Brian Schmidt

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Brian Schmidt is a Partner at Arden Park Capital and focuses on all aspects of the firm’s investment activities.

In 2022, Brian retired from Varde Partners, where he worked for 17 years as an investment professional, most recently as a Partner and Head of North America Real Estate and Mortgages. 

While at Varde, AUM grew from ~$1B to over $14B. Prior to his leadership position in Real Estate and Mortgages, he was active with investing strategies in structured products (RMBS / CMBS), loan portfolio acquisitions and aircraft/equipment finance.

Prior to Varde, Brian worked for Piper Jaffray (now Piper Sandler Companies) in M&A investment banking.

Brian lives in Minnesota and is married with 3 kids. Hobbies include skiing, biking and enjoying time outdoors with family and friends.

Brian received a Masters degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BS in Finance from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. 

Rocco Scundi is a Partner at Arden Park Capital and focuses on all aspects of the firm’s investment activities.

Prior to Arden Park Capital, Rocco worked as an investment professional at Cambridge Capital where he executed buyout and growth equity investments in the lower middle market. Rocco helped deploy equity capital into new platform investments during his tenure and served as a Board Observer of those companies (while working closely with all of Cambridge’s portfolio companies).

Before Cambridge Capital, Rocco worked as a Private Equity Associate for Midwest Mezzanine Funds, where he focused on executing subordinated debt and equity investments in privately-owned, lower middle market companies across a variety of industries including business services, value-added distribution, manufacturing, and healthcare/consumer products. 

Prior to MMF, Rocco was a Senior Analyst with Broadhaven Capital Partners, an independent merchant bank advising and investing in financial technology and services. While at Broadhaven, Rocco was involved in all aspects of merger and acquisition advisory assignments and series capital raises. 

Prior to Broadhaven, Rocco spent two years at Wells Fargo Securities as an Investment Banking Analyst in the Financial Institutions Group, specializing in mergers and acquisitions and capital raising advisory assignments.

Rocco received a BA in Finance from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University.