PRESS RELEASES

ECA Partners Welcomes JD Baptiste as Senior Director

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 18, 2026—ECA Partners, a retained executive search firm serving private equity and portfolio companies, has named JD Baptiste as senior director to lead the firm’s searches across private markets and financial services.

JD brings executive search experience across private equity and alternative investment management, with a particular focus on capital formation and investor relations, as well as investment, asset management, and senior leadership roles. His sector experience has been concentrated across real estate, energy and oil & gas, infrastructure, and credit.

At ECA, JD will work with private equity firms, investment managers, and portfolio companies on senior searches at both the fund and operating-company level.

“JD’s background gives us an opportunity to further expand our work with private equity and investment management firms, particularly on the fund side,” said Burton Francis, Managing Director and Head of ECA’s Private Equity Value Creation Practice. “His experience across capital formation, investor relations, investment, and asset management is highly complementary to the work we already do with private equity firms and their portfolio companies.”

Prior to joining ECA Partners, JD held executive search roles at Selby Jennings and Ferguson Partners, where his work focused on private equity, alternative investment management, and the senior talent needs of investment firms.

“JD has built strong relationships across the private-markets ecosystem and brings a perspective that fits well with where ECA continues to grow,” said Steven Haug, PhD, Managing Director at ECA Partners. “We’re pleased to have him on the team and look forward to the contribution he’ll make to our clients and the firm.”

JD is based in Dallas, Texas, and graduated from Franklin & Marshall College with a degree in Economics and a minor in French.

About ECA Partners
ECA Partners is a retained executive search firm named to Hunt Scanlon’s Top 50, climbing 10 spots in 2025 alone. Since 2010, the firm has helped private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies fill critical C-suite and VP-level roles on an interim, project, or permanent basis. Learn more at www.eca-partners.com.