Butterfly names new CFO

Los Angeles-based private equity firm Butterfly has named Peter Tang its new CFO.

Tang has been with Butterfly since its inception in 2016, most recently as a managing director. He replaces Nestor Olmo, who left the firm in February to join Sunston Partners as CFO.

Tang was one of the first members of Butterfly’s investment team. He said taking over the CFO role was a “natural evolution” based on his experience with the firm. He said the firm started with only four employees, causing him to wear multiple hats, not just conducting investment due diligence and portfolio management work, but also “playing an operating role.”

“I got a really good understanding of every part of how private equity firm works, including finance, operations and a lot of strategic areas,” Tang said. “That experience, in addition to the work that I was doing on the investment team, made me a good fit for the CFO position.”

Tang said he has a “very lean and mean” finance team at Butterfly, including a controller who primarily focuses on the external accounting, and an internal accounting manager. While the firm relies on third party advisors and service providers to round out its finance functions, the strategy going forward is to add a “couple more internal resources” in addition to outsourcing, he said.

Tang has also been appointed to the board of the Butterfly Equity Foundation, which provides greater access to nutritious and affordable food for underserved populations. Butterfly’s general partners made an ongoing pledge to contribute 10 percent of their net profits in addition to outside funds from individual and corporate donors.

Previously, Tang worked at KKR as an investor on the consumer retail private equity team. Butterfly was launched in 2016 by former KKR executive Adam Waglay and Dustin Beck, a former Vista Equity Partners executive.

Last month, the firm added another KKR veteran Vishal Patel as partner and member of its investment committee.