of investment theses by researching selected sectors, companies, and market segments to identify potential opportunities.

The Associate will also assist in building and maintaining reporting systems and dashboards using BI tools to monitor portfolio company performance and KPIs, helping the team maintain visibility into operational trends and progress against strategic goals. Broader responsibilities may include industry and competitor research, portfolio competitive positioning, and ongoing strategic support across multiple companies.

The Summer Associate will have a high degree of autonomy and every opportunity to take on as much responsibility as desired, to challenge themselves, and to further develop their capabilities as valuable team members. Involvement with multiple portfolio companies at any given time is expected and encouraged.

Qualifications:

  • Currently pursuing an MBA
  • BA/BS – any major, accounting / finance / economics preferred
  • 2-4 years of prior work experience required with a preference for an Operations background in one of the following industries: Manufacturing, B2B SaaS, Hospitality or B2B Services.
  • High degree of professional, academic, and extracurricular achievement
  • Strong analytical ability and attention to detail
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills
  • Demonstrated leadership skills

Desired Traits:

  • Highly competitive
  • Entrepreneurial spirit & eagerness to learn in a fast paced, dynamic environment
  • Demonstrated ability to perform in-depth research of industries / markets from disparate sources, to draw meaningful conclusions as to the attractiveness of the industry
  • Ability to interact with various levels of management, LACC, targeted companies and outside advisors / consultants effectively to drive improvement / strategic initiatives
  • Evidence of desire to establish a career in private equity with LACC and grow with the firm for the long-term