Sahil Dalal joined Advent in 2009 and is a Managing Director in Mumbai. He advises on investments in the consumer and technology sectors. Sahil has advised on 14 investments during his career, 12 while at Advent.

Prior to joining Advent, Sahil was an associate with JLL Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, where he focused on buyout and growth equity transactions. Prior to JLL Partners, he spent three years with Bear Stearns in New York as an analyst in its Investment Banking Division.

Sahil has a BBA, with high distinction, from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

How has living in your region impacted your perspective on investing?

When I joined Advent, the India office was a small operation. Since then, Advent has built a powerful franchise, which has maintained a reputation for trustworthiness. At the heart of our success is the understanding that every market is local and has its own nuances. Having local teams who understand those nuances is incredibly valuable, both in advising on investment decisions and supporting portfolios. Otherwise, you end up with a ‘one hat fits all’ approach, which would be suboptimal.

How have you seen Advent’s culture of collaboration drive impact both internally and at portfolio companies?

Advent’s global network makes you a better investor, because investing is all about pattern recognition. While the exact same event may not play out twice, often you’ll see the same patterns and themes replicated across different geographies and end markets. By being able to collaborate with colleagues in different parts of the world we get to see and understand many of the varied challenges and opportunities, and learn from them. It helps us to make smarter decisions in every dimension of our work.

“Advent’s global network makes you a better investor, because investing is all about pattern recognition.”

Sahil Dalal
Managing Director, Advent
What advice would you give to a new hire at Advent to set them up for long-term success?

I’d tell them three things. The first is to listen, and never think you know everything. There are many people at the firm with vast experience. Even if they’re operating in a different market, you will learn something from them. Second, understand this is a people-oriented business, and it is crucial to build and maintain relationships. Finally, don’t underestimate the role of luck. This is an industry where you can’t control everything. But if you put yourself in the best possible position, through sound business judgment, hard work, and good relationships, you’ll have a better chance of fortune going your way!

When did you decide you wanted to be in this business? Why?

I’m lucky to be where I am today, as most of the turns in my career journey have been quite accidental. I was working in investment banking in the US and was interacting with a lot of people from private equity. What they were doing seemed intriguing – though I didn’t fully understand the business – so I accepted a job at a mid-market fund in New York. It soon became clear that I wanted to continue in private equity, but in a more entrepreneurial environment. I moved back to India in 2009 and started at Advent.

What keeps you busy outside of work?

It’s important to maintain a sense of balance. I Iove being active and doing things like skiing, diving, travelling, and wildlife safaris. I went to Everest Base Camp once and had 15 days of no network coverage. I make it a point to really recharge during these moments. In our business, everything is important, but not everything is urgent. I have a large amount of trust in my colleagues’ ability to step-up in my absence.

Sarah Smith joined Advent in 2007 and is a Managing Director and Co-Head of Limited Partner Services (LPS) in New York. She originally joined Advent as an Associate focusing on buyout and growth equity investments in the consumer and retail sectors. Following business school, Sarah rejoined Advent’s Limited Partner Services Group, primarily focused on fundraising and investor relations activities in the Americas.

Prior to joining Advent, Sarah worked at McKinsey & Company, concentrating on strategy projects for consumer products and private equity clients.

Sarah received a BS with highest honors in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

How does Advent identify interesting companies?

The breadth of the organization geographically and the history of being sector-focused for over 20 years are critical to our sourcing engine. Having global teams connected along sector lines creates a powerful tapestry – Advent has specialized insights that we can act on faster and more deeply.

What is it like to work with other colleagues at Advent in light of its partnership structure?

The partnership structure aligns really well with our collaborative culture, which is evident in so many parts of what we do. Advent does not have a CEO. We are led by a group of managing partners. No one is named Advent. We celebrate the deals that we can win by assembling a team from around the globe.

“Having global teams connected along sector lines creates a powerful tapestry – we have specialized insights that we can act on faster and more deeply.”

Sarah Smith
Managing Director, Limited Partner Services, Advent
What does learning and growing look like at Advent?

A big part of the ethos at Advent is being entrepreneurial and taking chances. There’s a lot of support for trying to do something new – successful or not – vs. just doing what has been done before.

Since you began your career, what’s changed the most or least about the industry?

