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Senior Managing Director brings a rare mix of operating, investment, and legal experience to lead the firm’s New York office and join its Executive Committee
New York, NY — September 10, 2026 — Areté Partners is pleased to announce that Colin Adams has joined the firm as Senior Managing Director, where he will lead Areté’s New York office and join the firm’s Executive Committee.
Adams brings a career built across operating leadership, investing, and law. He most recently served as Partner and Chief Operating Officer at a boutique crisis advisory firm. Before that, he spent seven years as a Senior Managing Director at M3 Partners and nearly a decade at Morgan Stanley, where he built and led a special-situations investing business. He began his career as a corporate lawyer at Kirkland & Ellis, where he made partner in 2007.
A career built across the C-suite and the boardroom
Over the course of his career, Adams has held C-suite leadership roles including Chief Restructuring Officer, interim CEO, and interim COO, and has served on more than 20 boards as an independent director. His work spans technology, life sciences, retail, energy, media, healthcare, specialty finance, and industrials, giving him a breadth of experience across the situations where boards and management teams most need clear judgment.
Shawn Hassel, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Areté, said Adams’s background is a natural fit for the firm’s approach to complex, high-stakes situations.
Colin’s experience is rivaled by few. He has sat in the operator’s seat, the investor’s seat, and the boardroom, and he knows how to move a situation forward from each of those vantage points. Clients get to a decision faster because of it.
Substance over process
For Adams, the decision to join Areté reflects where he sees the market moving, and where he believes the firm is positioned to deliver.
The market is rewarding substance over process. Clients do not need more analysis for analysis’s sake. They need leaders who have been in the seat, who can make a call, and who can help a board or a management team act on it. Crisis leadership and acute change management is where value gets built, and that is exactly the work Areté is built to do.
Adams holds an A.B. in Economics and History from Duke University and a J.D. with a Certificate in Business Law from the UCLA School of Law. He holds FINRA Series 79 and 24 licenses.
About Areté
Areté is a leadership and advisory firm that works alongside boards, owners, and executives during moments of change. The firm brings experienced judgment, independent perspective, and hands-on involvement to help organizations navigate complexity, align around what matters most, and move forward with confidence.
We drive momentum when it matters most.
Media Contact:
Randi Siegel