Madison Dearborn Partners has partnered with John Lewis, the former Global President of Nielsen, to pursue investment opportunities in the information services sector.
“John is a successful operator with a deep understanding of what it takes to build and cultivate a strong franchise in information services,” said Scott Pasquini, a Managing Director at Madison Dearborn. “His operating expertise complements our capabilities well and we are excited to add John’s contributions to the long-term success of our information services investments.”
Nielsen (NYSE:NLSN) is a global information, data, and measurement company. In 2016 the American Marketing Association ranked Nielsen the top market research company in the United States. Nielsen operates in over 100 countries and employs approximately 44,000 people worldwide. Total revenues were $6.3 billion in 2016 and the company is headquartered in New York (www.nielsen.com).
“I’ve long admired Madison Dearborn’s approach and I am pleased to be
formally aligned with them.”
Mr. Lewis was with Nielsen from January 2006 until June 2016, most recently as the company’s Global President. During his time at the company he completed and successfully integrated more than 10 strategic acquisitions. Prior to Nielsen, Mr. Lewis was CEO of Knowledge Networks, a venture capital-backed early stage company where he succeeded the founding CEO and led its transformation into a more differentiated provider of specialized market research. Previously, he led the Consumer Products division at The NutraSweet Company. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Mr. Lewis will assist Madison Dearborn in identifying and developing businesses with differentiated capabilities in data and business analytics. “We are thrilled to be working with John as we look to secure compelling investment opportunities in this exciting sector,” said Zaid Alsikafi, a Managing Director at Madison Dearborn and co-head of the firm’s TMT Services team. “Madison Dearborn’s expertise and resources, coupled with John’s background, create a unique proposition with which to source and grow cutting-edge businesses focused on data analytics.”
“I’ve long admired Madison Dearborn’s approach and I am pleased to be formally aligned with them to help identify attractive investment opportunities in the data and business analytics sector,” said Mr. Lewis. “Madison Dearborn and I share a common conviction around the compelling opportunities this evolving field presents, as new ways of ingesting and analyzing data are developed to support the critical needs of consumer-facing businesses across a range of industry verticals.”
Madison Dearborn invests in privately held or publicly traded companies in the following sectors: financial and transaction services; business and government services; health care; basic industries; consumer; and telecom, media and technology services. In August 2016 the firm closed its seventh buyout fund at $4.4 billion. Madison Dearborn was founded in 1992 and is based in Chicago (www.mdcp.com).
© 2017 Private Equity Professional | April 19, 2017