The complexity of the industry is vastly different today than it was 15-20 years ago. Deals are more complex, the investor universe is more diverse and demands more, competition is far greater. For our team in particular, it means collaboration across the firm – from deal teams to legal and finance and compliance – is critical.

What is the best career advice you have received?

Early in your career it’s hard to be patient. There’s a temptation to jump around to get more faster – more responsibility, more visibility, a faster promotion. I think there’s a lot of merit in being patient, putting your head down. If you can compound your knowledge and learn from people who care about your development, then opportunities will present themselves.

Selim Loukil joined Advent in 2012 and is a Managing Director in London. He leads the Portfolio Support Group. Selim has worked with 15 private equity portfolio companies during his career, nine while at Advent.

Prior to joining Advent, Selim spent four years in operating roles at HMY, a portfolio company of Sagard Private Equity Partners. At HMY, Selim was Chief Transformation Officer, and subsequently served as Divisional CEO, leading the turnaround of the Specialty business unit. Prior to joining HMY, he spent eight years as a management consultant at Bain & Co. in France and the U.S., and before that, with Cap Gemini. Selim began his career as a Business Development Manager in the water treatment industry, where he worked for Rhodia in Italy.

Selim graduated from Ecole Centrale, France with an MSc. in Mechanical Engineering and received an MBA from HEC Business School in Paris.

How has the Portfolio Support Group (PSG) evolved?

Over the years Advent has become far more active in our partnership with leadership teams. Around a dozen years ago, Advent acknowledged that with an increase in investment size and complexity, we needed to bring into the firm a group of leaders whose role will be to support our leadership team in the transformation of the businesses. It’s a tough job for a management team to, at the same time, manage a business day-to-day as well as transforming it to deliver the investment thesis. Advent wanted to have bench of seasoned executives who are ex-management consultants, able to crack any business challenge, as well as PE-savvy operators who know what it takes to lead change in an organization and could sit at the table with the CEO from day one to provide the right level of support and challenge.

How does Advent’s collaborative model drive impact at portfolio companies?

The essence of our model is that Advent partners with our CEOs and their teams, bringing to the table three types of individuals, each looking at the world through a slightly different lens, and this brings diversity of thought. You have a team member, a Portfolio Support Group member, and an Operating Partner – I call it the troika. The team brings sector knowledge and strategic oversight. The PSG team are experts in how to transform a business. And the Operating Partner is a respected industry figure who is super-knowledgeable on the thesis to execute. This brings diversity of thought which leads to better decisions.

“The essence of our model is that we partner with our CEOs and their teams bringing to the table three types of individuals, each looking at the world through a slightly different lens, and this brings diversity of thought.”

Selim Loukil
Managing Director, Advent
How do you learn from mistakes, and help your colleagues to do so?

I see our team as playing a fundamental role in knowledge sharing, particularly about things that have gone wrong. We regularly run a ‘lessons learned’ session on team calls, involving partners and directors from the team and PSG team. We discuss what things have worked for us, and more importantly, what didn’t work as well. These sessions are important not only in terms of establishing best practices, but also looking at ourselves in the mirror and saying, ‘how do we do a better job next time?’ It’s part of our culture, that focus on continuous improvement.

What has changed in the industry?

The overall context is that the days of cheap money are over, therefore, we have to do more. And, we must do more over a longer period of time, because the average holding period in private equity has substantially increased over the years. That means driving the portfolio harder by paying more attention to the basics. Those basics are getting the right organization and the right team, setting up the right governance, being very clear on the investment thesis and value creation levers, and then executing each of those levers to reach full potential.

What do you enjoy doing outside working hours?

One of my passions is spearfishing. I belong to a club in London that has a membership of 200 people, and we get together several times a year. You get to spend quality time with people from very diverse backgrounds and nationalities. There’s of course the adrenaline thrill of catching a fish, but this is less than 1% of the total time. It’s all about immersing oneself in nature, being in an almost meditative state while freediving in the water, disconnecting from everything else and eventually then bringing food home, cooking it, and having a nice dinner!

Stephen Hoffmeister joined Advent in 2004 and is a Managing Director in Boston. He advises on investments in the industrials sector. Stephen has advised on 13 investments during his career, 12 while at Advent.

