About

Inspiration

Raised in a family of owner-operators, Rouge Lake was founded with legacy front of mind. Chris’ paternal grandfather was owner of The Rouge Lounge, which hosted many world-renowned jazz musicians during the Motown era in Detroit, and later produced concerts and music festivals around the world. His maternal grandfather started Lake Cleaners, a multi-unit dry cleaning business in Southeastern Michigan.

Not only a source of inspiration for the name, both played a significant part in laying out the blueprint for Rouge Lake’s values by instilling the importance of respect, integrity, transparency, making a positive impact, and always maintaining a roll-up-your-sleeves mentality.

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Team

Chris Sarkesian
Managing Member

Chris is an experienced investor and entrepreneur who founded Rouge Lake with one goal in mind: to create sustainable long-term value by building businesses. Prior to founding Rouge Lake, Chris built a successful career in the financial services and investment industries with over a decade of experience in public markets investing, private equity, strategy, and M&A investment banking. Chris grew up in Michigan before graduating college from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and afterward migrated to New York City to pursue a career as an investor and business builder.

Chris brings over thirteen years of investing, strategy, and transactional experience. He has led public and private investments in Aerospace, Defense, Government Services, Data Center Equipment and Services, Transportation, Food Equipment, Machinery, and Specialty Chemicals, while more broadly investing throughout the Industrials, Materials, Consumer, Technology, and Business Services sectors. He has significant expertise in sourcing acquisition opportunities, facilitating due diligence, negotiating transactions, and working with management teams and company Boards to build value.

Prior to founding Rouge Lake, Chris focused on public markets investing for six years at Interval Partners and Force Capital Management, both fundamentally driven equity investment funds. Before these roles, Chris worked at Leucadia National Corporation, a multi-billion dollar investment holding company focused on long-term control private investments. At Leucadia, Chris worked for the President of the firm focused on investments, acquisitions, and strategy for both Leucadia and Jefferies Group. Chris began his career at Jefferies in M&A investment banking prior to transitioning to his role at Leucadia.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business with a major in Finance. He is also involved with several philanthropic organizations including New York Cares, Stoked Snow, SEO, and iMentor, and is a regular participant and fundraiser in The Decathlon. In his free time, Chris enjoys snowboarding, golf, running, sailing, and traveling with his wife.