StoriesHow PeopleFirst Leadership Powers Growth at Ascend
Ascend brings Alpine’s PeopleFirst leadership to life, showing how people-first private equity can drive growth while preserving integrity.
From traveling the world and pursuing a liberal arts degree in college, to his career at Alpine Investors, Adam Jones’ path to CEO has not been typical. The first of several University of Virginia Jefferson Scholars to join our team, he started as an investing intern before transitioning to our CEO-in-Training (CIT) program, an experience he describes as “getting thrown in the deep end, but with lifeguards all around the pool.” Below, Adam reflects on what led him to private equity and Alpine, the decision to take his first CEO job as a newly minted CIT, and what it’s been like to grow a new company—and culture—in his latest role leading Cedar Solutions Group.
Tell us about your background and what brought you to Alpine.
I went to school at University of Virginia, which has a great undergraduate business program, but I ended up being an economics major. I was always kind of entrepreneurial and not as interested in the traditional investment banking path, and I wanted to diversify my classes. So I went the liberal arts route, did a lot of travel, and got really involved in UVA’s social entrepreneurship community. By my junior year, I was looking at internships in tech as well as consulting—I interviewed at Bain, McKinsey, and BCG, but also a number of small startups.
Then a close friend introduced me to the possibility of private equity. He knew I was interested in both building a business and seeing a breadth of industries, and he wisely said that if I worked in tech or consulting, I’d probably only get one of the two. I was immediately interested; I liked the idea of having skin in the game, rather than just handing off a PowerPoint. I interviewed with Danny Sanner and Jeff Totten at Alpine about a month later.
I was skeptical that my politics classes and experience in Rwanda would translate. I’d never balanced a balance sheet or even worked in Excel. But Danny and Jeff, who themselves are very quantitative and successful investors, were much more interested in who I was as a person. They understood that you don’t have to intern at a hedge fund in high school in order to find a career in this space, and the fact that my background resonated was a huge signal to me that Alpine was different.
I joined the Investing Internship Program and absolutely loved it. I worked hard, learned a ton, and most of all, loved the people. I was fortunate enough to get a full-time offer, and I came back after my last year at UVA.
From left to right: Adam Jones and the Cedar Solutions Group operators at the 2025 annual kick-off, including Cedar Chief People Officer (and former CIT class of 2022) Taylor Ritzel. Steffi Decker, CEO of Evergreen Financial Technology Group, pictured with Adam at the 2022 Alpine CIT Summit in Napa, California.
You later moved from the Investing team to Alpine’s CIT (CEO-in-Training) program, which isn’t the typical path. How did that come about?
As much as I enjoyed working with the Investing team, interacting with founders and operators was where I felt the most energy, and I was interested in the leadership challenge of being a CIT. I spoke up pretty early on that I wanted to do that at some point. Usually, CITs join us out of business school, but to the firm’s credit that is not the only path—something that makes Alpine such an exciting place. The partners were always thinking about how to support my goals, and I became a CIT with the 2020 cohort.
I matched at Evergreen Services Group, Alpine’s professional services platform led by Jeff, which I’d been following since its launch. I started out supporting the CEO of one of our larger businesses. But then a couple of months in, an opportunity came up to lead a company in Detroit called Xpert Technologies, which is an IT managed service provider.
My now-wife and I lived in Chicago at the time, and I knew commuting every week would be a challenge, not to mention being a first-time CEO. But I also knew the hardest times were when I’d learned and grown the most; it was such a case study in the empowerment Alpine offers. When I went home and told her about the offer, she said, “I think you’re going to love it.” And she was right.
Tell us more about that experience. What were the keys to success as a first-time CEO?
It was awesome. It was well-rounded in the same way UVA was—obviously the quantitative side mattered a lot, but I was also thinking about things like motivating our customers and our team.
As far as keys to success, when you’re a first-time CEO who looks about 13 years old, you have to have humility! People in small businesses have the best B.S. detectors in the world; I just put my cards on the table that I was new to the space and they were the experts. I did an “Ask Me Anything” session with my leaders every week, where I asked them all about the industry. I think they responded to being empowered and having their opinions matter, which hadn’t always been their experience.
I also tried to pick the things I felt strongly about and focus on where I could make the biggest impact. It’s so easy to try to boil the ocean in a small business, and you can’t optimize everything. What’s the thing you can accomplish in the next three months? Mine was a new cybersecurity offering, and I had a lot of fun selling new logos and upselling our existing relationships. I love the customer side of things.
