How RIAs and Private Bankers Can Leverage Local PE-Backed CEOs

September 15, 2025

The Untapped Goldmine for RIAs and Private Bankers: CEOs of Private Equity–Backed Companies in Your City

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If you’re an RIA, financial advisor, or private banker, you know your next great client often appears right after they sell their business. These moments, when a CEO experiences a major liquidity event, are the ultimate inflection points for wealth creation, tax planning, and investment strategy.

Here’s the insight most advisors miss: CEOs of private equity–backed companies are on a clock. On average, PE-backed businesses sell or recapitalize within 3 to 5 years of acquisition.

When that happens, the CEO and senior leadership often receive significant personal windfalls. Windfalls that require sophisticated financial planning and investment management.

In this article, we’ll break down the CEOs of private equity–backed companies by metro and show why direct access to these leaders can open the door to high-value relationships before their next big liquidity event.

Why These CEOs Need You More Than You Think

The CEOs running these businesses are exceptional operators. They know how to lead teams, grow revenue, and deliver returns to their private equity partners. But managing a nine-figure business and managing a sudden eight-figure personal fortune are two very different skill sets.

When that sale closes, they’ll face a completely new set of challenges:

Tax implications they’ve never navigated before.
Portfolio construction for long-term wealth preservation.
Estate and legacy planning to protect their family for generations.
Liquidity management to balance cash needs with investment opportunities.

That’s where the right financial advisor becomes indispensable. The transition from a “nice” net worth to a transformative one can be overwhelming without expert guidance, and the decisions made in the first 12–18 months after a liquidity event often determine the trajectory of that wealth for decades.

Why This List Matters to You

Imagine knowing, in your metro area, the exact CEOs who are:

Running private equity-backed companies today.
Likely to have a liquidity event in the next 36 - 60 months.
Already vetted and selected by institutional investors (private equity firms), meaning they’re running high-value, growth-focused businesses.

This isn’t about cold prospecting. It’s about building trusted relationships now, well before the liquidity event so you’re the first call when they need expert financial advice.

Portfolio Company CEOs by Metro Area in dakota marketplace

In dakota marketplace, you have the ability to filter by metro area if you’re looking in one particular geographic market. Below we’ll break down the US Metro Area.

Metro	CEO Contacts
New York City	1,230
San Francisco	1,131
Los Angeles	713
Boston	535
Chicago	500
Dallas	437
Atlanta	404
Denver	401
San Jose	370
Philadelphia	359
Houston	327
Austin	317
Washington, DC	313
Seattle	275
San Diego	222
Miami	211
Cambridge	198
Minneapolis	190
Salt Lake City	166
Raleigh	164
Phoenix	159
Charlotte	146
Tampa	138
Cleavland	129
Nashville	125
Indianapolis	121
Pittsburgh	116
Portland, OR	110
Baltimore	102
Detroit	102
St. Louis	90
Kansas City	84
Milwaukee	84
San Antonio	83
Cincinnati	81
Richmond	79
Columbus	75
Sacramento	74
Orlando	69
Jacksonville	62
Las Vegas	61
Louisville	61
Birmingham	57

How dakota marketplace Makes It Possible

Dakota Marketplace offers one of the most extensive databases of private equity-backed private companies, complete with:

Company names and profiles.
CEO names and backgrounds.
Metro-area breakdowns so you can target locally.
Private equity sponsor details to understand ownership and investment timelines.

Whether you’re in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles (or any major market) you can pull a list of every PE-backed company CEO in your city in minutes. No more guessing who might be your next high-net-worth prospect.

Your Competitive Advantage

The advisors who win in the next decade will be the ones who:

Build relationships early. Waiting until after the sale is too late.
Leverage data for precision targeting. Broad networking is fine, but focused outreach to likely liquidity-event CEOs is better.
Bridge the gap between business success and personal wealth success. Great CEOs need great advisors to make the most of their financial windfall.

The opportunity is right in front of you, it’s just hidden in plain sight.

Book a demo of dakota marketplace to see how many PE-backed company CEOs are in your metro area and start building those relationships today.