Greg Fleming is the founding CEO of Rockefeller Capital Management, where he took the helm of a storied family office in 2018 to build and serve other families and institutions as well. Prior to taking on this challenge, Greg was the President of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and Morgan Stanley Investment Management and before that spent seventeen years at Merrill Lynch, culminating in serving as President and Chief Operating Officer from 2007-2009. Our conversation walks through some of Greg’s career path, including highlights from the financial crisis, and the Rockefeller Capital Management business and strategy. We hit on ESG investing, serving clients, and leadership. And I couldn’t help asking Greg about his relationship with Yankee great Derek Jeter. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Next week, we’ll release the first episode of Season 3 of Private Equity Deals, this time focusing on deals in the middle market. As an interlude between Season 2 and 3, this week’s show is a classic – it’s Bain Capital and KKR’s take private of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) in 2006. The $33 billion club deal was the largest private equity transaction in history at the time and was significantly larger than any deal since KKR’s famous run at RJR Nabisco in the late 1980s. The HCA deal showed the private equity industry the scale of what was possible and set the stage for both mega buyouts and public to private deals ever since. My guest is Chris Gordon, a Partner and Co-Head of Private Equity in North America for Bain Capital. Bain Capital today is one of the world’s largest private, multi-asset investing firms that oversees over $165 billion in assets. Seventeen years ago, Chris was a younger member of Bain Capital’s HCA deal team. HCA is one of the nation’s leading healthcare services providers, with over 182 hospitals and 2,300 sites of care in 20 states and the United Kingdom. Its origins date back to 1968 when it was one of the first hospital companies in the United States. Our conversation covers HCA’s history, the private equity environment in the mid-2000s, and the impetus for the HCA buyout. We discuss the complexity of navigating a large-scale transaction, conducting due diligence discretely, navigating the financial crisis, and what happened to the company. We turn to HCA’s return to the public markets through an IPO in 2011, Bain Capital’s eventual exit of the investment, and the implications of the deal on the firm and industry. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Brent Beshore is the founder and CEO of Adventur.es, an investment firm that buys small family-owned businesses with the intention of holding them indefinitely. After launching a few businesses out of college, Brent developed a distinct investment strategy and style. Earlier this year, he raised outside capital for the first time in a permanent capital vehicle, and I am a happy investor in the fund. Brent regularly shares his insights on business and investing through his widely distributed letters on his website and commentary on Twitter. And just last week, he released his first book, The Messy Marketplace: Selling Your Business in a World of Imperfect Buyers. It’s a fantastic instructional guide that covers everything from emotional expectations to the fine print in documentation. Our conversation covers Brent’s childhood interest in business, early mistakes, structural differences in his strategy from traditional private equity, search funds and fundless sponsors, sourcing deals, conducting due diligence, understanding valuation, negotiating, raising a first-time permanent capital vehicle, entering the ranks of professionals, and his new book. Brent is unusually insightful about investing in general and deeply knowledgeable about the niche he occupies. Learn More​ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn​ Subscribe to the mailing list​ Access Transcript with Premium Membership​

Ian Charles and Doc O’Connor are the Co-Founders and Managing Partners of Arctos Sports Partners, a private equity firm dedicated to buying minority stakes in professional sports franchises. From its founding just two years ago, Arctos quickly has become the market leader in the space, raising a $2.1 billion first-time fund and a SPAC alongside Executive-in-Residence Theo Epstein, and buying stakes in MLB teams including the Boston Red Sox, the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings in the NBA, and a compliment of other sports assets. Our conversation covers their backgrounds and the formation of Arctos, the investment opportunity in sports franchises, and the underlying business and ownership structure. We then turn to the unique characteristics look of the asset, investment process, and growth strategy.   Full disclosure, I am a personal investor in Arctos’ fund and am a fan of their strategy and team, pun intended. I hope you’ll enjoy this conversation with Doc O’Connor and Ian Charles as much as I did. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

John Connaughton is a Co-Managing Partner at Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm that oversees approximately $130 billion in assets. Founded in 1984 as the pioneer of a consulting-based approach to private equity investing, Bain Capital today invests across private equity, credit, public equity, venture capital and real estate. Our conversation covers the early years of private equity at Bain Capital, its growth in products and assets, investment process, competitive environment, culture, and succession planning. We close with JC’s insights for allocators and his outlook on private equity. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript       

