Founder and Managing Director of Ascension Advisory, Chelsea Mandel leads the firm’s strategic vision and platform development, ensuring Ascension remains at the forefront of both sale leaseback and M&A advisory services for business owners, private equity firms, and other financial sponsors.
Under Chelsea’s leadership, Ascension has built a cross-functional advisory platform that integrates corporate real estate and M&A strategy, recognizing that liquidity planning, business transitions, and real estate decisions are deeply interconnected. By aligning these capabilities within a single firm, Ascension is uniquely positioned to deliver holistic, high-impact outcomes for business owners and financial sponsors, globally.
With over $3 billion in transaction experience, Chelsea brings a rare combination of breadth, depth, and creativity to clients, having successfully executed even the most complex and nuanced deals across industries, asset types, and geographies.
Chelsea is focused on continuously investing in Ascension’s team, technology, and processes to provide clients with a level of sophistication, precision, and insight that simply doesn’t exist elsewhere in the market. She is passionate about scaling the firm in a way that preserves its entrepreneurial spirit while setting the gold standard for advisory services in complex, high-stakes transactions.
Before launching Ascension, Chelsea established herself as a pioneering force in corporate real estate finance. After graduating magna cum laude from Dartmouth College with a degree in Economics, she joined Starwood Capital Group’s acquisitions team, where she thrived as the sole woman among 52 investment professionals. She was later recruited by private equity firm New Mountain Capital to build one of the first middle-market private equity-backed sale leaseback platforms, where she raised $533M for its debut fund and closed over $450M in transactions.
Her background as both an institutional investor and an expert advisor gives her a unique perspective into the needs of key decision-makers. Whether helping private equity firms unlock capital through real estate, or guiding founder-led businesses through strategic transitions, Chelsea’s focus remains on delivering meaningful, lasting value for clients.
Favorite Quote: Jump and the net will appear.
