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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