About Northcliff Capital

Founder’s Note & Bio

The people closest to the work understand it best.

After my freshman year at McGill University, I landed a summer internship driving 400-ton haul trucks in an oil sands mine. I absorbed more that summer from seasoned superintendents and foremen in the field than anything I'd learned in a textbook. I spent another summer in the gold mining sector in West Africa followed, and then I moved to the oil field full time with Imperial Oil (ExxonMobil).

I earned my MBA from the Harvard Business School and moved to Houston to work as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Great experience, brilliant people, and deep expertise in getting a deal across the finish line — but I was always one step removed from the businesses themselves.

I consider myself an ops and field guy who happened to learn finance, not the other way around.

That pulled me back to operations. I became CEO of a family-founded fiberglass electrical conduit manufacturer here in Texas. The company experienced unprecedented growth under my leadership, and I thoroughly enjoyed putting my operational, technical, and finance skillsets to work.

That experience is why I started Northcliff. I'm not looking for a transaction or a portfolio company — I'm looking for one great, founder-led business in Texas that I can step into and run for the long term. My wife and I are raising our two daughters in Houston. Texas is home.

If you're a founder thinking about what comes next, I'd welcome the opportunity to connect.

Christopher Kissel
FOUNDER & PRINCIPAL