Mark HuYoung
Managing Partner
Mark leads the global growth, health, and direction of NorthWind Partners and is an active PE/VC board director and advisor. As an experienced investor (GP & LP) across multiple sectors, Mark is also responsible for creation & oversight of capital deployment at NorthWind Investments, an affiliate that primarily invests/co-invests with the financial sponsor clients of NorthWind Partners for optimal long-term alignment.
Mark advises clients on critical board and leadership issues and frequently partners with investors, ranging from growth-stage VC to large buyout, to drive value creation through the assessment and development or enhancement of boards and C-Suites within assets or platforms. Having developed the evaluative frameworks embedded in NorthWind’s Absolute Alignment™ Process, Mark is deeply committed to ensuring that the firm focuses on producing positive outcomes for clients that far outpace the top percentile of global leadership firms.
During his tenure as an executive advisor, Mark successfully led and completed over 650 engagements providing counsel on a range of topics including pre-acquisition evaluation, succession planning, leadership development & behavior, and organizational assessment/ integration/ restructuring. His passion over the past decade has been to 1) mentor and develop executive advisors who repeatedly earn the trust of clients and build successful, sustainable practices and 2) provide guidance to visible market leaders who desire discrete counsel in determining their best path forward, whether that be to assume another leadership role, transition to board and advisory work, etc.
Prior to founding NorthWind, Mark helped establish a leading US healthcare executive advisory as well as the technology and industrial practices of a global leadership advisory. Mark previously held management roles in corporate strategy with a publicly traded media company and corporate development with a VC-backed software company.
Mark was named one of the top recruiters in government contracting by ExecutiveBiz and most influential executives in Tennessee by Business TN. He is a member of ACG and has published articles on a broad range of human capital topics to include the C-Suite, best leadership practices, succession planning, retention, board diversity, compensation, and more. He holds a degree in business & economics from Wheaton College and serves on several boards and advisory boards to include a few private equity firms, an AI analytics software company, a digital media company, a human capital services firm, and a non-profit supporting children & orphans in Central Asia.
