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US private equity pioneer Bain Capital has named David Gross as its sole managing partner as part of a full succession of the leadership team at the group with $215bn in assets under management.
Gross, who was named co-managing partner of Bain Capital in 2024, will lead the firm’s partnership while John Connaughton, co-managing partner since 2016, will become the group’s chair, according to a letter the firm sent to investors on Tuesday that was obtained by the FT.
Gross, a prolific dealmaker who built up Bain Capital’s successful Asian investment operations, has for years been groomed to eventually run the private capital group. In 2024 he succeeded Jonathan Lavine, the architect of the company’s credit investment business, moving to Boston, where the privately held group is based.
Bain Capital was co-founded in the mid-1980s by Mitt Romney and a group of mostly former consultants from Bain & Co. In the late 1990s, Romney left to salvage the 2002 Winter Olympics and then run for political office, eventually becoming the governor of Massachusetts and senator from Utah.
After Romney’s departure, Bain was run by a group of partners before Lavine and Connaughton were named co-managing partners in 2016.
During their tenure, the duo consolidated Bain Capital’s disparate businesses under one brand and in recent years groomed Gross to eventually run the firm. While Connaughton will become chair of Bain Capital, Lavine, who has been co-chair since 2024, will step down from that role and become a strategic adviser as he focuses on his philanthropic activities.
Gross established Bain’s Tokyo office in 2006 and worked on several of the company’s largest and most successful deals in recent years, including the $18bn buyout of a semiconductor business from Toshiba called Kioxia that has soared to a near $60bn value on public markets.
Gross is expected to further globalise and diversify Bain Capital’s investment operations after leading the group’s push from the US into Asian markets. He plans to invest heavily in internal technological infrastructure such as AI tools, according to three people briefed on the matter.
Bain Capital has bucked a trend among many of the pioneers of the US private equity industry by remaining a closely held partnership, unlike peers such as Blackstone Group and KKR that have become publicly traded corporations.
However, the firm has rapidly expanded beyond its private equity roots, building investment operations in real estate, credit-based investments and more specialised deals focused on life sciences, venture capital and distress.
Its leadership transition comes as many of the largest and oldest private equity partnerships, including Warburg Pincus, Advent International and General Atlantic, have elevated a new generation of leaders in recent years.
“We believe effective succession should be planned years in advance, ensuring we develop our leaders, expose them to the right experiences, and provide the next generation with exciting growth opportunities,” said Bain Capital in the investor letter. “Today’s announcement reflects that approach.”
