FORTUNE — Joe Lieberman has found a new calling: Private equity.
The former U.S. Senator and vice presidential candidate today announced that he has joined Victory Park Capital, a $1.3 billion firm that focuses on small-cap public companies and mid-market private companies, often at times of distress. Portfolio companies include Jamba Juice, Kabbage and Silver Airways.
Lieberman will be chairman (and the first member) of VPC’s executive board, a new group aimed at advising Chicago-based Victory Park on a variety of operational issues facing its portfolio companies. Expect that his focus will be on government and regulatory matters, although he will not directly lobby on behalf of Victory Park or its companies. Overall, Victory Park expects its executive board to have between six and eight members by year-end.
“Many of our portfolio companies have to deal with the government, whether they’re involved in aviation or oil and gas or food service, and we also have an SBIC fund” explains Victory Park co-founder Brendan Carroll, who once interned for Lieberman while getting his undergraduate degree at Georgetown. “He has much more experience in those areas than I or anyone else here could ever hope to have.”
Since leaving the Senate last year, Lieberman also has taken jobs as senior counsel at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP and as co-chair of the American Enterprise Institute’s American Internationalism Project.
In a prepared statement, Lieberman said: “While in the U.S. Senate, I fought for policies that would allow small businesses to thrive. I look forward to a long-term partnership with Victory Park Capital that will position the firm for continued growth.”
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