Perennial Group

Charlie Saponaro is an experienced operator and investor with over 25 years of experience growing companies. Currently, Charlie is a partner of Perennial Group, which is a long-term holding company dedicated to buying and building businesses.

Prior to Perennial, Charlie was the owner and CEO of Medical Record Associates (MRA), a healthcare services business he acquired in 2010 via Search Fund. Under his leadership, MRA expanded to over 250 employees across 40 states before being acquired in 2023.

Before MRA, he founded Bartley Capital, a search fund focused on acquiring and operating a single business. Prior to that, he led M&A efforts at ArchivesOne, a private equity-backed Records Management company that completed 35 acquisitions to become the third largest in the industry before its sale to Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM).

Earlier in his career, Charlie was a Vice President at Brook Venture Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm focused on expansion-stage investments. He also worked at Saturn Partners, a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage technology investments, and Boston Capital, a real estate investment and advisory firm specializing in in affordable multifamily housing. Charlie holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Vermont and lives in Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters.

John started his career in public accounting in 1993 and joined his first entrepreneurial business in at the end of 1999 as its CFO because all the qualified candidates for that job were joining dot com companies.  

That first opportunity to working in a fast growing company, ArchivesOne, first as its CFO and then its COO, where he met Charlie.  There he was focused on building the team and processes needed to integrate 35 acquisitions to become the third largest business in the records management industry.

In 2008 John met Bob and eventually joined one of Bob’s investments as CEO.  That company, TAS Messaging, through acquisitions and organic growth, grew to be one of the top 5 phone answering businesses in the US, with operations centers from Texas to Pennsylvania.

After that John joined Onesource Water in 2012, holding various titles including CEO, COO, and Co-President.  Onesource Water through organic growth and acquisitions became the second largest bottleless water provider in the workplace, with locations in 19 of the 25 largest metro US markets.

Since 2018 John has been the COO of careviso, a company focused on providing healthcare pricing transparency and related services through industry leading software and a dedicated staff.  Careviso has been John’s first opportunity to work as part of a company from the early formation to a thriving business with over 250 team members.

Throughout John’s career he has seen the distinct advantage entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial thinking employees have over their shorter sighted corporate competitors.  John is very motivated to work with Charlie and Bob at Perennial Group with a focus on buying and building great businesses.

Bob has been a private equity professional for over 30 years with experience in many stages of development from start-up through large mature companies. He is President of Winwood Capital Partners, an investment firm that acquires N.E. based lower middle market companies and makes select minority growth investments.  Prior to WCP, he was President of New England Capital Partners which had a similar strategy to WCP.   Prior to NECP, he was a Partner in a larger private equity fund investing principally in family-owned businesses where he focused on professionalizing family operated companies and developing management teams and effective Boards of Directors. He has successfully completed numerous transactions, financings, restructurings, and strategic initiatives.

He worked in the venture capital group of BancBoston Capital as a principal investor in emerging growth companies in consumer products, specialty retail and certain technology segments. Bob has been an active private investor outside of his professional involvement since 1987. He has invested in early-stage companies, other private equity and venture capital funds and served on boards and advisory committees.  He has operating management experience as a founder and CFO of a start-up company, where he managed all financial aspects of the company including raising over $20 million of equity capital. Bob began his career in a family-owned business where he was a production and plant manager of an apparel manufacturing company founded by his father.

Bob earned a B.A. degree from Tufts University, and an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College. He is married and has three sons.