Key Questions Deserve Clear Answers
Hawkwood was founded to deliver firsthand, verified evidence and experienced judgment to the questions behind critical decisions.
The firm draws on international researchers with deep primary-research experience across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America, assembling every team around the specific requirements of the engagement.
Hawkwood’s leadership brings more than a decade of experience delivering diligence to top-tier private equity firms and hedge funds, including building and directing research operations at Heron Intelligence. Thousands of sensitive engagements have shaped the rigorous operating and compliance framework. Every Hawkwood engagement is overseen by a senior professional from first call to final report.
Research Depth
Our approach is shaped by investing experience. Team members have worked as portfolio managers and equity analysts, giving us a firsthand understanding of what investors need from research: evidence that challenges assumptions, sharpens judgment, and tests a thesis. Does the narrative truly hold up against the full set of facts, or just the pitch? We built Hawkwood to find out.
Investor Perspective
Our team includes researchers with backgrounds in investigative and financial journalism at The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and Bloomberg. We apply those disciplines to the questions clients need answered, pursuing hard-to-find sources, reconciling conflicting accounts, and verifying what we learn to build a clearer picture. What emerges when the pieces come together?
Investigative Method
A TRACK RECORD BUILT BEFORE HAWKWOOD
Figures reflect experience accumulated by Hawkwood leadership at Heron Intelligence.
>$50 billion in PE transactions
supported over 5 years
8 of 10 largest PE firms by AUM
6 of 10 largest hedge funds by AUM
>9,000 primary interviews per year at peak
>40,000 primary interviews
delivered
Every Hawkwood engagement operates within a structured compliance program. Researchers have received training on confidentiality, source protection, and identifying and handling potential material nonpublic information. Client identity stays protected throughout; no source learns who commissioned the work, which safeguards both candor and confidentiality. Every interview begins with a standard compliance check, and potentially sensitive findings are flagged for review before they reach the client.
Independent research. Compliance built in.
Compliance & Conduct
Richard ten Wolde founded Hawkwood Research Partners after nearly three decades spanning journalism, equity analysis, portfolio management, and research leadership.
During nearly a decade at Heron Intelligence (formerly Blue Heron Research Partners), Richard built and led teams serving prominent private equity firms, hedge funds, and corporations, culminating in his role as President and Chief Operating Officer.
Richard holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and an MA from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow.
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