Peter Stroble
Peter Stroble
Operating Partner - Seattle
Operating Partner Peter is an Operating Partner at Building Industry Partners. He began his career in New York in the late 1990s, where he was an Associate for Deutsche Bank’s lead analyst in the Paper & Forest Products sector.
After graduating from business school in 2004, Peter joined Welco Lumber Company, a wood fence board manufacturer founded nearly 50 years prior by his grandfather. Triggered by the financial crisis, he helped lead an extensive operational restructuring process from 2007-2010 before turning his focus to Welco’s sales and strategy efforts. Under Peter’s leadership, Welco developed strategic supply relationships with Lowe’s, The Home Depot and key distributor partners, ultimately becoming the fence board industry’s largest company by revenue. During this time, he also began consolidation work, closing three acquisitions, and then conceiving of and executing the merger of Welco and TMI Forest Products to form the world’s largest wood fence board manufacturer, Alta Forest Products, in May 2014.
Joining Alta as its first COO before moving to CFO, Peter’s helped integrate the two businesses with heavy lifting in logistics, residual products, financial controls and financial reporting. In mid-2015, he began to focus his time on strategy and M&A work, ultimately leading to the acquisition of one of Alta’s key rivals, Mary’s River Lumber in 2016. In January 2018, less than four years after Alta’s formation, Peter played an instrumental role in executing the successful sale of Alta to Itochu Corporation, a deal resulting in a 4.8x return on Alta’s May 2014 opening valuation and a 35x return on a 2010 independent market valuation of Welco. In March 2020, Peter stepped away from Alta after two years helping transition the business to Itochu.
Peter lives in Seattle with his wife and three kids and remains in an active role at his family office, Ring Family Group and Ring Family Investment Company. He balances his time between work, family, and a passion for the great outdoors. Peter holds a B.A. from Yale University and a MBA from the University of Washington.