Prior to joining Advent, Stephen worked at Bain Capital, where he specialized on buyouts in several industries, including industrials and financial services. Before that, he worked at Bain & Company, a leading strategy consulting firm, in both Toronto and Sydney, advising companies in the aerospace, financial services, and telecommunications sectors.

Stephen received a BComm, First Class Honors, from Queen’s University in Canada and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

How does Advent identify interesting companies in your sector of focus?

Advent tries to find situations that match up particularly well to our capabilities. For example, I spend all my time in industrials – a sector that’s very international. One of the first things we’re thinking about is global growth and expansion: does the investment line up against the capabilities Advent has, in terms of our relationships around the world and the places where we have boots on the ground? Advent is focused on how we can differentially help companies achieve their growth ambitions.

What’s the impact of Advent’s collaborative culture in driving growth?

Advent isn’t a culture where people act alone in their sector or region. It all begins with the idea that we’re one big global team, and Advent has a real responsibility to our investors and our portfolio companies to help create value together. We’ll always do whatever we can to enable this – such as helping out a colleague from another geography, whether they want to hire someone new, look at an acquisition, or get information about a different region. We leverage our learning on a global basis, and make sure we deliver the best insights for our companies, wherever they are.

“Advent isn’t a culture where people act alone in their sector or region. It all begins with the idea that we’re one big global team.”

Stephen Hoffmeister
Managing Director, Advent
What does learning and professional development look like at Advent?

For the leaders in the organization, development of our teams involves modeling the right behavior. It means doing the things we say we should be doing, and showing how important and valuable it is to act as one team. We talk a lot internally about best practices. For example, when we get everybody together for our internal worldwide leadership meetings, we often share best practices or case studies. We don’t just look at the investments that went well, but also how we can learn from the ones that have faced challenges and how we have overcome them, which in a lot of ways are more important. When new people come in, there’s quite a bit of training on how we operate: how the firm and our investors always come first, not the dealmaker.

Can you describe a pivotal experience from your time here?

I’d look back to the first investment Advent made after I joined the firm. It was a multi-geography, multi-office deal involving a large corporate seller in South Africa. It was co-led out of London and Boston, and involved colleagues around the world. It would never have happened without that sort of collaboration: it was just too complicated for other firms. It showed how we could address complexity with the global team and resources that we had at our disposal. It was powerful for me, so early in my Advent career, to see this happen and to be a part of it. It’s something I’ve been able to emulate many times since.

What’s the best career advice you’ve received?

One thing that has helped me in my career is understanding that relationships really matter. It’s about treating our own people with respect – focusing on their wellbeing and development. It’s also about building positive relationships with executives in our chosen sectors. You might do something helpful for a CEO, and then 10 years down the road, they’re back in your life and you’re working together again on an investment opportunity. We’re in this for the long term, and we focus on doing the right things by people.

Andrew Li joined Advent in 2012 and is a Managing Director in Shanghai. He advises on investments in the consumer, healthcare, and industrial sectors. Andrew has advised on 16 investments during his career, nine while at Advent.

Prior to joining Advent, Andrew worked at Warburg Pincus, Solera Capital, and Credit Suisse throughout China and the US, where he focused on the energy, healthcare, industrial, and retail and consumer sectors.

Andrew holds a BA from Middlebury College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

How has living in your region impacted your perspective on investing?

I joined the firm in 2012 as part of the founding team in China, and we’ve always stuck to Advent’s global investment philosophy. We’re sector-focused, working with strong Operating Partners, and we’re involved in business fundamental-focused value creation. Our approach has been a good fit for China, which is very much growth-driven. It aligns with our focus of primarily looking at growth buyouts.

How have you seen Advent’s culture of collaboration drive impact?

For every investment Advent does in China, we seek global inputs because at some time, somewhere, someone at Advent will have reviewed a similar industry in another market. We don’t always know how it will be relevant, but there may be learnings that are applicable to what we’re doing. Advent has been in China for just over 10 years, but we have 40 years of history globally. Therefore, we reach out to the global sector teams, and they share their practice. For instance, in a recent investment Advent made in the pet food sector, our European colleagues did something similar in Poland previously, and we could tap into their expertise.

“The team in China is very diverse, but we all share a common ambition to help build sustainable businesses.”

Andrew Li
Managing Director, Advent
How do you challenge yourself and others around you to continuously improve?

