Lukas Naugle is the founder of Changegoat and serves as strategic advisor and operating partner to private equity firms, direct-investment family offices, and the executive leadership teams of their portfolio companies. The work sits at the management team and board level: ownership transitions, strategic repositioning, and the organizational decisions that capital alone does not resolve. Industries vary. The seat does not.
Since Weatherford Capital’s founding, Lukas has served as an operating partner to the firm, working alongside the founding partners across the portfolio and on the firm’s own positioning in market. Weatherford has grown to more than $1 billion in assets under management over that period. His work there has covered executive team assessment and board-level strategic communications. It also includes the operating support portfolio companies need through and between transactions.
He also served as advisor to Crosstimbers Capital through their transition from Fund II to Fund III, a period of substantial organizational and strategic change. Alongside his named firm relationships, Lukas works with family offices that run direct investment platforms, with the same execution demands as institutional capital work but more concentrated decision-making and less infrastructure.
Lukas launched Changegoat in 2010, initially building the practice alongside a Phoenix-based family office and its portfolio companies. That early work in deal sourcing, customer development, and taking businesses from launch to standing operating capability shaped the operator-first orientation the firm has kept. He holds a BA in International Business from Whitworth University and is based in Dallas, Texas.
15+
Years advising capital providers and operators
2
Named PE firm operating relationships
$1B+
Assets under management at Weatherford Capital
Dallas
Texas