Genstar dealmaker Golde to transition into portfolio company role

A longtime dealmaker at Genstar Capital, David Golde, is moving into an advisory role helping manage out existing portfolio companies, and will eventually leave the firm, sources told Buyouts.

The move has been planned and is not a surprise to limited partners, sources said. Golde, a managing director, will not be part of the firm’s next flagship fund, which is in the market targeting $11 billion, sources said. Buyouts reported on the fundraising in January.

The firm has communicated with potential LPs as it markets the new fund, sources said. It’s not clear why Golde is moving out of day-to-day dealmaking. He was not part of a group of three managing directors who were named managing partners recently: Rob Rutledge, Tony Salewski and Eli Weiss.

Another dealmaker, Ben Marshall, was promoted to managing director this month, according to a statement from the firm.

Golde joined Genstar in 2006 as an associate, and rejoined in 2010 after getting his MBA. Deals for which he sits on the board include Advarra, Alera Group, Brook + Whittle, Signant Health, Tecomet and Tekni-Plex, according to Genstar’s website.

Golde is transitioning out of daily dealmaking as Genstar pursues its largest fund target to date. Fund XI comes nearly two years after the firm closed its 10th flagship pool on $10.2 billion, beating its $8 billion original target.

Genstar targets control, growth-oriented investments into mid-market companies across four industries: financial services, healthcare, industrials and software. The firm looks for companies with annual Ebitda of $25 million to $100 million and enterprise values of $250 million to $1.5 billion, the firm’s Form ADV said.

The firm is considered one of the stronger performing firms in PE, and likely will not have trouble hitting its target, according to a limited partner who knows the firm. Genstar, as of September 2022, was earning a net IRR of 34.6 percent across its five prior flagship funds, according to documents from Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana.

Genstar was established in 1988 by Angus MacNaughton, Richard Paterson, Ross Turner and John West. It was named after a building materials and financial services company previously run by the founders.

Today, the firm is led by five managing partners: president Ryan Clark, chairman Jean-Pierre Conte as well as Rutledge, Salewski and Weiss. Clark, who joined in 2004 from Hellman & Friedman, was appointed to the top job in 2015. The five are also the principal owners of the management company, according to Genstar’s Form ADV.

Clark, Conte, Rutledge, Salewski and Weiss oversee a team of more than 40, roughly half of them investment professionals, according to TRSL documents. Genstar currently manages about $35 billion of assets.