Bain Capital co-chairman to retire
Steve Pagliuca is retiring after a 34-year career at the private-equity firm
Bain Capital co-chairman Steve Pagliuca is retiring after a 34-year career at the private-equity firm.
Mr. Pagliuca will remain a senior adviser at the firm, and will continue to be involved in the portfolio companies in which he holds a board seat, and he will be a significant investor in Bain’s funds, part of a plan put in place years ago, he said. Co-managing partners John Connaughton and Jonathan Lavine will continue to run Bain, roles they assumed in 2016.
Mr. Pagliuca joined Bain Capital in 1989, five years after it was spun off from consulting firm Bain & Co, where he started his career. He graduated from Harvard Business School and needed a summer job to pay for a doctorate in economics. “I couldn’t afford it, and saw an ad for a summer job," he recalled in an interview, of his beginnings at Bain & Co. “They asked me to come on board and stay for two, three years and they’d help me pay for my doctorate." He never ended up getting it.
The premise of Bain Capital was to use skills developed in management consulting and apply them in private-equity buyouts. Mr. Pagliuca was a founding member of Information Partners, a joint venture between Bain Capital and Dun & Bradstreet that focused on technology investments.
When he joined Bain Capital, it had around $200 million under management. It now has $160 billion in assets, and ranks as one of the biggest private-equity firms in the world.
During his three decades at Bain, Mr. Pagliuca played a key role in a number of takeovers, including the purchase of research-and-advisory firm Gartner Inc., where he remains on the board. He also helped to lead Bain’s investment in hospital chain HCA Inc., a $33 billion deal completed alongside KKR & Co. and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity in 2006. HCA Inc. is now HCA Healthcare Inc.
Other deals include Bain’s investments in Burger King, Virgin Australia and Worldpay Group PLC.
Mr. Pagliuca is transitioning his role at a time when the private-equity industry is under pressure. After a blockbuster year yielding more than $1 trillion in deal value in 2021, private-equity mergers and acquisitions activity fell sharply last year. Deals have been harder to get done as financing for large acquisitions, like Bain’s 2022 $17 billion purchase of Athenahealth Inc. alongside Hellman & Friedman LLC, becomes harder to come by as interest rates rise and banks grapple with tens of billions of dollars of buyout debt on their balance sheets.
Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., met Mr. Pagliuca during the first few weeks of classes at Harvard Business School in 1980 during pickup basketball games. The men remained friends, and their firms have worked together on deals, Mr. Dimon said. “He’s very smart and humble," Mr. Dimon said. He said Bain is the “antithesis" of how private equity is often described, and he has found the firm to be collaborative in their approach to deals.
Mr. Pagliuca has a colorful personal life. A former basketball player at Duke University, he is co-owner of the Boston Celtics basketball franchise, and is a regular fixture in the front row at the team’s games—recently hosting the Prince and Princess of Wales.
His family foundation also donated a state of art biotech lab to Harvard that has helped entrepreneurs start over 50 companies. He recently bought an Italian soccer club, Atalanta, and was part of a consortium that last year unsuccessfully bid on English Premier League team Chelsea.
Adam Silver, the current commissioner of the National Basketball Association, said he has known Mr. Pagliuca for about two decades. He said he has been helpful in media and technology matters, most recently helping the league in considering its various streaming opportunities.
Mr. Silver said he often receives late-night texts from Mr. Pagliuca with critiques and suggestions. “I can’t even imagine associating the word retirement with him," Mr. Silver said. “He’ll be busier than ever."
