Jon Popielarski

Jon Popielarski

Managing Partner

Jon is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Ballast Equity Partners.

Jon started his career in 2011 as a deal origination associate at Hastings Equity Partners, a lower middle market private equity firm. He then joined the investment team at the $10.5 billion Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island in 2013 where in his most recent role as Director of Private Assets he was directly responsible for deploying over $500 million per year across the private asset portfolios. During his tenure the allocation to private equity grew from 7% to 12.5%, and a new private credit allocation of 3.2% and 4% real assets ex-real estate allocation were established. Jon led the sourcing and diligence and onboarding of new managers to meet these allocation targets.  In addition to primary commitments, Jon used the portfolio dynamic to establish a direct secondary effort.

Outside of work you’ll find Jon in the outdoors snowboarding, surfing, mountain biking and hiking.

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Education

B.S. in Marketing and Finance from Providence College, 2010