Tower Partners is a growing lower middle market investment bank with a concentration in family founder and entrepreneurial-led businesses.
Three Twenty-One Capital Partners, a lower middle market investment bank with a focus to family, founder, and entrepreneurial-led businesses, announced today that it has changed its name to Tower Partners as part of a companywide rebrand.
The move comes as Tower’s investment banking business continues to experience strong deal flow with an eye toward continued growth of its nationwide practice.
“We have momentum and our company is rapidly evolving,” said Ervin M. Terwilliger, CEO and Managing Director of Tower Partners. “The name ‘Tower’ underscores our growth, strength and commitment as a firm to providing unparalleled strategic thinking and vision to business executives.”
“The name signifies our ability to not only guide executives and entrepreneurs through complicated stages of their businesses, but to understand the pressures they face,” added Erik Endler, Managing Director, Head of Mergers and Acquisitions at Tower. “We are bringing Wall Street sophistication to Main Street.”
Founded by Terwilliger in 2008, Tower’s mission is to be the preeminent lower middle market investment bank in the U.S. Its team of investment banking veterans has advised sell-side and buy-side engagements with more than $15 billion in value for entrepreneurs, family-run businesses and financial sponsors. Since its inception the firm has completed more than 300 transactions with a closing rate in the top 5% of middle market investment banks. The firm ranks in the top 10% of most-active firms in the middle market.
“We are one of the most active lower middle market investment banks in the country,” Terwilliger said.
To that end, Tower will continue to focus on delivering expertise to an underserviced part of the market, said Endler, who before joining Terwilliger in 2013 was Executive Director and Director in Oppenheimer’s Consumer & Business Services Investment Banking group, a former Director and Associate at CIBC World Markets, and an analyst with Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown.
“We differentiate in the market by marrying bulge-bracket sophistication with a client-centric approach,” Terwilliger said. “We meet with owners who are running exceptional companies that have never bought or sold a business before. We don’t tell them how things are going to go, we listen. Together we identify objectives, plot a course of action, and support the achievement of their goals.”
Tower’s rebranding coincides with the hiring of Jason Pappas, who recently joined the firm as President and Managing Director.
Prior to Tower, Pappas was CEO and President of RocketDocs, a SaaS sales enablement software company that was acquired in March 2023. He was also President, CEO and Executive Chairman of the Maryland Proton Treatment Center (MPTC) in Baltimore where he spearheaded a $277 million bond refinancing. He and Terwilliger serve as directors of MPTC’s board.
Pappas will focus on scaling Tower’s businesses.
“Tower is one of Maryland’s best kept secrets. I was surprised when I joined Tower to learn how many deals were being completed by the firm. Most of Tower’s deals over the past 15 years have been national in scope,” Pappas said. “Our deal flow is robust and it is only going to get stronger as we invest more heavily in our local markets while maintaining our national footprint. The potential of this firm is immense. There’s no shortage of owners out there that can benefit from Tower’s investment banking and advisory experience.”
The name ‘Tower’ has a special meaning to the three executives. It represents the famous Tower on Baltimore’s Mount Saint Joseph High School’s campus, where Terwilliger and Endler met as students.
Before graduation, seniors participate in the ‘Tower Climb’ making their way up the steps to the top of the iconic tower where they sign their names on its walls, permanently etching their names on the MSJ campus.
Terwilliger was a hockey standout at MSJ and his late father, Ervin J. Terwilliger, coached the school’s hockey team and was inducted into its Sports Hall of Fame. The Terwilliger family donated the renovation of the school’s locker room (referred to as The Tower) for the hockey team in the memory of their father/husband. The fifth generation of the Terwilliger clan, Ervie, recently graduated from MSJ where his father, Ervin M. Terwilliger, coached his team throughout his high school career. Additionally, Pappas’s two sons attend MSJ and play football, where Pappas serves as the offensive line coach.
“MSJ played a pivotal role in my life, Erik’s life and now Jason’s life,” Terwilliger said. “The Tower is a symbol of decency, honesty, and integrity. It is the perfect symbol for what we are building.”
About Tower Partners
Headquartered in Columbia, MD, Tower Partners is the premier private investment bank servicing the lower middle market. Tower’s team has completed engagements with more than $15 billion in transaction value. It specializes in providing Wall Street level investment banking to the underserved lower middle market, with a concentration in family founder, and entrepreneurial-led businesses. The company has offices in Columbia, Baltimore, New York and Denver. For more information click https://www.towerpartners.com/.
