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Peer Fund / Dealmaker·Building Products

Crista Gilmore

Managing Director, Building Products & Construction Services at Capstone Partners

Denver, CO

CG
LinkedIn
Why they matter

A prolific Capstone banker for electrical, MEP, and civil-engineering sell-sides who has direct relationships with buyers like Huron Capital, Mosaic Capital, and Blackstone-backed Legence.

Background

Crista Gilmore is a Managing Director in Capstone Partners' Building Products & Construction Services Group, promoted to that role in March 2025 after joining the firm in 2017. A CPA and CFA Charterholder who started her career at KPMG and later worked in fund accounting/valuation at a multi-strategy hedge fund, she has spent 15+ years advising sell-side clients in architecture, engineering, and specialty trades.

Notable deals

  • 2025
    Led Capstone's advisory of Ickler Electric Corporation (San Diego-area electrical contractor, ~350 employees) on its ESOP recapitalization with Mosaic Capital Partners
  • 2023
    Advised SC Engineers (MEP engineering firm) on its sale to Legence Holdings, a Blackstone portfolio company
  • 2023
    Advised RK Electric, a Bay Area electrical contractor serving semiconductor and biotech clients, on its sale to Huron Capital
  • 2023
    Led the sale of Poulos & Bennett, a civil engineering/land planning firm, in its partnership with Pape-Dawson Engineers

Call-prep brief

Background

  • MD, Building Products & Construction Services at Capstone Partners (Denver); promoted March 2025 after joining the firm in 2017.
  • CPA/CFA; started at KPMG (audit), then fund accounting/valuation at a multi-strategy hedge fund before moving into sell-side M&A.

Current focus

  • Sell-side advisory for specialty trades and AEC businesses: electrical contractors, MEP engineers, civil/land-planning firms, largely owner-operator and ESOP-eligible targets in the $20M-$150M revenue range.

What she cares about

  • Finding buyers who preserve culture/leadership for founder-led trades businesses (e.g. ESOP structures at Ickler Electric).
  • Positioning labor-constrained trades businesses (prefab capability, technical certifications) as differentiated M&A targets.
  • Geographic and platform expansion theses for PE-backed buy-and-build strategies (Huron's ExecFactor electrical platform).

Recent moves

  • Closed the Ickler Electric ESOP recap (April 2025), signals growing interest in ESOP exits among trades owners as a PE alternative.
  • Multiple 2023 sell-sides (SC Engineers, RK Electric, Poulos & Bennett) show a steady cadence in electrical/MEP/civil engineering.

Sensitivities

  • As a sell-side banker, she won't share confidential client info or pipeline; keep questions market-level, not deal-specific.
  • She may be measured discussing competitor deals she wasn't involved in.

Questions to ask

  1. What's driving the recent wave of ESOP recapitalizations vs. traditional PE sales in electrical/MEP trades?
  2. Which sub-sectors within building products/construction services are seeing the most buyer competition right now?
  3. What deal structures or terms are owner-operators pushing back on most in today's market?

Outreach draft

Subject
Quick call on building products M&A trends?
Hi Crista, I came across your recent work advising Ickler Electric on its ESOP recapitalization, along with your sell-side deals for RK Electric and SC Engineers. Your view into the electrical, MEP, and civil engineering trades space stood out to us. We're a private equity team evaluating opportunities in building products distribution and construction services, and we'd value your perspective on where buyer demand and valuations are heading in these subsectors, particularly around ESOP alternatives and platform buy-and-build activity. Would you have 20-30 minutes in the next couple of weeks for a call? Happy to work around your schedule. Best, [Placeholder Name]

Linked companies

Sources

Strongest evidencePage title6 public sourcesVerified2026-08-10How the grades work