John Martin

John Martin joined VPC in 2019. Based in Chicago, he serves as a Senior Partner and is primarily responsible for supporting the firm’s investment strategies while leveraging more than thirty years of experience in the private credit investment industry. Mr. Martin is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee.

Previously, Mr. Martin served as managing partner and co-CEO of Antares Capital, LP, a private debt credit manager. He was a founding partner of the original Antares Capital in 1996, a startup business that provided acquisition financing capital to the portfolio companies of private equity firms across North America. Over the course of nine years, Antares grew to become one of the largest providers of acquisition capital to private equity sponsors in the middle market. Following the firm’s acquisition by GE Capital in 2005, Mr. Martin became President and CEO of the newly branded GE Antares Capital and helped to direct the strategic vision of the business. Following the firm’s acquisition by CPPIB in 2015, he engineered a highly complex carve out of the business from GE Capital and remained as Co-CEO. Mr. Martin sat on the Antares Investment Committee throughout his tenure at the company and was a member of the board of directors. Prior to founding Antares John was a senior executive of Heller Financial, earning four Chairman’s Club awards for outstanding performance. He began his career with Continental Illinois National Bank and spent two years with Citicorp’s Leveraged Finance business.

Mr. Martin earned a B.S. from the University of Notre Dame and served as a member of the Mendoza College of Business Advisory Council for 12 years. In 2019, he was appointed as the first chair of the newly established Advisory Council for the IDEA Center, a hub of innovation at Notre Dame. He serves on the board of the Executives Club of Chicago, Automotive Keys Group LLC and Key Investment Partners. He is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and is a director of the Western Golf Association. Mr. Martin also serves as a Board member of the Midtown Educational Foundation, the Center for American Entrepreneurship and is actively involved in a number of non-profit organizations in the Chicagoland area.