About Us

A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON INVESTING

We Provide Smart, Flexible and Patient Capital Tailored to Individual Needs

Established in 2016, Oakland Capital Partners provides an alternative path for successful business owners and growth-oriented leadership teams of middle-market businesses in Commercial and Industrial products, Health & Wellness, Renewable Energy, and Financial Services sectors, who are looking for strategic assistance and capital support to scale well beyond their current state.
As a hands-on investment partnership with extensive experience in strategic business operations, management, finance and new business development, we seek to partner with businesses that are looking for both financial support and business management counsel, adding value to the business while allowing leadership to focus on the areas where they excel.
Our unique structure and self funded capital base allow us the flexibility to tailor partnerships according to the needs of your business and that help you make strategic decisions that build significant long-term value.

Our Team

Partner - Build - Grow

Peter Benoist, Jr.

PRINCIPAL

Peter Benoist is a former Wall Street executive with more than 15 years of experience analyzing and investing in debt and equity securities. Throughout his career, Mr. Benoist managed trading businesses with multi-billion dollar balance sheets consisting of corporate debt, equity, trade claims and derivatives and has extensive experience in Capital Markets, Risk Management and Financial Structuring. Mr. Benoist began his career in 2001 with Salomon Smith Barney which later became Citigroup in their Leveraged Loan Trading Group. In 2007 he was hired by Deutsche Bank as Managing Director, Head of Loan Trading Americas and in 2010 was hired by Barclays PLC as Managing Director, Head of US Distressed Trading. In 2016 He founded Oakland Capital Partners, a holding company headquartered in St. Louis, Mo. He served on the Board of Directors of EASiBuy, a reverse auction software company, which was acquired by a division of HCA Healthcare in 2021 and currently sits on the Board of the Finite Corporation, a sustainability focused asset manager. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Miami University in Oxford, OH and received an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

ASSOCIATIONS & AFFILIATIONS

Beyond Housing, Board Member

Michael Amann

PRINCIPAL

After joining his family’s diversified healthcare products business on the factory floor, Mike went on to spend 15 years learning every aspect of the enterprise, eventually serving as its President and CEO. During his tenure, Mike gained valuable experience in manufacturing, quality control systems, business development, and strategic planning in a complex, highly-regulated, international business.  Under his leadership, the company experienced rapid organic and acquisition-based growth which ultimately led to a successful exit.  Throughout his career, Mike has been heavily involved in new product design and the launch of successful go to market strategies. He graduated from Yale University in New Haven, CT with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics.

ASSOCIATIONS & AFFILIATIONS

The Little Bit Foundation, Board Member, former Board President

The Children’s Heart Foundation, Supporter

The TaTa Sisterhood, Supporter

Thomas S. Carnahan

PRINCIPAL

Tom Carnahan is an attorney and businessman with extensive experience in both the workings of government and private sector innovation.

As an attorney, Mr. Carnahan represented the City of Saint Louis, Missouri, as an Assistant City Counselor and later started his own law practice focused on urban redevelopment and business counseling.

Mr. Carnahan later founded Wind Capital Group and became a leading developer, owner and operator of utility-scale wind farms in U.S. Midwest. Under his leadership, Wind Capital Group developed 1000 MW of wind farms, deploying more than $1 billion of capital in rural America that provides clean energy to over 100,000 homes.

In 2021, Mr. Carnahan was appointed by President Biden to serve as Representative of the United States to the 76th United Nations General Assembly.

ASSOCIATIONS & AFFILIATIONS

St. Louis Art Museum, Board of Commissioners
Explorers Club

Daniel Crowley

PRINCIPAL

Daniel Crowley is a former Wall Street trader and business leader whose career has spanned 25 years and several prominent firms.

Dan began his career in 1999 with Lehman Brothers, which was later acquired by Barclays, where he rose to become Head of Global Distressed. In 2018, Dan joined BNP Paribas as Head of Americas Credit Trading, later also becoming Head of Global Flow Credit Trading. Immediately prior to joining Oakland Capital Partners, Dan was Head of Flow Credit Trading and Distressed Products Group Americas at Deutsche Bank. Across these various roles Dan analyzed and invested in virtually all credit and equity products while gaining extensive experience in financial markets, risk management, corporate restructuring, human capital management and business
planning and strategy.

Dan began investing alongside Oakland Capital Partners in 2017 before ultimately joining the firm in 2024. He served along with Peter Benoist, Jr. on the Board of EASiBuy from 2016 until its sale in 2021. Dan holds a BS in Marketing from Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

I've always believed in business you should seek to do well by doing good. At Oakland, we will be committed to honesty, integrity and fairness in all of our dealings. We will profit with purpose and work with people who share these values.
PETER BENOIST, SR.†
CO-FOUNDER
Scroll to top