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Ben Carson Jr. is not his father. That distinction matters. While Dr. Benjamin Carson Sr. spent decades in operating theaters and, later, cabinet rooms, his son carved a different path, one that runs through the corridors of private equity, minority business development and family wealth management.
Carson Jr. trained at Tufts University, earning a degree in psychology with a minor in entrepreneurial leadership before joining Prudential Securities and later rising to executive vice president at The Warner Companies, a Maryland-based financial services firm. Those years were a proving ground. He left to build his own institutions, plural.
Today, Carson Jr. is recognized as one of America's more consequential minority investors, named to Washington Life's 40 Under 40, Baltimore's 35 Under 35 and the Envest Foundation's 40 Under 40. He also serves on the boards of Tufts University's Derby Entrepreneurship Center, the Young Presidents Organization and the Minority Wealth Commission.
Below are seven companies Ben Carson Jr. co-founded, chairs or controls.
1. FVLCRUM Funds
FVLCRUM is the flagship. Carson Jr. co-founded the Washington DC-based private equity firm with a clear mandate: invest in minority-owned businesses in the lower-middle market, targeting transactions between $10 million and $40 million. The firm is one of only a handful of minority-owned PE shops in the country and has received CRA-eligible designation from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve Board and the FDIC. In 2022, FVLCRUM held the final close on its debut fund, pulling in more than $302 million, exceeding its original $250 million target. Carson Jr. manages overall strategy and portfolio direction. The firm focuses on healthcare, business services, government contracting and infrastructure.
2. Interprise Partners
Before FVLCRUM, there was Interprise. Carson Jr. co-founded this lower-middle market private equity firm in Maryland in 2013, targeting deals in the $3 million to $30 million range with a deliberate focus on healthcare, business services and infrastructure. Interprise was built on the same thesis that would later power FVLCRUM: that minority-owned businesses were systematically underserved by capital markets. Carson Jr. today serves as chairman of the firm.
3. Floreat Park
In 2015, the Carson family established Floreat Park, a single-family office that manages the clan's generational wealth. Carson Jr. sits at the head of its Investment Committee and serves on its Executive Committee, making him the primary steward of family capital allocation. Single-family offices of this kind typically manage assets spanning private equity, real estate, public equities and alternative investments. Floreat Park is the vehicle through which the Carson family's long-term financial strategy is executed.
4. Peak Lifting Solutions
Peak Lifting Solutions is FVLCRUM's crane services platform, a business Carson Jr. helped build through the firm's infrastructure investment thesis. Peak was established to become the largest minority-owned crane rental company in the United States, a goal being pursued through acquisitions. The platform reflects Carson Jr.'s conviction that scale, capital access and professional management can transform fragmented, underserved sectors of the American economy.
5. Gulf Coast Crane Services
In August 2022, FVLCRUM completed its first acquisition under the Peak Lifting Solutions platform, buying Gulf Coast Crane Services, a Texas-based crane rental and services company headquartered in Corpus Christi. The deal added heavy-lift capacity and regional infrastructure to Peak's growing footprint. Carson Jr. announced the acquisition personally, calling it a milestone in the firm's infrastructure ambitions and its broader mission to close the racial wealth gap through scaled minority-owned enterprise.
6. Charge Enterprises
In March 2021, Carson Jr. joined the board of directors of Charge Enterprises, an infrastructure company trading on the OTC markets under the ticker CRGE. His appointment was driven by his track record in building scalable businesses and advising on capital structure. At Charge, he brings private equity discipline to a company positioning itself at the intersection of telecommunications, electrical infrastructure and electric vehicle charging networks.
7. TWC Capital
Before founding his own firms, Carson Jr. served as executive vice president at The Warner Companies and built out TWC Capital, its dedicated financial advisory division. Under his leadership, TWC Capital advised clients on mergers and acquisitions, capital structuring, capital raises, risk management and strategic planning. The role was formative, giving him the transaction experience and institutional relationships that would underpin everything that followed.
