Our Team
We have the DNA of entrepreneurs and operators of a family business, given our history of the principals of our firm.
J. Kenneth Moritz
President
Kenn Moritz has been with Stonewood since 2001 and has experience in business operations as well as in structuring, financing, and executing strategic transactions.
In addition to his general mergers and acquisitions activity at Stonewood, Kenn has helped management teams through post-acquisition transitions and assisted managers with product line extensions, identifying acquisition candidates, plant expansions, and other strategic growth initiatives.
Prior to joining Stonewood, Kenn was the owner and operator of a manufacturing company near Pittsburgh and practiced law with firms in New York City and Pittsburgh in the areas of structured finance, mergers and acquisitions, and venture capital.
Kenn attended Carnegie Mellon University’s business school (MSIA 1988), the University of Pittsburgh School of Law (JD 1988) and the University of Pennsylvania (BS 1984).
Kenn is a member of the boards of several of Stonewood’s portfolio companies.
John H. Tippins
Managing Director
John H. Tippins has been with Stonewood at the director level since its inception in 1993, and on a full time basis since 1998. John has served on the board of directors of numerous Stonewood portfolio companies through the years, and has been involved in issues ranging from strategic planning, engineering and operations, to the development of management bonus programs.
Prior to his involvement with Stonewood, John was a director and member of the management team of Tippins Incorporated, a family owned firm that designed and built rolling mill facilities for the metals industry worldwide. During his 20 years at the company, John’s role ranged from the design of various control systems to the creation of a brokerage division dedicated to the buying and selling of used steel mill equipment worldwide. John’s participation in the company ended when the company was sold to management in 1998.
John currently serves as a director of the Tippins Foundation, a family philanthropic organization supporting education and research in the areas of entrepreneurship and Alzheimer’s disease. He serves as a Trustee of Pittsburgh Opera and is a member of the Advisory Board of The Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence at the University of Pittsburgh.
John H. Tippins was born and raised in the Pittsburgh area. He is a graduate of Shady Side Academy ( ’78), Vanderbilt University (BE Electrical Engineering ‘82) and the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School of Business (MBA ’87).
Peter J. Muth
Senior Vice President
Peter J. Muth joined Stonewood in 2007 and has experience in a full range of investment opportunities, including traditional LBOs and early stage ventures. Pete serves as a board director for several Stonewood portfolio companies.
Prior to joining Stonewood, Pete was a principal of private equity group Birchmere Capital Limited Partnership. Before moving into the private equity arena, Pete spent seven years with PNC Bank in the Energy, Metals and Mining lending group and the Corporate Credit Policy division. Pete also served as Treasurer on the Education Foundation Board of the Community College of Allegheny County and was awarded emeritus status.
Pete is a graduate of the University of Dayton (1990) and earned an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business.
George R. Knapp
Co-Founder
1947-2014
George R. Knapp, along with George Tippins, founded Stonewood Capital in 1993. George played the role of wiseman advisor and attorney to the Tippins family for more than three decades, first as a senior partner at the law firm of Kirkpatrick Lockhart (now K&L Gates), then as President of both Stonewood and the Tippins Foundation.
George was born in Bethlehem, PA and raised in New Jersey. He was a graduate of Colgate University and Harvard Law School, and was recruited to move to Pittsburgh to join K&L in 1972, where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions, trusts and estates and tax law.
George was a tremendous mentor and an outstanding role model to us all. He has been and will continue to be sorely missed since his passing from oral cancer in 2014.
George W. Tippins
Founder
1925 - 2005
George W. Tippins, with the help of George Knapp, founded Stonewood Capital in 1993.
George was a successful entrepreneur several times over, having founded or invested in three steel-related ventures. He transformed the family firm from a three-man supplier of used coal mining equipment to that of a world-renowned designer and builder of rolling mill equipment to the steel and aluminum industries, employing as many as 500 people at one point.
In 1980 he took a chance and financed the buyout of Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corporation, which at the time was the largest producer of stainless steel in the United States.
In 1984 George Tippins founded his own steel company, Tuscaloosa Steel Corporation, in order to prove to the worldwide steel industry that his patented approach to the manufacture of plate products was the way of the future.
Over the years George sold his stake in all three companies: the engineering company to his sons, Allegheny Ludlum to its management team, and Tuscaloosa Steel to Nucor Corporation.
George Tippins was born in Pittsburgh, PA and raised in the East End of Pittsburgh. In 1943 he enlisted in the US Navy and by 1946 he was a graduate of Yale University with a degree in electrical engineering courtesy of the Navy’s V-12 program. George later attended 11 years of night school at Carnegie Mellon University (then Carnegie Institute of Technology) to acquire a Bachelor Degree in Industrial Administration.
During his later years George served as a trustee of Carnegie Mellon University, the Boy Scouts of America (Pittsburgh Branch) and the Duquesne Club. In 1986 he founded the Tippins Foundation in order to encourage the development of young entrepreneurs.
George Tippins was an intensely focused man who’s work ethic was second to none. His is truly missed by his family. George Tippins passed away in 2005 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease.