New York, April 20, 2022 – MidOcean Partners (“MidOcean”), a premier New York-based alternative asset manager specializing in middle-market private equity and alternative credit investments, announced today that Chris Grandpre and Michael Isakson have joined the firm as Operating Partners. Mr. Grandpre and Mr. Isakson bring decades of operational experience and deep business acumen in the franchising sector, and will advise on MidOcean’s efforts in that area. They also serve on the board of Lynx Franchising, a MidOcean platform investment in the residential and commercial services spaces.
Eric Roth, Managing Director at MidOcean, commented, “We are excited to welcome Chris and Michael to the MidOcean team. We are lucky to have the benefit of their incredible strategic thinking and complimentary skill sets to evaluate new opportunities and drive transformative growth opportunities in partnership with MidOcean’s investment team.”
Mr. Grandpre previously served as the Chairman & CEO of Outdoor Living Brands, a company he founded in 2008. In his role, he set the strategic direction for the company, including driving organic growth and growth through acquisitions and new concept development, while fostering the company’s culture of innovation and service. Outdoor Living Brands is a multi-branded franchise organization comprised of category leading outdoor lifestyle and home services. Previously, Outdoor Living Brands was also the franchisor of Mosquito Squad, the first and largest outdoor pest control business and franchise in the United States. Mosquito Squad was grown from a start-up business to over 250 locations domestically and internationally and was sold to a private equity firm in 2018. Historically, Outdoor Living Brands has had over 600 franchise locations across North America along with several international markets. Prior to launching the company, Chris provided sell-side M&A advisory services to owners of privately held businesses in the middle market as a Managing Director with a boutique investment bank.
Mr. Isakson previously served as President and COO of the Franchise Service Group/ServiceMaster Global Holdings, where he directed all areas of franchise and branch operations, P&L, and franchise support for over 6,000 franchises. He was instrumental in the transition of ServiceMaster from public to private equity ownership. During his tenure, consumer level revenues grew from $245 million to $2.1 billion with over 6,000 locations in the United States and globally. As a member of the ServiceMaster Executive Committee, Michael was influential in the successful maintenance of the ServiceMaster franchise culture during the transition. Michael started his career at Service Master over 40 years ago, and has held numerous senior leadership roles across ServiceMaster businesses throughout his tenure. Beginning with ServiceMaster of Central North Dakota where he successfully built the business into one of ServiceMaster’s top 50 revenue businesses in less than five years, he built a tremendous career at ServiceMaster driving franchise growth, efficiencies and improvements across businesses. Mr. Isakson was Chairman of the International Franchise Association (IFA) from 2007-2008, and remains very active as a past Chairman of IFA.
