ACON hires Fortress exec as CFO

Masumi Waida replaced Kwame Lewis at the Washington, DC-based firm in early August.

ACON Investments, a Washington, DC-based mid-market firm with $5.5 billion in assets under management, has hired Masumi Waida from Fortress Investment Group as CFO.

Most recently, Waida was a managing director and CFO of the Mount Kellet funds at Fortress Investment Group, which he joined from Mount Kellett Capital after Fortress acquired the firm in 2015, as reported by sister publication PERE. Before his time with Mount Kellet, he was a vice-president at Lehman Brothers responsible for overseeing various private equity and hedge fund products.

Waida, who is understood to have joined ACON earlier this month, replaces outgoing CFO Kwame Lewis. ACON and Fortress declined to comment.

Kwame Lewis ACON CFO
Kwame Lewis

Lewis was with ACON for nearly four years. He initially joined the firm as chief accounting officer before taking over the CFO role in 2016. Prior to that, Lewis spent over 16 years with PwC as a senior associate and senior manager.

ACON has offices in Los Angeles and throughout Latin America. Its latest fund, ACON Equity Partners IV, closed in May 2017 on $1.07 billion. Since its founding in 1996, the firm has made more than 65 investments.