Clearsight’s Gretchen Frary Seay Begins New Chapter

After an exceptional 14-year career with Clearsight Advisors, Co-Founder and Managing Director Gretchen Frary Seay has retired from Clearsight and transitioned to an operating role as the Interim President of AspireHR.

In 2011, Gretchen joined Co-Founders Joel Kallett, Greg Treger, and Beth Seidler to establish Clearsight, seeking to build a firm that embodied investment banking’s best attributes and discarded its worst. Representing Clearsight’s key values of integrity, teamwork, and people focus, Gretchen and the team developed a unique client base centered around what we now consider the Knowledge Economy – high-growth, professional and tech-enabled services firms blurring the lines between software, data, and services offerings.

Gretchen has been instrumental in building Clearsight into a leading M&A advisor to the Knowledge Economy. Gretchen founded the firm’s Big Data practice – now incorporated into Clearsight’s market-leading Digital, Data & Cloud practice – and advised on numerous successful transactions with entrepreneurs and industry leaders across data analytics, cloud services, and artificial intelligence/machine learning solutions. In 2015, Gretchen expanded Clearsight’s footprint to Dallas, TX. She quickly became embedded in the Dallas business community and was named to D CEO Magazine’s Dallas 500, celebrating the most powerful and influential business leaders in North Texas, for five consecutive years. Adding to her accolades, Gretchen won D CEO Magazine and ACG Dallas-Fort Worth’s Investment Banker of the Year award in 2020. Gretchen is also a Board Member with the Goodwill Industries of Dallas.

With practice advising both the public and private sectors, Gretchen has more than two decades of transaction experience as a senior investment banker at Updata Capital, Agility Advisors, and as a Director at PwC prior to joining Clearsight. Gretchen graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in International Studies, and later earned her MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

“Gretchen is an accomplished investment banker, and we are very fortunate to have had her on the team from the beginning,” remarked Clearsight Co-Founder Joel Kallett. “In the 14 years since Clearsight’s founding, it’s remarkable to see where we are today – our firm and our families have all grown up. Gretchen’s leadership, intelligence, and talent elevated Clearsight and brought great value to her clients. More importantly, her humor, support, and authenticity make her a fantastic friend and colleague with whom we shared countless, amazing memories over the 20+ years we have worked together. We are excited to see Gretchen excel in her new role with AspireHR, and everything else she is bound to accomplish in the future.”

Gretchen noted, “It’s hard to imagine leaving this amazing team of genuine colleagues and talented investment bankers. We’ve had some amazing successes together and I’m going to miss everything that comes with leading deal processes. With AspireHR, I am thrilled to deepen my roots in the Dallas business community by leading a fantastic business in the HCM solutions and consulting space. Thank you to my colleagues, family, and friends for all their support as I begin this exciting new chapter!”