I had a lot of support in the background from Evergreen and Alpine, as well—talking with them, asking questions and learning from leaders’ experience in other businesses. As a CIT I had formal executive coaching and learning and development available to me, too, but honestly the community was even more important. My CIT classmates and I were all dropped into very different businesses, but fundamentally we’re all likeminded people and we were in the trenches at the same time. I talked with one of my fellow CITs every week, and I still meet with a group from my cohort every month.
In 2022 you helped launch Cedar Solutions Group, where you’re now CEO. Tell us what it’s been like to grow that business.
I got to be involved very early on. Evergreen was preparing to launch its strategy in new industries, and because I had both operating and investing experience, a new vertical was a nice way to have a foot in both worlds. I joined as an executive vice president to figure out M&A strategy, and helped develop Cedar’s thesis: government technology services.
We started with a fantastic business called Library Systems & Services, and we now have three additional library businesses as part of that group. From there we expanded into defense and intelligence, and today we have team members here in Denver, where I’m based, as well as in D.C. About a year in I was promoted to CEO, so now I’m splitting my time between acquisitions and helping our existing companies grow. There’s lots of synergy between those two processes, which I find really intellectually fulfilling.
On the acquisitions side, I’m talking with founders who often have never partnered with another company, and Alpine’s PeopleFirst philosophy resonates. There are so many private equity firms that roll up companies under one brand and integrate everything, which ultimately hurts employees and the mission. To Evergreen’s massive credit, we take a very completely different approach—it’s decentralized and it’s long-term hold. That allows our team to stay focused on increasing literacy, connecting our communities, and supporting our national security, which are the things that motivate every single person here.
Because our companies keep their brand, their benefits, and their culture, I get to serve as a thought partner and accountability partner—I’m sharing my experience, but I’m not trying to change things on the ground level. Like any business we have hard conversations, but we are truly partners. We’re all working toward the same goal of moving our businesses forward.
How do you manage a culture across so many different businesses? How do Alpine’s values come through?
This has been super interesting, both because we’re a decentralized ecosystem and because we regularly have new companies coming into the fold. We want to empower our leaders to be hands-on and maintain their own cultures, but still give them a shared language that will help them learn from one another.
We brought our leaders together for PeopleFirst Leadership Programming, which was such a grounding exercise—especially developing our core values. We wanted them to reflect where we are today, but also be aspirational. The values we chose are Uncommon Service, Underdog Mindset, and Authentically Us, which I think really do speak to Cedar and all of our businesses.
To bring that into our day-to-day culture, so much of it is about the talent you partner with and bring into the business—I think Alpine nailed it with PeopleFirst. We’re solving for folks with high integrity, a growth mindset, a high adversity quotient. That’s what helps us make our values real. “Authentically Us,” for example—I don’t have an MBA, I haven’t worked in this industry at the ground level, and I’m going to be who I am, as is everyone else on our team. It’s nice to work in a place where you don’t have to fit into a box to feel at home.
About the CIT Program
Since 2015, Alpine’s CIT program has been placing aspiring leaders into CEO and CXO roles at our portfolio companies immediately after graduation. In comparison, it takes most MBA graduates 15 to 30 years to obtain a CEO role. Whether you join as a CEO from day one or begin in an executive role at one of our companies, you’ll gain the trust and encouragement to tap into your strengths and make a real impact. Alpine’s CIT Program drives true impact across our portfolio. As of 2025 the program has produced 74 CEOs, and greater than 60% of its total equity value is led by Former CITs and Alpine Investors.
About the Investing Internship Program
Alpine’s internship program is designed to provide college students with as much experience as possible, and as much support as possible. Alpine interns launch into incredible career paths, and many join us as full-time team members after graduation. Alpine’s Summer Investing Analysts do the work of an investor from day one. We believe in giving ownership and responsibility early, and Summer Analysts are true members of our deal teams. Their primary focus is assessing real investment opportunities for Alpine’s funds. This work includes industry & company analysis, evaluating deals, and working directly with executives. The program is designed for juniors heading into their senior year, with the goal of converting Summer Analysts into full-time investors at Alpine. We look for students who are not only strong analytically, but also thrive in a collaborative, entrepreneurial environment. Students interested in the Investing Internship opportunity who will graduate Spring 2028 or Winter 2027 can submit their information here. Students slated to graduate before or after Spring 2028 or Winter 2027 can submit their information here.
