D.A. Davidson Strengthens Industrial Tech Capabilities with Jay Hernandez & Ankit Kumar Hires

The recent hires at D.A. Davidson—a Managing Director and now a Director—are not merely personnel additions but strategic posture setters. By bringing Jay Hernandez onboard in Boston in mid-October 2025 and Ankit Kumar in Chicago in mid-December 2025, the firm is reinforcing both top-end coverage and density across major U.S. industrial clusters. Boston, already a hub for tech and robotics, gains Hernandez; Chicago, a heartland for machinery, automation, and manufacturing, is now bolstered by Kumar. [1][2]

Under Eric Stetler’s leadership, the Diversified Industrials group appears to be executing a two-pronged growth strategy: (a) investing in talent across critical regional hubs to build capacity; (b) deepening domain expertise across Industrial Technology sub-sectors. Hernandez brings 20+ years in M&A and corporate finance focused on robotics, automation, test & inspection, controls, etc.; Kumar adds experience in Machinery & Equipment, Climate & Infrastructure Solutions, and Equity Capital Markets. This suggests that D.A. Davidson is positioning to serve both sponsor-led and strategic clients in fast-growing sub-verticals. [1][2]

Data from D.A. Davidson’s internal reporting underscores that their Diversified Industrials arm has had “record performance over the past two years” in terms of deal volume, sponsor-backed transactions, and capital markets activity. [4] The expansion is not speculative—it responds to observable market demand for Industrial Technology investment banking services, especially in the middle market, which tends to be underserved by larger bulge-bracket firms. [3][1]

Key segments of focus per D.A. Davidson’s official sector list include production & assembly equipment; systems integrators; food & beverage processing equipment; packaging equipment; motion-control components; storage & handling; etc. These are classic building blocks in automation and smart factories, suggesting the firm expects investment banking activity in hardware/software hybrids, integrators, and edge computing, where both capital raising and M&A are likely drivers.

Strategic implications for competitors include potential pressure from D.A. Davidson in middle-market industrial technology deal origination; private equity firms specializing in industrial tech may see a new strong advisory alternative; and regional hubs like Chicago may increasingly serve as origination centers rather than feeding all deal flow through NY or CA. For investors, this could mean more liquidity options for industrial-technology firms outside big tech.

Open questions remain: What scale of deal flow does D.A. Davidson expect in 2026 compared to 2024 in Industrial Technology? Can they retain clients across both small/mid and large caps with this model? How do they intend to compete on capital markets advisory (e.g., IPOs) in hardware-intensive sectors where underwriting risk, supply chain risk, and technology obsolescence are real? Also, will the firm further expand in Europe or Asia, perhaps via their partner MCF Corporate Finance, to capture cross-border industrial tech deals?