Ascend Names President: Nishaad Ruparel Joins Executive Team
FEBRUARY 21, 2024 (Arlington, VA) – Ascend, a strategic partner for regional accounting firms backed by Alpine Investors, announced today that Nishaad Ruparel (“Nish”) has joined its executive team as the company’s President.
The President role is a new addition to Ascend’s C-suite, necessitated by its rapid growth since launching in January 2023. Mr. Ruparel will help steer the company’s ongoing expansion as entrepreneurial firms around the country continue to join its new-age growth platform.
Ascend surpassed the $100 million revenue threshold in December, in less than a year of operation.
“We are building the platform of the future. We have the best capital partner you could ask for in Alpine Investors and have been fortunate to attract some of the most growth-minded firms in our industry. Our model is unlike others – we are taking aim at important topics like governance, talent, technology, compensation, and growth. Leading this kind of transformation requires a significant amount of learning, listening, and consensus-building. Ultimately, our North Star is making every generation of professional better off with Ascend than in the traditional partnership structure. Joining Ascend is, for me, an opportunity to build trust and innovate in a profession where the conventional business model is faltering,” Mr. Ruparel said.
“I must also emphasize how impressed I am with our firm’s executive team, led by David Wurtzbacher and Erin Stahmer. It’s an amazing position to be able to step into something that is flourishing with a group of people I already call friends,” he said.
“I am sometimes asked to describe the benefits of growth capital. The first thing we did with the private equity capital we raised is assemble a team of high-caliber leaders to build a platform that delivers on the promises we make to firm leaders. We have a management team unlike any other in the industry, and Nish certainly brings a skill set, a drive for excellence and a motivated but gentle spirit that stands as a proof point of the benefits of having a committed growth capital partner. All of our firms, partners and team members benefit from the management team we’ve put together, which is nearly 40 people at this juncture,” said Ascend Founder & CEO David Wurtzbacher, one of Accounting Today’s 2023 Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting.
Mr. Ruparel comes to Ascend from Alpine Investors, where he was recruited to launch a new business in Alpine’s $4.5 billion Fund IX. Prior to joining Alpine, Mr. Ruparel worked at AEA Investors in New York where he was a senior associate and, previously, the investment banking team at JP Morgan. He holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BS in Finance and International Business, summa cum laude, from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
