Gemspring Capital has added two professionals with the hirings of Donald Gerne as a managing director on its investment team and Charles Fraas as a managing director and head of portfolio operations.
Mr. Gerne has nearly twenty years of investing experience. Most recently, he was a partner at New York-based Metalmark Capital Partners where he was active with investments in business and industrial services, environmental services, healthcare, telecommunications, energy and infrastructure. Earlier in his career, Mr. Gerne was with Greenhill Capital Partners and J.W. Childs Associates.
Mr. Fraas has more than 25 years of operating experience. Since 2010 he has led Allele Advisors, a boutique advisory firm specializing in operations, profit enhancement, and restructuring/turnarounds. From 2006 to 2010 he was with 1-800-Flowers.com and served as the company’s chief operating officer for two years. Mr. Fraas’ experience includes strategic planning, post-merger integration, business process outsourcing, robotics process automation, sourcing and procurement, lean manufacturing and ERP/technology implementation.
“I am excited to welcome Don and Charlie to the team,” said Bret Wiener, managing partner of Gemspring. “Don is a successful investor with a strong experience base and an entrepreneurial drive that is a great match for Gemspring. I have had the pleasure of working with Charlie as an Executive Advisor to Gemspring over the last three years and seen the transformational change and value creation that he has helped deliver across a range of businesses and industries. These key additions expand our execution capacity and will help us drive value at our portfolio companies.”
Gemspring invests in companies that have revenues up to $350 million and are active in the business services, healthcare services, financial services, industrial services, software, and specialty manufacturing sectors. The firm, which held a final closing of its debut fund in November 2016 with $355 million of capital commitments, is based in Westport, CT (www.gemspring.com).
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | July 29, 2019