We encourage one another and we build on each other’s success. The team we’ve built in China is very diverse in terms of background, perspectives, and knowledge, but we all share a common ambition to help build sustainable businesses. This is a fast-changing environment – an emerging market, with lots of challenges and opportunities – and we’re excited about what we can do here, driving growth in our industries, and investing in sector leaders to make them bigger, stronger, and more successful.

When did you decide you wanted to be in this business, and why?

I was originally more of a science person. I was a programmer at Microsoft, working on Windows 2000, and decided to switch gears and move into finance. I’d realized I was good at math and analytics, and wanted to do something different. I went into investment banking, and from there it’s a natural path from the sell side to the buy side. My induction into private equity was at a New York start-up fund spun out from a larger platform. I’ve stayed in the business because there’s a real sense of accomplishment when you see a company grow in value.

What is the best career advice you have received?

In the early days of my career, the CEO of Solera Capital – where I started in private equity – took me under her wing as a mentee. She gave me a lot of good advice. One of the key things she shared with me was always to focus on issues, not people. That helps you to orient conversations in the right way to build consensus and influence others. And communication is a big part of our business, whether it’s with entrepreneurs, business owners, or our own internal investment committee. That insight has really had a lasting impact on me.

Ariel Blumenkranc joined Advent in 2012 and is a Managing Director in Mexico City. He advises on investments in the business & financial services, healthcare, and technology sectors. Ariel is a member of Advent’s Global Culture and Inclusion Committee. He has advised on 10 investments during his career, eight while at Advent.

Prior to joining Advent, Ariel worked at Morgan Stanley in its investment banking division in New York, covering financial institutions across Latin America. Previously, he worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company in a variety of sectors across Latin America and Spain.

Ariel holds a BS in Business Economics from Torcuato Di Tella University, where he was valedictorian of his graduating class, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

How do you identify compelling companies?

A big component of it comes down to having deep sector specialization. Advent’s scale and global presence allows us to gain valuable insights into the plans and growth objectives of key strategic players within our focus sectors. So, when Advent evaluates an investment theme or opportunity, we work all this out and then back-solve. What do we need to acquire, and what should we do to create value in those assets?

How does your global network of colleagues at Advent help you succeed?

The governance within Advent makes sure that collaboration, best practices, and strategic thinking flow naturally. For example, we have regional calls at the sector level every two weeks, and once a month we’ll also have a global call. You’ll be listening to what is happening in Shanghai, along with Frankfurt, London, New York, Boston, Palo Alto, etc. There may be sub-sectors that are growing a lot in some regions and that could be a leading indicator that they could be attractive in Latin America or Mexico in the coming years. For instance, someone might say that nutraceuticals is a fast growing segment and one that is highly valued by strategics, and we haven’t looked at it in Mexico, so let’s get more informed about the sub-sector, build a thesis, look for interesting assets, and develop relationships so that we can do deals in the future. It’s very powerful for idea generation.

“The governance within Advent makes sure that collaboration, best practices, and strategic thinking flow naturally.”

Ariel Blumenkranc
Managing Director, Advent
What advice would you offer to someone new at Advent?

There are several traits you need to have to be successful at Advent. One of the most important is an owner mentality: thinking of a company as if it’s yours. You need analytical rigor and to be able to understand problems comprehensively and in depth to develop clear, succinct views. Another aspect is to be open, collegial, and transparent in your communication. And through hard work and observation, you should keep improving these abilities. If you can do that, the firm will help you rise.

When did you first decide you wanted a career in this business?

I was in my twenties, and private equity was not well known in Latin America. I discovered it two or three years after I joined McKinsey, through a friend. He was pursuing his MBA, called me and told me private equity was a mix of finance, operations, and strategy, and he thought it would suit me. I started investigating and loved the idea of serving in an entrepreneur-like role and having an impact in many industries and geographies. In private equity, you can do that without losing sight of being entrepreneurial – you’re finding exciting ideas and executing on value creation.

What keeps you busy outside of the office?

I love to travel with my family – both in cities and the great outdoors. I think it’s a privilege to travel with my kids in the early days of their lives. We enjoy hiking, biking, and anything that connects us with nature.

