Ron Ondechek Jr is the Managing Director of South Highland Ventures LLC which works for family offices and private equity funds to source, vet and manage private equity investments. He is an operations focused executive with over fifteen years of experience as a fund manager and entrepreneur. Ron specializes in supporting early stage to mid-market companies throughout the growth and exit process and presided over dozens of transactions worth over $300 million in total value.

Ron began his career as a refinery engineer and project manager for ExxonMobil, and after starting several successful service and technology companies, he became an E&P securities analyst for Howard Weil, Inc. and AG Edwards & Sons, Inc. before joining the Altira Group LLC. Altira is an energy services and technology private equity firm which focuses on investments in oil and gas, renewables, chemicals and industrials with over $400 million under management. Most recently, Ron was the Fund Manager for Shreveport’s first and oversubscribed angel investment fund, New Louisiana Angel Fund 1, and he is currently a Principal in the Sustainable Growth Fund, a €500M mezzanine energy efficiency senior convertible debt fund.

At the board level, Ron participated as an active board director or board observer for over a dozen private equity backed companies, most recently Embera Neurotherapeutics, an addiction cessation pharmaceutical company; DHI Services Inc, an oil and gas services company and Enerpulse Technologies (ENPT: OTC), a fuel ignition technology company. He is currently a board director for Servato Corp, a telecommunications DC power management company; Envision Global Inc, a high-performance curtainwall window systems company and Empresario LLC, a craft spirits company. Ron is also a board observer for Optimal Strategix Group, a B2C analytics consulting and software company and for Fluence Analytics, a chemical analysis technology company.

Ron is a first generation college graduate and has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Penn State University and a MBA from Tulane University. Ron was recently awarded a Penn State Alumni Achievement Award, and during his tenure at Tulane, Ron was the recipient of the Dean’s Service Award and is one of the founders of the Tulane Business Model Competition.