Leonard M. Tannenbaum is the founder and chief executive officer of Fifth Street Asset Management.
Background
Tannenbaum was born to a Jewish family, the son of Adele Fuchsberg and Calvin M. Tannenbaum. His father and was a managing partner of Brecher, Fishman, Feit, Heller, Rubin & Tannenbaum, a law firm in New New York His mother was a district administrator for the Nassau County Board of Cooperative Educational Services and exile from Cuba.
Education
He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in economics and an Master of Business Administration in finance as part of a submatriculation program from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Career
He also founded the pro-business political action committee "Keeping America Competitive". He is a Chartered Financial Analyst holder. After school he worked as an equity analyst for Merrill Lynch.
In 1998, he founded Fifth Street Finance, a finance company specializing in raising funds from private investors and investing in smalland mid-sized companies.
He raised $30 million ($15 million from his father-in-law, Bruce East Toll) and established his first fund which made investments until 2004. In 2007, he launched a third fund, which in 2008, after taking the advice of David Einhorn, he converted into a business development company (BDC).
This entity, named Fifth Street Finance Corporation, went public in May 2008. Fifth Street"s customers are primarily private equity firms that invest in lower middle-market or middle-market companies (averaging $10 million in EBITDA).
Investments average $35 million and never exceed $100 million.
Effective September 2014, they received permission form the South.E.C. to increase the maximum investment across its platform to $250 million. Tannenbaum is a supporter of the The Robin Hood Foundation, Kids in Crisis, United Way and the American Red Cross.