Sweetwater Private Equity Appoints Kellen Haines Managing Director and Kassy Haleen Director

Sweetwater Private Equity, an investment firm specializing in private equity secondaries, has appointed Kellen Haines as managing director and Kassy Haleen as director of capital formation, strengthening its investment and investor relations teams. The firm was founded in 2016 and manages more than $1.6 billion in regulatory assets under management, according to the announcement.

Haines joins Sweetwater after more than 13 years at K1 Investment Management, where he most recently served as principal with responsibilities spanning investment sourcing, transaction execution and capital formation. He also served on the boards of several growth-stage software companies. At Sweetwater he will help lead investment activities, including identifying opportunities, executing transactions and structuring liquidity solutions for company founders, employees, general partners and co-investors, and will contribute to expanding the firm's capabilities in the lower-middle-market segment. Haines began his career at Utility Consulting Group and holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Haleen brings more than 11 years of investment and capital formation experience from Blackstone, where she advanced from analyst to principal across the firm's New York and Los Angeles offices. She began in Blackstone's secondary private equity group in 2013 before moving into capital raising and investor relations, managing relationships with institutional investors and investment consultants. At Sweetwater she joins the capital formation team to focus on institutional investor relationships and fundraising. She holds a bachelor's degree in economics with a secondary field in psychology from Harvard University.

Sweetwater focuses on direct secondary transactions involving individual companies, particularly smaller technology-enabled businesses where founders, employees and other stakeholders may seek liquidity while the companies remain privately owned. This differs from broader secondary approaches that purchase portfolios of fund interests. The firm continues to deploy capital through direct secondary transactions and growth equity investments in small-cap businesses, and has invested in more than 80 technology-enabled services companies across technology, healthcare and industrial sectors.

James Gamett, founder and managing partner of Sweetwater, said the two appointments bring complementary expertise to the firm's investment and capital formation operations, highlighting Haines' experience with smaller technology-focused companies and Haleen's background with institutional investors. Haines said the lower middle market remains underserved in private equity, while Haleen noted the secondary market has become more established and competitive, making Sweetwater's focus on single-asset secondaries a factor in her decision to join.