About

About Patrick Walsh

Patrick Walsh is a highly regarded entrepreneur, company founder, investment specialist, and CEO from Palm Beach County, Florida. Walsh established the value-oriented investment firm PW Partners in 2012, focused on maximizing the potential of small and mid-cap companies.

The PW Partners founder and CEO boasts a demonstrated history of success within investment management, maintaining a particular focus on the restaurant industry. His work has featured extensively in several high-profile publications, including Barron’s, Forbes, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

His past clients and other affiliations range from the luxury gym and health club brands TMPL and Palm Beach Sports Club to Town Sports International and the Midwestern barbecue restaurant chain Famous Dave’s of America. Away from his work, Sunshine State-based Patrick is passionate about cooking, fitness, literature, and travel.

Current Roles & Duties

PW Partners

Patrick Walsh, a CEO, heads up operations at PW Partners in Jupiter, Florida. PW Partners focuses on creating long-term value for small and mid-cap companies. The organization, founded by investment specialist Walsh in 2012, maximizes its portfolio companies’ values through careful operational strategy implementation and meaningful capital allocation measures.

PW Partners maintains a solid reputation for its enhanced strategic decision-making and deep sector expertise. Founder and CEO Walsh oversees the firm’s capital allocation, enterprise finance, and corporate strategy efforts. He specializes in mergers and acquisitions, hedge funds, investment banking, and equities.

Ernst & Young named Patrick Walsh, PW Partners founder and CEO, their Entrepreneur Of The Year in 2018.

Empire Holdings and Investments

PW Partners CEO Patrick Walsh further oversees business at Florida-based Empire Holdings and Investments. Empire is a diversified holding company headquartered in Palm Beach County. The firm has subsidiaries in various markets and other investment opportunities across Florida and nationwide.

Patrick Walsh, Empire Holdings and Investments CEO, joined the diversified holding company in 2020. As the firm’s CEO, he manages all facets of its corporate structure. This structure focuses on flexible investing to create long-term value in myriad industries.

Between PW Partners and Empire Holdings and Investments, Walsh’s past and present clients include the likes of TMPL, Palm Beach Sports Club, and LIV.

Career History

Walsh’s career began in 1998 as an investment analyst at Prudential Capital Group and Prudential Securities. At Prudential, he specialized in commercial property and publicly traded real estate investment trusts.

Six years later, the investment specialist turned company founder and CEO joined Deutsche Bank. There, he spent several years as the German multinational bank and financial services company’s vice president of investment banking.

From Deutsche Bank, Walsh headed to Illinois to become a part of a well-known hedge fund where he specialized in long-short equity before subsequently joining PWK Partners in Chicago as a managing partner. He remained in the Windy City until 2012, then relocated to Florida to establish Jupiter-headquartered PW Partners.

Today, and from his base in the Sunshine State, the award-winning business leader continues to serve clients nationwide, including the likes of New York luxury health club staple TMPL.

Academic Background

Wesleyan University

Patrick Walsh attended Wesleyan University in Middlesex County, Connecticut. Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts university founded in 1831 under the Methodist Episcopal Church. At the institution in Middletown, Walsh studied economics and was a celebrated two-sport athlete competing in baseball and football.

Boston College

Following a sports career-ending back injury, Walsh transferred from Wesleyan University to Boston College. Boston College in Massachusetts, where his parents raised him, is a private Jesuit research university founded in 1863. He graduated from the college’s Chestnut Hill campus, six miles west of downtown Boston, with honors and a degree in accountancy.

Columbia University

Walsh went on to earn a Chartered Financial Analyst designation and completed further investment education studies at Columbia University. That included undertaking the New York City-based Ivy League research university’s Graduate School of Business’s Executive Value Investing Program under the esteemed economist and professor Bruce Greenwald.

Associations & Memberships

Entrepreneur Patrick Walsh, founder of PW Partners and former CEO of Empire Holdings, has held numerous board positions during his decades-long career. That includes sitting on the board of directors of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc., and serving as the chairman of the board of Town Sports International.

The seasoned executive and investment specialist has also held board, chair, and committee positions within numerous well-known companies, including Del Taco Restaurants, Inc., and Famous Dave’s of America.

Nation’s Restaurant News, which delivers finance, marketing, and operational analytics and data to food service sector leaders, named Walsh in its 2015 Power List. Restaurant News’s annual Power List showcases the 50 most influential people in the restaurant industry that year.

The Columbia University graduate maintains a Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the CFA Institute. The CFA Institute’s charter designates professionals who have completed the three-part CFA Program and a subsequent exam. This exam qualifies individuals on the fundamentals of investment tools, portfolio management, valuing assets, and wealth planning.

Personal Life & Interests

Patrick Walsh was born in San Diego, California, and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother and father, New England natives, were a school teacher and a naval officer, respectively. He now happily lives and works in Jupiter in Palm Beach County, Florida. Jupiter is renowned for its beautiful beaches and charming Old Florida vibe.

Away from his work, the PW Partners founder and CEO enjoys numerous hobbies and interests. Among these hobbies and interests are fitness, cooking, and travel. He is also an avid and lifelong reader and a lover of literature.