1. Member of the Neoris Advisory Board.

Beau Dixon joined Advent in 2024 and is a Partner / Managing Director and Head of Australia / New Zealand, leading our Sydney office. He advises on investments in the business & financial services (BFS) and healthcare sectors. Beau has advised on 14 investments during his career across the BFS, consumer, healthcare, industrial, and technology sectors.

Prior to joining Advent, Beau was a Managing Partner and member of the investment committee at Anchorage Capital Partners.

Beau received a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology, Sydney. He also completed the General Management Program, Executive Development Program, and Global Strategic Leadership Program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

How has living in your region impacted your perspective on investing?

The set of opportunities in Australia and New Zealand directly align with Advent’s five key sectors – business and financial services, consumer, healthcare, industrial, and technology – and Asia Pacific as a whole represents significant growth opportunities across these sectors. Having a permanent presence on the ground here provides a number of additional benefits to Advent, including increased access to opportunities for platform investments and bolt-on acquisitions for the global Advent portfolio. Key to all this are the strong relationships we have built, based on trust developed over time, transaction volume, and our continued presence in the country.

How do you partner with management teams?

At a portfolio company level, our partnership with management teams is critical to the long-term, sustainable growth of our investments. We’re looking for direct alignment with them, which we can achieve through our board relationships with Advent representatives, and with the independent directors and chairs that we appoint to those boards. Collaboration and a trusted partnership with management teams equip us to drive positive outcomes, achieve growth, and manage organizational change. We don’t operate in the businesses, rather we provide the necessary support, guidance, and resources required by leveraging our toolkit, experience, and relationships.

“Every challenge we encounter is an opportunity. It brings with it a chance to learn, enhance what we do, and grow.”

Beau Dixon
Managing Director, Advent
How do you challenge yourself and others to continuously improve?

There are always opportunities to continuously improve. When joining Advent, one of the core attractions to me was the quality of people and culture of transparency. My philosophy is that while good news should be celebrated at the appropriate time, bad news should travel at the speed of light. Every challenge we encounter is an opportunity. It brings with it a chance to learn, enhance what we do, and grow. Collaboration is a core part of the Advent culture: let’s get the right human capital around the situation, each and every time, with a solutions mindset, and seek to maintain positive momentum.

What about your job inspires and drives you?

I think we are very fortunate to be in a position where we are affecting positive change in businesses and supporting our people and management teams to grow and be successful. It’s incredible to be working across such a broad set of complex topics, engaging with some of the greatest and most sophisticated minds – including forward-thinking leaders seeking different avenues for growth, and drawing on a deep skill set of financial, commercial, and business-building acumen. No two days are the same at Advent. Everyone is looking to grow by doing better, being better, and positively contributing to the business.

If you weren’t in this profession, what would you be doing?

I get great satisfaction and enjoyment at work with the breadth of subject matter we cover and ability to support growth and change – I couldn’t think of doing anything else. This is what I’ve wanted to do since I was at school, and don’t have any plans to stop any time soon!

Benjamin Buerstedde joined Advent in 2015 and is a Managing Director in Frankfurt. He acts as an advisor in the German-speaking region and advises on investments in the industrial sector. Benjamin has advised on 12 investments during his career, three while at Advent.

His previous private equity experience includes working with companies in the industrial and retail industries. Prior to joining Advent, Benjamin worked for seven years at Sun Capital Partners in London, a middle market private equity firm focused on investing in companies with operational improvement potential. He participated in investments in several European countries across the retail, packaging, and manufacturing sectors. Prior to Sun Capital, Benjamin spent four years at Merrill Lynch as an associate, focusing on mergers and acquisitions in the industrial sector. Benjamin Buerstedde began his career in 2001 with Hawkpoint Partners and Credit Suisse First Boston as an analyst in their respective investment banking divisions.

Benjamin holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from Warwick University and an MS in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

How important is it to Advent’s investment model to have an office in Germany?

It is critical and it needs to be a sizeable office given the breadth of the market. We have built trust and local connectivity for decades and Advent’s track record is well known by the market. I think that’s a core part of what we’ve done over nearly 25 years in Germany, and for 40 years across Advent. Advent takes a local approach while using our global network and expertise.

What advantages come with being part of a privately owned partnership?

