LDR Partners has named veteran Houston banking executive Paul B. Murphy Jr. as a Partner, adding more than four decades of banking, capital formation and lower-middle-market underwriting experience to the veteran-founded private equity firm.
Murphy will serve on LDR’s investment committee and advise the firm’s management committee on investment strategy, portfolio construction and governance. He will also support LDR’s relationships with institutional investors.
His career includes building two significant regional banking platforms.
Murphy began his career in commercial lending at Allied Bank of Texas in 1981. In 1990, he co-founded Southwest Bank of Texas, later renamed Amegy Bank, and served as President and subsequently Chief Executive Officer.
During his tenure, the institution expanded from approximately $75 million in assets to $8 billion through eight acquisitions and a 1997 initial public offering. That growth culminated in Amegy’s approximately $1.7 billion sale to Zions Bancorporation in 2005.
In 2010, Murphy led an investor group that raised $1 billion to form Cadence Bancorporation. The company completed a New York Stock Exchange IPO in 2017 and grew to more than $18 billion in assets before its 2021 merger with BancorpSouth.
LDR focuses on control investments in lower-middle-market U.S. manufacturing and industrial businesses.
The firm’s target sectors include aerospace and defense, specialty industrial machinery, heavy construction, transportation and industrial technology.
LDR closed its first institutional fund in early 2026 and has backed four platform investments since inception.
Murphy’s addition gives the firm another senior executive with experience evaluating regulated financial institutions, underwriting middle-market companies, raising institutional capital and scaling businesses through acquisitions.
KEY QUOTES:
“At LDR, we seek to partner with the people and businesses that Paul spent forty years supporting with a bank balance sheet behind him. He backed the machine shops and family manufacturers that built the Gulf Coast economy, one relationship at a time.”
Richard Sexton, Co-Founder And Partner At LDR Partners
“The best returns come from standing behind the best leaders, and LDR has proven its ability to identify and back them better than most.”
Paul B. Murphy Jr., Partner At LDR Partners
