Leadership

As a closely-held partnership, Blake Street Capital is led by its Managing Partner, Danon Blea, an investment banking veteran who has established and built several successful private investment and merchant banking firms. 

Danon Blea, Managing Partner

Mr. Blea has extensive institutional experience in investment banking, private equity and real estate providing specialized corporate finance and strategic advisory services to closely held and private companies, real estate operating firms, and select middle market corporations and fortune 500 public companies.  Mr. Blea has executed regulated transactions at Lehman Brothers, C.E. Unterberg, Towbin and Rauscher, Pierce, Refsnes (now Royal Bank of Canada), and has completed over $8.5 billion in corporate, real estate, and project / municipal based financing engagements on behalf of senior executives, management teams, boards of directors, special committees, investors, trustees, and other stakeholders.

In addition to his bulge bracket investment banking experience, Mr. Blea previously founded a level III hedge fund, as well as several successful regional investment and merchant banking firms which provided capital raise and financial advisory services to corporate and real estate operating companies. Mr. Blea has extensive experience with complex financings, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged and management buyouts, joint ventures, and restructurings and workouts involving both public and private and closely-held companies.  Mr. Blea has executed transactions across multiple industries, including business services, consumer & retail, energy, entertainment, financial institutions, gaming, lodging & leisure, healthcare, industrials, municipal finance, real estate & development, and technology, media & telecom.

Mr. Blea received an MBA in Finance & Entrepreneurial Studies from the UCLA Anderson School where he was a Robert A. Toigo and Dean’s Fellow, and graduated with honors with a B.A. in both Political Science and Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego. Mr. Blea is a recipient of the New America Alliance JP Morgan Emerging Leader award, and was a two-time international representative of USA Basketball.  Mr. Blea has worked and travelled extensively throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America. Mr. Blea maintains Series 7, 24, 63 and 79 registrations.