In the fall of 2005, Paul Hutchinson and John Pennington were returning to Utah, from a scuba diving trip in Ecuador. These two entrepreneurs had both been quite successful with various companies over the years and knew they could combine their skill-sets to create something amazing together. On the return home flight, Paul turned to John and asked “Why don’t we just start our own private equity investment fund?”  This fortuitously led to both of them co-founding the Bridge Loan Capital Fund LP (BLoC Fund I) in 2006. Subsequent years brought much success and additional extremely talented partners.

In December 2006, Donaldson Hartman’s analytical skills predicted a great recession hitting the United States. This caused the entrepreneurs of Bridge Loan Capital (“BLoC”) to change their market strategy from doing real estate loans to building a fund that would purchase real estate within the apartment sector and improve, manage and dispose of these assets when the time was right. In the fall of 2008 they launched ROC Fund I. As the partners were searching for a company that would be able to manage the properties they intended to purchase, they scoured the hi-tech markets of Los Angeles and San Francisco for a firm that could handle the volume. As the saying goes, ‘the stars all aligned’ and as fate would have it, they found an incredible pool of talent right in their own back yard of Salt Lake City. Coincidentally, the company they discovered was named Bridge Property Management (BPM) and was located only a few miles from the Bridge Loan Capital offices.

Within just a few weeks the Bridge Loan Capital team knew they must include all the talented personnel at BPM into this new fund. Therefore, they contacted their attorneys and had the fund documents (Limited Partnership Agreement, Private Placement Agreement & Subscription Documents) rewritten to include the biographies of the principals of BPM.

The most astonishing thing is that during the time period in which all this came together, the U.S. was in the early stages of a great recession when companies around them were retracting in size and in their investment thesis. During this volatile time, the Bridge Investment Group Partner’s funds depended heavily on the capital raising ability of Mr. Paul Hutchinson. When starting a private equity fund the sponsors always have the goal of reaching institutional capital investors. This is much more difficult in the beginning than it would seem to be. Before a private equity fund can reach and grab the attention of an institutional investor with the ability to invest multiple tens of millions of dollars, they require a historical track record of traction and success. Therefore, all a fund can do, before attracting institutional investors, is to raise capital, one by one, from high net worth individuals.  To do this on a grand scale in a stable economy is a monument task. But raising any capital in 2009 in 2010 was seemingly impossible.  Paul Hutchinson’s ability and skill set enabled him to raise immense amounts of capital from investors in a time period when investment capital was scarce. This ability solidified Paul Hutchinson’s value in the financial markets worldwide.

In 2017 Paul retired from Bridge Investment Group Partners, LLC (Predecessor entity to BRDG - NYSE). At the time of his retirement, the company had over $10 Billion in AUM (assets under management).

Paul Hutchinson continues to build relationships with some of the greatest investors and influencers throughout the world. He is highly respected not only for his business successes but more importantly for how he has leveraged those successes to make a difference in the lives of others. Paul has dedicated a very large portion of his time and money to helping those in need. He has donated time and money to countless charity organizations with a particular focus on helping eradicate child trafficking. His passion for making a difference is an inspiration to all who know him.