Ko Kobayashi
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Ko is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Mellem Legacy Partners. Ko is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the firm's investment activities
Ko’s passion for entrepreneurship and building and preserving the legacy of businesses stems from his upbringing and roots in a multi-generational international family business environment on both his paternal and maternal sides of his family in addition to working alongside founders and entrepreneurs on growing and selling their businesses
Prior to co-founding Mellem Legacy Partners in 2023, Ko spent over 18 years advising global public, founder-owned and private equity-owned companies in a variety of sectors including multi-site healthcare services, multi-site consumer/retail, business services, broader healthcare, technology, media, real estate, and gaming sectors among others, on a broad range of strategic transactions including buy and sell-side mergers and acquisition transactions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, divestitures, restructurings, equity and debt capital raises, and strategic board advisory assignments
Ko was most recently a Managing Director in the Healthcare Group and part of the Valuation & Fairness Committee at Solomon Partners. Prior to joining Solomon Partners, Ko spent 15 years as part of the Healthcare and M&A Group at Moelis & Company as a founding member in Los Angeles. Ko began his investment banking career at UBS Investment Bank as an Associate Director in the Financial Sponsors and Leveraged Finance Group in Los Angeles alongside his partner Eric
Ko holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Business Administration, cum laude, from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business
Ko currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, son, and two daughters