Bain Capital has promoted one of its top dealmakers in Asia to co-managing partner, the highest position at the asset manager, as the broader buyout industry grapples with succession planning.
According to a letter to clients seen by the Financial Times, the $180bn investment shop co-founded by US Senator Mitt Romney has promoted David Gross to lead the business alongside John Connaughton.
Gross, 53, will start as co-managing partner on April 1, succeeding Jonathan Lavine.
The appointment comes as some of the pioneers of the $4tn private equity industry plot succession plans beyond their founders, or even second and third generations of leadership.
In recent years, Warburg Pincus, General Atlantic and Silver Lake have all promoted new top leaders.
Gross’s promotion also underscores the importance of Bain’s franchise in Asia to its overall business, where it has built a powerhouse private equity team. Last year, it closed its flagship Asia V buyout fund after raising $7.1bn, eclipsing its targets.
Gross established Bain’s Tokyo office in 2006 and worked on several of the company’s “most successful deals”, the letter said. He led Bain’s $18bn buyout of Toshiba’s prized memory chip business in 2018 and was central to its takeover of Japanese materials group Hitachi Metals.
Gross also was crucial to Bain’s bid for Toshiba , a $14bn investment it ultimately lost out on to Japan Industrial Partners.
Bain said Lavine, 57, would become chair of the group. Lavine joined Bain in 1993, leading its credit investment business before being named co-managing partner in 2016.
The company said Lavine, a large donor to the Democratic party and the former chair of Columbia University’s board of trustees, “believes the time is right to take on a new role” and step back from day-to-day leadership.
“We plan for these transitions years in advance to provide opportunities to our next generation of leaders before they assume their new roles,” Bain said.
Bain remains one of the largest privately held US alternative asset managers, with many of the private equity rivals it grew up alongside having gone public in recent years.
Last year, Warburg Pincus appointed dealmaker Jeffrey Perlman as its president, replacing former Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner.
Perlman is expected to eventually replace current chief executive Chip Kaye as Warburg’s leader in the coming years.
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In September, General Atlantic also promoted two top dealmakers, Martín Escobari and Gabriel Caillaux, to top leadership roles below chief executive Bill Ford.
Boston-based Bain Capital was co-founded in the mid-1980s by Romney and a group of mostly former consultants from Bain & Co. In the late 1990s, Romney left to salvage the 2002 Winter Olympics and then run for political office.
Since 2016, Lavine and Connaughton, 58, have been co-managing partners of the group, overseeing its day-to-day operations.
Bain on Wednesday also named Chris Gordon and Robin Marshall as the heads of its global private equity business. Gordon is one of the leaders of its North American PE unit, while Marshall is co-head of its European buyout business.