Hugh MacArthur

Hugh MacArthur is the chairman of our global Private Equity practice. He helped found the practice over 30 years ago, and works with a variety of private equity funds and alternative asset managers, including buyout firms, infrastructure and real estate funds, private credit, and secondaries firms among others. Hugh also works with sources of capital including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, family offices, and other institutions.

Working with these investment firms, Hugh has led assignments on firm ambition, asset class strategy, geographic footprint, fund operations, organizational effectiveness, fund raising, sourcing, strategic due diligence and portfolio company improvement. He has advised funds across all geographies, and has worked on hundreds of deals in leveraged buyout, restructuring assignments and merger integration.

Hugh is quoted frequently on private equity topics and trends and the state of the industry in publications around the globe, including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Economist, Forbes, and many regional and trade publications. He appears on CNBC and Bloomberg Television, as well as on regional networks. 

Hugh is the founder of Bain’s annual Global Private Equity Report and a principal author. He is also the author of the book Lessons from Private Equity Any Company Can Use, published by Harvard Business Press in January of 2008.

Hugh is the host of Bain & Company’s Dry Powder: The Private Equity Podcast, in which he interviews leading experts on the trends and opportunities that will redefine the private equity industry. 

In addition to his role at Bain, Hugh serves as a member of the investment committee of Greater Share, an innovative philanthropic investment model harnessing the expertise of the world’s top performing private equity managers and-high impact NGOs to solve complex global challenges.

Hugh earned a master of science degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to attending MIT, he worked in consulting and in mergers and acquisitions in New York and London. Hugh is also a graduate of Dartmouth College, where he earned an AB in history.