General Atlantic Partners new recruit

International private equity firm General Atlantic Partners has announced that Erik Engstrom, will join the firm as partner with effect from March 19. Engstrom is currently president and chief operating officer of Random House, a division of Bertelsmann AG.

Engstrom joined the former Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group in 1991 as vice president, corporate development. He went on to hold various positions in the company including chief financial officer and chief operating officer. He was named president in 1996 and chief executive officer of Bantam Doubleday Dell North America in early 1998. He was also closely involved in Bertelsmann’s acquisition of Random house, Inc from advance Publications in 1998. Latterly, Engstrom became president and chief operating officer of the new Random House, which resulted from the merger with Bantam Doubleday Dell, and oversaw the successful merger integration programme.

In his new role, Engstrom will be based in General Atlantic’s Greenwich, Connecticut office and will have broad investment prospecting and portfolio responsibilities. While his work will be global in scope, he is expected to focus primarily on investments in the US and Europe and in particular in Scandinavia. The firm now has 16 partners and more than 100 employees in the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America.