I think the biggest benefit is that we can decide our own destiny with limited external stakeholders. Advent has the ability to make decisions quickly, and adapt swiftly to market circumstances. We have very short communication lines when we want to speak to each other, or formulate a view on something. It’s just a highly efficient model because we have a common strategy and all know what we’re looking for. Advent also maintains long and trustful relationships with our limited partners. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better or worse than other asset management models, but it has worked very well for us over four decades – and I think it will continue to benefit us in the future.

“I think the biggest benefit is that we can decide our own destiny with limited external stakeholders. Advent has the ability to make decisions quickly, and adapt swiftly to market circumstances.”

Benjamin Buerstedde
Managing Director, Advent
What advice would you offer someone joining Advent?

Go and explore, and try to be as investigative as you can. Spend time on new industries and new trends, trying to see what’s next – not just what’s going to happen in the next three years, but what will be driving the next five, even 10 years. And then work backwards, and say, hey, if that happens, where could I find a good opportunity case today? Every company and thesis is different, but you need to reflect on the underlying trends and the macro picture. That’s an important piece of the puzzle.

What aspects of your job continue to drive and inspire you?

For me, it’s about meeting interesting people with very different backgrounds, all with their own ambitions to create something more successful. It’s that interaction, as we foster networks and use them to create value. I think that’s something you don’t get in many other jobs – and you certainly don’t get that exposure as early in your career as you do in private equity. Plus, seeing the impact of the joint decisions we take with our management teams first-hand in the performance of our portfolio companies. The private equity model fosters mutual learning between ourselves and our management teams.

If you weren’t in this profession, what would you be doing?

I’d like to say some sort of professional sportsman – a footballer or tennis player – but that was never really an option. More realistically, I’d have an operational role at one of our portfolio companies. I strongly believe that when we invest in our portfolio companies, we should be excited enough about them that we’d be willing to execute our plans ourselves.

Bo Huang joined Advent in 2016 and is a Managing Director in Boston. He advises on investments in the business & financial services sector. Bo has advised on 16 investments during his career, eight while at Advent.

Prior to joining Advent, Bo worked at Apax Partners, where he focused on investments in the technology and healthcare sectors. Before that, he worked at Lazard in mergers & acquisitions.

Bo received a BA in Economics and Biology and BAS in Biomedical Science, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

What advice would you give to a new colleague at Advent?

They should realize that it’s a collaborative culture. Counter to much of the rest of the finance world, this isn’t a star culture. Every day we collaborate across different sectors, regions, and partners. The ability to leverage the collective skill and experience set of the whole partner group is what differentiates us.

How does working with Operating Partners improve the investment process?

Our Operating Partners are industry veterans – usually former CEOs, chairmen, or C-suite executives, who have seen and done it before. We recruit them into very specific roles for their expertise, whether it’s in a particular industry vertical, or in a certain functional role. They help Advent in identifying and evaluating investments, and then in executing on the value creation plan. Oftentimes they’re not rolling up their own sleeves, but act as mentors to the people who drive the company. They know what to look out for and where the pitfalls might be, and they’ll have a rolodex of people who can add further value if needed.

What sort of companies are you looking for in your sub-sectors of focus?

Advent is looking for unique and differentiated businesses that we can support through an investment cycle. In the underwriting process, we spend a lot of time on the value creation plan, determining what we can do better, faster, or differently than the company is doing today, and whether we can quantify that into actionable levers. Crucially, we want to make sure that once Advent does make the investment, we have the resources, alignment, and focus to drive every one of those levers.

What do you find most compelling about your job?

What I love about this industry is that it’s dynamic and constantly challenging. Every single investment, every single project, every single issue is slightly different. It’s not cookie-cutter – you don’t have a standard playbook that you’ll just execute against every single time. I find the challenges exciting: trying to figure out how to solve the problems and ultimately deliver great outcomes.

If you weren’t in private equity, what would you be doing?

I would probably be making investments in some way, shape, or form. I love investing in businesses and working with them and their people to help them grow. It’s just such a rewarding process to evaluate where markets are going, discover which companies, executives, and people are set up for success, and then helping them to shape that success.

Brenno Raiko joined Advent in 2011 and is a Managing Director in São Paulo. He advises on investments in the technology and healthcare sectors. Brenno has advised on 16 investments during his career at Advent.