Arvindh Kumar is a Partner and Global Co-Head of Technology at EQT, a public company overseeing nearly $100 billion in assets across infrastructure, real estate, and all stages of private equity. Innovyze is a mid-market vertical software company that provides smart water infrastructure to utilities and engineering firms. EQT carved out two subscale, non-core businesses from public companies to form Innovyze in 2016. Our conversation covers the Innovyze business and the water infrastructure market. We discuss the sourcing, diligence, and deal dynamics of the complex merger. We then turn to integrating the two businesses, including a management team change, systems integration, product rationalization, and sales reorganization. We close with EQT's process for selling the business to Autodesk and decision to refocus from the middle market to its flagship strategy despite its success in the space. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Kevin Callaghan and Larry Hamelsky are Managing Directors and long-time team members at Berkshire Partners, a 35-year old private equity firm managing over $20 billion in middle market deals and public equity. Kevin is a member of the Industrials and Consumer teams and Larry is a member of the Industrials and Communications teams at Berkshire. Parts Town is a distributor of OEM repair and maintenance parts for the foodservice industry. The tech-enabled company provides 150,000 different after-market replacement parts to manufacturers of commercial kitchen appliances. Berkshire bought the business from Summit Partners in 2016 and transitioned ownership to a different Berkshire fund, continuation fund, and outside sponsor in 2021. We discuss the business, finding and landing the deal, working with management, conducting tuck-in acquisitions, and recapping the business for another chapter of growth.

Jarryd Levine is a Managing Director at Stone Point Capital, a financial services specialist that has invested $21 billion across 135 businesses in the space. Jarryd helps lead the firm’s investments in Business Services and Human Capital Management. Bullhorn is a leading global software provider for the staffing, recruiting, and contingent labor industry, servicing over 10,000 staffing agencies worldwide. Stone Point acquired Bullhorn in September 2020, as the fifth private equity owner of the business. We discuss Bullhorn’s history, Stone Point’s rationale for human capital as a sub-sector focus, its multi-year, proactive search for the best business in the space, transaction dynamics during Covid, playbook as an industry expert, potential risks to the investment, exit strategy, and lessons learned. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Our Private Equity Masters mini-series concludes with Chuck Davis, the CEO and Chairman of the Investment Committee at Stone Point Capital. Stone Point has invested $21 billion across 135 businesses, all in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Stone Point’s predecessor entity at Marsh McLellan twenty-three years ago, he was a partner at Goldman Sachs, where he spent the prior twenty-three years, culminating in serving as Head of Investment Banking Services Worldwide. Our conversation covers Chuck’s time at Goldman Sachs, his transition to private equity, and the formation of Stone Point Capital. We then turn to the firm’s multi-year, outbound, targeted search for the best executives in financial services, work with portfolio companies, activity in the asset management sector, and management of Stone Point. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

Scott Crabill is a Managing Partner at Thoma Bravo, the software and technology specialist with $120 billion in asset under management. He joined Thoma Bravo twenty years ago to help develop its software investment strategy. RealPage is a technology platform that enables real estate owners and property managers to efficiently operate residential assets. In 2021, Thoma Bravo took the company private from the public markets for $10.2 billion, which at the time was the largest transaction in the firm’s history. Our conversation covers the history of RealPage, its ownership structure, competitive positioning, and differentiators as a business. We discuss Thoma Bravo’s sourcing, deal dynamics, and first year of ownership that included a management transition, operational improvements, tuck-in acquisitions, and a change in capital structure. We close discussing Thoma Bravo’s exit strategy down the road. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Orlando Bravo is a Founder and Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm focused on software and technology companies with over $78 billion in assets under management. Among his many accolades, Forbes named Orlando “Wall Street’s best dealmaker” in 2019. Our conversation covers Orlando’s background, early investment lessons, and approach around management, analytics, and collaborative culture. We then turn to the Thoma Bravo’s investment philosophy, team structure, work with portfolio companies, exit strategy, and future. We close with Orlando’s thoughts on SPACs, valuations, and philanthropy. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Pete Stavros from KKR dives into C.H.I. Overhead Doors. Pete is the Co-Head of Americas Private Equity at KKR, the legendary firm founded in 1976 that today is a public company managing around $500 billion in assets. Pete previously led KKR’s Industrials team, where he pioneered an employee engagement and ownership model. C.H.I. Overhead Doors manufactures garage doors and is a recent KKR portfolio company exit. We discuss how KKR became the fourth private equity owner of the business, its gameplan to improve operations and employee engagement, and details of the exit. The runaway success of the deal provides us with a textbook case for the benefits of employee ownership, and we close our conversation discussing Ownership Works, a nonprofit consortium of business stakeholders initiated by Pete that is on a mission to increase prosperity through shared ownership at work. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Hello, I’m Ted Seides, the host of the Capital Allocators podcast, and it’s my pleasure to bring you Private Equity Deals. This show dives into deals in the private markets through conversations with private equity managers. Much like Capital Allocators, we’ll share conversations that previously occurred behind closed doors between private equity managers and their investors. In each episode, we discuss an individual deal to learn about the companies, deal dynamics, and ownership that make private equity a force in institutional portfolios and the global economy. You can keep up to date and join our mailing list at capitalallocators.com