Dry Powder: The Private Equity Podcast
Back in the nineties, when private equity was very much a cottage industry founded by entrepreneurs, there wasn’t much thought given to leadership transitions.
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“There frankly wasn't a lot of precedent for how to turn over a private equity firm to a next generational leadership,” says Brian Regan, head of the Healthcare Group at Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS).
Welsh Carson has now gone through three leadership transitions in its 45-year history, and not only do they have hard-won insights from those experiences, but they also have a surprisingly developed playbook for leadership succession.
“We were really fortunate that 20 years ago, when the founders took a step back, they thought of Welsh Carson as a separate entity from themselves,” says Michael Donovan, head of the Technology Group at WCAS, “and what I mean by that is, they cared very deeply about the success of Welsh Carson long after they'd retired.”
Today on Dry Powder, I'll ask Mike and Brian how Welsh Carson thinks about succession planning. We'll see how they evaluate and foster next-generation talent at the firm, and how they extend those principles to their wider ecosystem of partners and advisors.
The Private Equity Podcast
In our podcast series, Bain's Hugh MacArthur interviews leading experts on the trends and opportunities that will redefine the private equity industry.
First published in août 2023