Prior to joining Advent, Brenno was an associate at A.T. Kearney in São Paulo and New York for four years. His consultancy experience includes M&A strategy, commercial due diligence, and corporate strategy and operations for a broad range of industries, including consumer goods, financial services, and mining.

Brenno holds a BS in Economics from Fundação Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro and an MBA from Harvard Business School, with a Fundação Estudar merit-based scholarship.

What advice would you offer to someone joining the firm?

When Advent makes an investment, we’re committed to the long term. You need consistency, you need resilience, and you need to be laser-focused on the thesis and the value creation plan. You should have conviction in your plan, but at the same time, you need to be nimble enough to act quickly. And remember that this job is all about people: your attention should not just be on the business, but also on the team around it.

Has the private equity industry changed much since you began your career?

In general, companies have become larger, more complex, and more diversified. They are likely to have more products and operate across a greater number of markets, and I think that’s a natural evolution. The size of Advent’s investments has likewise grown. But despite this increase in scale, the foundation of what we do has not changed, and neither has the nature of what we’re looking for in an investment.

If you weren’t in this profession, what other career might you have chosen?

As a teenager, my original plan was to become an economist, because it combined hard and soft skills, involving both quantitative and qualitative analysis. But that wouldn’t have offered the same intersection of finance, strategy, and entrepreneurship that you get in private equity. I also previously worked in capital markets and consulting, but what those two lack is accountability – another trait that attracted me to this job.

“You need consistency, you need resilience, and you need to be laser-focused on the thesis and value creation plan.”

Brenno Raiko
Managing Director, Advent
Which industries do you currently find most interesting?

Today, I’m focused on two. The first is digital services, where Advent has invested in businesses that export tech services from Latin America to the US and other developed markets. Advent is always looking to identify how we can take Latin American companies global, as we’ve recently done with several cases. The other is software, which is a core sub-sector for Advent globally. We want to back great businesses or help them grow at scale.

How does working with Operating Partners help to improve your work at Advent?

Our Operating Partners and Operations Advisors are senior executives with a very deep operational background in a particular industry, who really understand the day-to-day running of companies and how to drive value. They can complement our views with knowledge of what can and cannot be done in terms of operational improvements, and they can connect us with other companies and other experts in the wider ecosystem. Involving them also provides founders and entrepreneurs with reassurance that Advent is the right business partner for their journey experience and we will bring expertise and domain knowledge for the next chapter of the company.

Carmine Petrone joined Advent in 2010 and is a Managing Director in Boston. He advises on investments in the healthcare and healthcare technology sectors. Carmine has advised on 15 investments during his career, 12 while at Advent.

Prior to joining Advent, Carmine worked for Thomas H. Lee Partners, where he was a generalist investor with a focus on leveraged buyouts in the financial and business services and healthcare industries. He also worked on the start-up of their credit and public equities strategies. Carmine began his career in investment banking with Citigroup Global Markets, where he was a member of the Global Health Care team.

Carmine has a BA from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is a trustee of Johns Hopkins University.

What sub-sectors of healthcare particularly interest you at the moment?

More patients need to access care at a better value – Advent thinks we can help the healthcare system with that challenge and, fortunately, there are many places to look. It starts with the premise you can’t keep asking providers to do more with less – there have to be productivity breakthroughs leveraging technology. So, we spend a lot of time in both payor and provider tech, looking for software tools we can scale that bring down administrative complexity, increase efficiency, and generate more surplus to expand patient care. Best in class outsourced service providers that can help drive efficiency through process and technology around non-core and/or highly specialized activities are another place we look for opportunities. For example, Advent has done quite a bit of investing in outsourced services to the life sciences industry, enabling them to bring products to patients faster and cheaper through research, manufacturing and commercialization support.

How important are Operating Partners and the Portfolio Support Group (PSG) to your work?

The deal team, PSG, and Operating Partners (Ops) are like members of an orchestra playing together – or perhaps a highly coordinated assembly line, where skilled craftsmen come in as needed, to contribute something critical to the ultimate achievement of the value creation plan crafted for that investment. What Advent aims to deliver is that value creation plan, and the OPs and PSG are essential. It starts during diligence: we’ll all sit in a room together and reflect on what we have learned and where we can partner with management to go faster and deliver a differentiated outcome. Once Advent has reached agreement to invest, the show begins and we’re all actively working with management to hone the vision, break it into phases and then prioritize the who/what/when/how. PSG and the Operating Partners are helping us to see around corners, sequence that work properly, and ultimately enable management to transform or accelerate growth of their business and achieve our collective value creation plan.

