LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Butterfly, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm specializing in the food sector, today announced that Derick Prelle has joined the firm as Partner and Head of Portfolio Operations. Mr. Prelle brings to the firm over 20 years of private equity operations and consulting experience at KKR Capstone and McKinsey & Co. In his role at the firm, Mr. Prelle is responsible for supporting portfolio company management teams in the identification, design and delivery of long-term value creation.
Adam Waglay and Dustin Beck, Co-CEOs of Butterfly, stated: “We are extraordinarily fortunate to welcome to our team a leader of Derick’s pedigree and experience to build an industry-leading portfolio operations practice. Derick’s combination of deep food expertise and a diverse background in private equity operations, consulting and direct operating roles gives him the tools needed to help our portfolio companies achieve their maximum potential.”
Prior to joining Butterfly, Mr. Prelle was the Managing Partner, Americas for KKR’s operations team, KKR Capstone, overseeing one of the largest private equity operations teams in the industry. In this role, Mr. Prelle had responsibility for portfolio company operations work across all of KKR America’s industry groups with personal oversight of the Consumer, Food & Retail sectors. Additionally, he managed KKR Capstone’s functional groups, deploying into the portfolio experts in Risk Management, Insurance, Technology, Procurement and Supply Chain. Mr. Prelle also held significant corporate operating roles for KKR, augmenting his private equity experience with direct insights into driving transformational change. He most recently served as the President and CEO of Fleet Farm, an 8,000+ employee Midwestern specialty retailer, and previously served as the interim Chief Marketing Officer of Real Mex Restaurants. Earlier in his career, Mr. Prelle was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he was a member of the firm’s Consumer/Retail practice. His clients included retailers, consumer packaged goods firms, food distribution companies and non-profits.
“I am thrilled to join Butterfly at such an exciting inflection point in the firm’s growth,” said Prelle. “Adam, Dustin and the Butterfly team have assembled a truly unique portfolio of assets across the food value chain that I believe will be industry leaders in their respective categories for many years to come. We are well on our way towards building a world-class Butterfly operations team that will create value for all our stakeholders and will establish Butterfly as the partner of choice in the food space.”
About Butterfly:
Butterfly Equity ("Butterfly") is a Los Angeles, California based private equity firm specializing in the food sector, spanning the entire food value chain from "seed to fork" via four target verticals: agriculture & aquaculture, food & beverage products, food distribution and foodservice. With over $1.0 billion of assets under management, Butterfly aims to generate attractive investment returns through deep industry specialization, a unique approach to sourcing transactions, and leveraging an operations-focused and technology-driven approach to value creation. For additional information about Butterfly, please visit its website at www.butterflyequity.com.