Bain Capital’s Andrew Balson Starts New Private Equity Fund

BrokerDealer.com/blog update courtesy of extracts from today’s NYT DealBook

Andrew B. Balson, a longtime managing director at the Boston-based private equity firm Bain Capital, has left to start a new investment fund.

Mr. Balson, a 17-year veteran of Bain Capital, has hired his first employee, Lara Fox Moskowitz, who works in investor relations at the private equity firm General Atlantic, Ms. Moskowitz confirmed on Tuesday. She will be in charge of operations and strategy. The new fund, which will be based in Boston, does not yet have a name.

Bain Capital notified its investors of Mr. Balson’s departure last December, according to a person briefed on the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly about it. The move was not publicly reported at the time.

Mr. Balson, 47, joined Bain Capital in 1996 and was promoted to managing director in 2000, according to a biography that until recently was on the private equity firm’s website. He focused on investments in technology, media and telecommunications, as well as in the consumer, retail and dining businesses. Before Bain Capital, he worked at Bain & Company, the management consulting firm from which Bain Capital was created.

His new fund is expected to make private equity-style investments with a longer time frame. Private equity firms tend to hold investments for three to five years, but Mr. Balson’s fund intends to buy companies or equity stakes and hold them for 10 years or more.

The departure of Mr. Balson came as Bain Capital began investing a new private equity fund, which it finished raising in April. In general, the establishment of a new fund is a fresh chapter for a private equity firm and can give senior executives an opportunity to depart. Another longtime Bain executive, Mark Nunnelly, also retired this year.

The full article can be found at NYT DealBook.