How do you challenge yourself to continuously improve at Advent?

I’m always looking at the scoreboards – how are Advent’s management teams and our investment team doing. If we’ve partnered with talented management, we’ve provided them whatever resources could be helpful and allowed them to invest in the necessary infrastructure, then I want to see if the score reflects the quality of the team and the effort. Did we launch the product on time, did we hit our revenue and margin targets, what is our NPS, what is employee satisfaction? Hopefully that’s reflected in the scores. Same applies to our investment team – are we building a differentiated point of view and a relationship with a management team that leads to a productive partnership that we can invest behind? If yes, then the scoreboard should indicate capital deployment and compounding. But that doesn’t always happen, and talent’s the hardest part of it and where I push myself to improve, and I want to remain in lockstep with our management teams on how we’re grading our collective progress.

“In healthcare, it comes down to more and positive patient outcomes. There’s a patient associated with every business model Advent is investing behind… there is nothing more rewarding than that.”

Carmine Petrone
Managing Director, Advent
What drives and inspires you about your work?

In healthcare, it comes down to more and positive patient outcomes. There’s a patient associated with every business model Advent is investing behind. So, if we can invest in software assets, care delivery platforms, leading outsourced service models, products and therapeutics that ultimately allow more patients to be treated because we can improve quality, access, efficiency, clinician experience – there is nothing more rewarding than that.

How do you keep yourself busy outside of work?

I love traveling with my family. I’ve got two boys and a little girl, and it’s always rewarding – and tiring – to blow off some steam with them and mom, doing outdoor activities and cooking up plans where she might ask if I’m crazy. I also spend a lot of time with nonprofits and charitable organizations focused on healthcare and education. I’m a trustee of Johns Hopkins, a leading research university and affiliated health system. World changing research goes on there, which is critical to a healthy and sustaining world, and which I wouldn’t otherwise see in my everyday life.

David Chen joined Advent in 2006 and is a Managing Director in Shanghai. He advises on investments across the consumer and industrial sectors. David originally joined Advent in Boston, and rejoined the firm in Shanghai following business school, focusing on growth and buyout opportunities in the consumer retail and education sectors in China. He leads the China consumer practice and has advised on nine investments during his career at Advent.

Prior to joining Advent, David worked at Merrill Lynch, where he advised investment bank clients on M&A and financing projects in the insurance, asset management, and brokerage industries.

David holds an MBA/MA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania/Lauder Institute and received a BS in Economics and Computer Science from Duke University.

What does having a presence in China mean for Advent?

I was very proud to bring the Advent DNA to our China office, where we have a talented team of local colleagues with deep expertise of the Greater China market. Advent has been able to combine our knowledge of local nuances with our culture of entrepreneurship and humility – along with our way of forging win-win partnerships with companies and founders. That has created the best of both worlds, and we’ve been able to share the insights we’ve learned with our global colleagues.

How do you challenge yourself to continuously improve?

For me, it’s about meeting different types of people and listening to them. When we go to a company, I don’t just want to meet the CEO, but the junior and support staff as well. There are so many stakeholders in any situation, all with their own perspectives. It’s worth interacting with people at all levels and putting yourself in their shoes: it’ll challenge your own thinking. That’s where you learn the most.

“It’s worth interacting with people at all levels and putting yourself in their shoes: it’ll challenge your own thinking.”

David Chen
Managing Director, Advent
What aspects of this job inspire and drive you?

They haven’t changed from when I joined Advent as an associate in the Boston office in 2006. Before that, I’d been an investment banker for two years, and I had the opportunity to work with Advent during that time. I saw how Advent was making a difference, not just in the corporate world, but in how companies and corporations affected the lives of everyday people. That’s what we still do, not just in any particular country, but around the world.

If you weren’t in this business, what would you be doing?

I’d love to be a professional art collector. It’s something that’s investment-related, but completely different in terms of why something is valuable. I’ve always been particularly interested in original comic art, especially the storytelling, and the way different artists can have a fresh take on the same character throughout the years. That’s what I’d be doing in another life.