How Mid-Sized Alternative Managers Compete in the Age of Scale - Travis Pritchett - CEO @ HMC

Mar 3, 2026

Travis Pritchett, CEO of Harbert Management Corporation and leader of an $8B real assets platform, shares his unconventional path from biology and fly-fishing into alternatives. He discusses HMC’s power generation play and how it captures AI and data center tailwinds without taking data center risk. He also covers the rise of luxury senior housing and why Europe looks ripe for value-add opportunities.

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ANECDOTE

From Fly Fishing Lodges To Real Estate

Before real estate, Travis spent 1.5 years running a fly-fishing lodge partnership, traveling to places like the Kola Peninsula and New Zealand.
That experience revealed a real estate angle: lodge value depended on fishery health, sparking his interest in property economics.

INSIGHT

Shared Services Scales Middle Market Resources

HMC uses a shared services model with 160 employees to give middle-market strategies the resources of a larger firm.
Dedicated investment teams (10–20 people) share accounting, legal, compliance and fundraising to scale capabilities efficiently.

ADVICE

Match Shared Services To Similar Businesses

When running shared services, only combine businesses with similar operations; dissimilar lines break the model.
HMC engaged McKinsey to allocate costs per business and moved from flat allocations to a more rigorous cost model.

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In this episode of The Distribution, Brandon Sedloff sits down with Travis Pritchett, CEO of HMC, to unpack his unconventional path into alternatives and the evolution of a middle-market investment firm navigating a rapidly changing private markets landscape. From a biology major and fly-fishing enthusiast to leading an $8 billion global real assets platform, Travis shares the inflection points that shaped his career and the strategic decisions that have defined HMC’s growth. The conversation spans power generation, European value-add real estate, and the modernization of luxury senior housing, all framed by a focus on asset-level execution and long-term mega trends.

They discuss:

How Travis transitioned from banking and fly fishing into real estate private equity and ultimately into HMC’s CEO role
The origins of HMC’s power generation strategy and how the firm is capitalizing on AI and data center demand without taking data center risk
The evolution of the middle-market value add model and why specialization is becoming a competitive necessity
The shift toward luxury, high-amenity senior housing and the demographic forces reshaping the sector
Why Europe may present a multi-year opportunity given rebased valuations, capital flows, and competitive dynamics

Links:

HMC - https://www.harbert.net/

Travis on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-pritchett-1343264/

Brandon on LinkedIn - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/bsedloff/⁠

Juniper Square - ⁠https://www.junipersquare.com/⁠

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro (00:02:24) - Travis’ background and early career (00:17:37) - Staying 20 years through growth (00:20:45) - HMC today (00:22:55) - Shared services tradeoffs and costs (00:27:27) - AI tailwinds and new competition (00:28:27) - Power investing 201 (00:29:44) - Gas vs renewables cycle (00:31:09) - Where power capital comes from (00:33:31) - Data centers without DC risk (00:36:33) - Value add platform evolution (00:40:07) - US vs Europe opportunity (00:43:54) - Seniors housing strategy shift (00:47:31) - Luxury senior living today (00:52:01) - Generalist versus specialist (00:55:09) - Reimagining with megatrends (00:57:48) - Closing and wrap up