Palladium Equity Partners Announces B Corporation™ Certification

NEW YORK, March 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Palladium Equity Partners, LLC (along with its affiliates, "Palladium" or the "Firm"), the oldest minority-owned private equity buyout firm in the industry with over $3 billion of assets under management today, announced that it has achieved Certified B Corporation™ ("B Corp") status. The B Corp certification signifies that Palladium has been designated as meeting high standards of social and environmental impact.¹ Palladium sought B Corp status in pursuit of its vision of becoming a trusted manager recognized for delivering outstanding returns to all stakeholders.

The B Corp verification process, administered by the nonprofit B Lab, measures a company's social and environmental performance. To become a Certified B Corporation, companies undergo the B Impact Assessment, a rigorous and in-depth assessment of the impact of their operations and business model on their workers, customers, communities and environment, and must receive a minimum verified score on the B Impact Assessment.

Palladium is one of a relatively small number of private equity firms to have achieved B Corp certification. The Firm secured an overall score of 80.9 in its B Impact Assessment on March 17, 2022. The Firm's total was based on its individual Impact Area Scores in the areas of Governance, Workers, Community, Environment and Customers.

Since its founding in 1997, Palladium has undertaken a series of environmental, social and governance ("ESG") initiatives:

• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has been at the forefront of Palladium's ESG efforts and is represented in the diversity of its employees. As of March 2022, 74% of current Palladium employees (and 67% of partners and 71% of employees at or above the Vice President level) identify as a member of an ethnic minority or female.
  
  
• The Firm set as a goal to identify highly qualified candidates who would increase the diversity of its portfolio companies' boards of directors. Today, Palladium's portfolio company boards are among the most diverse in private equity: out of 139 total members of its boards of directors, 28% are female, 29% identify as a member of an ethnic minority and 47% identify as a member of an ethnic minority or female.
  
  
• In 2021, the Firm created the role of Head of ESG & Sustainability to lead its ESG initiatives. Tenured Palladium Partner, Eugenie Cesar-Fabian, who started at the Firm in 2011 as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, was tapped to fill the newly-created position.
  
  
• Additionally, in 2021, Palladium brought in two seasoned executives, Deborah Gallegos and Carlos Reyes, to work with Ms. Cesar-Fabian. This team of experienced multidisciplinary professionals has spearheaded the Firm's B Corp certification efforts, working with the investment and operations teams, to integrate best ESG practices across the Firm and the entire Palladium portfolio.

"We are proud to have achieved B Corp status for meeting one of the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability," said Marcos A. Rodriguez, Chairman and CEO of Palladium. "Importantly, we recognize that becoming B Corp certified is not a one-time fulfillment of rigorous standards; rather, Palladium is committed to a continuous process of generating outstanding returns for our investors, building companies, creating jobs, and improving employee satisfaction and engagement at the companies in which we invest."

About Palladium Equity Partners, LLC
Palladium is the oldest minority-owned private equity buyout firm in the industry with over $3 billion of assets under management. The Firm seeks to acquire and grow companies in partnership with founders and experienced management teams by providing capital, strategic guidance and operational oversight. Since its founding in 1997, Palladium has invested over $3 billion of capital in 38 platform investments and 148 add-on acquisitions, realizing 22 of these platform investments. The principals of the Firm have extensive experience in consumer, services, industrials, and healthcare businesses, with a special focus on companies they believe will benefit from the growth in the U.S. Hispanic population. Palladium is based in New York City. For more information, visit www.palladiumequity.com.

Media Contact:
Jeffrey Taufield or Todd Fogarty of Kekst CNC
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SOURCE Palladium Equity Partners, LLC