Luke Lahaie

Senior Director, ExWorks Capital

40 Under 40 Category: Portfolio Management

Biography:

Luke LaHaie has over nine years of professional experience, which includes commercial lending, transaction advisory, audit, tax and lender services. At ExWorks Capital, Luke participates in all facets of the business including portfolio management, credit analysis/underwriting, investment committee presentation, investor relations and new business development.

Prior to ExWorks Capital, Luke was focused on transaction advisory and lender services at both RedRidge Due Diligence Services and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.  He has led multi-man quality of earnings and lender service engagements in various sectors including healthcare, specialty finance, manufacturing and professional services with deal sizes ranging from $1 million to $500 million purchase price/credit facility.

Luke holds a master degree in accountancy from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor degree in finance from Michigan State University.  He is a Certified Public Accountant registered in both Illinois and Michigan. Additionally, Luke is a SFNET® Charterholder.

What is the best professional advice you have been given and how have you implemented it?

“Nothing can be substituted for hard work.”

In today’s world of instant gratification and on- demand everything, it’s easy to feel that progression and promotion should happen automatically overnight. I learned the foundation of hard work from my early teen years working for my dad’s construction company, which mainly consisted of sweeping floors and hauling materials. This experience taught me that you have to be willing to do any and all job duties and, in order to earn people’s trust and support, you had to do it well and with a good attitude. Throughout my career I have made a conscious decision to always put in the maximum amount of effort. By being willing to get in early and work late, it has allowed me to build a deep level of trust with the people at each organization I have been at, which in turn has opened doors and further opportunities that I would not have been able to get had I not been willing to go the extra mile.

What role has mentoring played in your career?

Mentoring has played a significant role in my career. Throughout my career, I have been fortunate enough to have a mentor at each stop along the way. Having someone that can champion for you and provide objective insight into opportunities, regardless if it is in their benefit or not, is crucial to being able to truly assess what career path and experiences are the most impactful for you. At ExWorks Capital, I have been fortunate enough to have three mentors who are industry veterans: Randy Abrahams, Andy Hall and Matt Stanley. They have brought me into the management team and have allowed me to participate fully and equally, despite the fact that I do not have the same level of professional experience. They continually stress that years of experience do not dictate performance and I aim to continue to use that mantra throughout my career as I progress and as I have co-workers that I mentor. I am truly grateful to them for helping me get to this point in my career and I look forward to continuing to grow ExWorks Capital with them for many years to come.

How did you wind up in the industry? We know most kids don’t say “I want to be in commercial finance when I grow up.”

For me, I was always interested in investing. While at Michigan State I had thought I would pursue a career in equities. However, 2008 happened and, when I was graduating, the industry did not seem stable enough so I chose to pursue a master’s in accounting at Notre Dame. Now looking back, beginning my career in public accounting at Ernst & Young was invaluable. In public accounting I was able to work on numerous companies across many industries and through this I gained a deep understanding of financial statements and business operations. Throughout my time in audit, I still had that burning desire to move into investing. From audit I navigated my way into M&A advisory and, once I gained exposure to acquisitions and lending transactions, it was clear to me that ultimately I needed to get to the investing side. Being in the right place at the right time couldn’t have rung more true for me. In June of 2015 ExWorks was gaining traction and the team needed someone to help with modeling and drafting investor materials. After many years of building models and deliverables in M&A advisory, I was uniquely positioned to move from diligence at RedRidge to our fund, ExWorks Capital. Now that I have landed on the debt side of the investing spectrum, I could not imagine a better spot to be and I’m excited to be a part of this industry.