Davis Noell Featured in Buyouts’ Off-Duty

Buyouts' Off-duty provides a snapshot of top investors, including a few details about what they do when not chasing deals. For Davis Noell, senior managing director at Providence Equity Partners, the seeds of a private equity career were planted at his first job. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001, he joined Deutsche Bank to work in the media investment banking group. That made Noell a perfect fit for
Providence, which since its 1989 founding has invested more in media than any other sector.

In 2003, the firm hired him to open its New York office. "It was just me and two others," he told Buyouts. Over the next 20-plus years, Noell stayed with media investing, during which time the sector underwent "massive shifts," he said - from an early emphasis on TV stations, newspapers, radio stations and movie theaters to today's focus on digital media and live events.

"We tried to stay ahead of the transformation," he said, noting "this is what made it fun."
Noell's favorite media investment, DoubleVerify, was "underappreciated" when backed in 2017, he said. The company went on to debut on the New
York Stock Exchange in 2021 with a $5.4 billion market value.

Outside of work, Noell is a trustee of Atlanta's The Westminster Schools and Gilman School, his high school in Baltimore, providing him with an opportunity "to give back," he said.

What was your most rewarding moment?

In 2017, we invested in a small measurement company in the digital advertising space called DoubleVerify. It was a contrarian bet because the space was out of favor at the time, and DoubleVerify was perceived as the smallest of the players. We had big aspirations for what we could do with the company. Being a part of DoubleVerify's success, and having the opportunity to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange when it went public in 2021, is one of my fondest work memories.