Doug Holladay

Founder & CEO
Author, Rethinking Success

Learn more about Doug at dougholladay.com

The career trajectory of J. Douglas Holladay (Doug) has been unique and varied with its blend of public service, finance and business, non-profit work and more recently, teaching and journalism.

Doug is a co-founder of Park Avenue Equity Partners, L.P. with offices in New York, a private equity fund which makes equity investments in middle market operating companies. He is a co-founder and general partner in Elgin Capital Partners LP, a private equity partnership focused on domestic energy development.

While Doug continues as an active investor, the main focus of his time is on PathNorth, a non-profit dedicated to helping business owners and CEOs define success more broadly. Through peer-to-peer learning, PathNorth focuses on creating space for leaders to have conversations on finding meaning and significance in work and life. Additionally, Doug holds the Heinz Christian Prechter Executive-in-Residence position at Georgetown University where he teaches MBA students.

Doug was formerly a senior officer with the international investment banking firm Goldman, Sachs and Company, headquartered in New York. At Goldman Sachs, he worked in the Investment Banking Division on a range of matters, strategic and administrative as well as on certain international transactions with a governmental component. While with Goldman Sachs, he served as founding President of One to One Mentoring Partnership (Points of Light), an initiative of the New York financial community to bring imaginative solutions to some of our most pressing urban youth challenges, now known across the country as Mentor.

Prior to joining Goldman, Sachs, Doug held senior positions in both the White House and Department of State. After working under White House Chief of Staff, James A. Baker III, he was appointed by the President to the personal rank of Special Ambassador, charged to coordinate major aspects of the U.S. public response to the challenges posed by South Africa prior to the dramatic release of Nelson Mandela.

Doug has advised several Presidents and numerous corporate leaders and has explained and debated public policy issues on national television. He has contributed to several books on a broad range of issues, foreign policy, culture, theology and 19th century history, and has placed articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post and USA Today. He has delivered public speeches to leadership gatherings in more than 40 states and 10 nations.