Global private equity firm Permira announced that Brian Ruder and Dipan Patel will become co-managing Partners and co-CEOs, and Kurt Björklund will become Executive Chairman, effective September 1, 2024. And Ruder joined Permira in 2008 and now serves on Permira’s Executive Committee, chairs the Permira Growth Opportunities Investment Committee, and co-chairs the buyout funds’ Investment Committee.
Since joining, he has been instrumental in building the firm’s Technology group, which he co-led until 2023. And he has also worked on a number of the firm’s most notable transactions, such as Ancestry, Genesys, Informatica, LegalZoom, Lytx, Magento, McAfee, Relativity, Renaissance Learning, TeamViewer, and Zendesk.
Patel is the co-head of Permira’s Consumer sector team and serves on the buyout funds’ Investment Committee and Permira’s Executive Committee. And he originally started his career at Permira in 2009 in the Technology team before joining the Consumer team in 2018 and was instrumental in extending Permira’s long track record in consumer investing into the digital era. Patel has also worked on a number of transactions, including Adevinta, AllTrails, Ancestry, Axiom, Boats Group, Informatica, LegalZoom, The Knot Worldwide, Renaissance Learning, and Yogiyo.
In 2008, Kurt Björklund had become co-managing partner along with Tom Lister, who retired in 2022, before becoming the sole Managing Partner in 2021. In the last 16 years, the firm has expanded its investment focus and product suite across private equity and credit, almost tripled the size of the team, and raised eight private equity funds and more than 30 credit vehicles in aggregate, representing c.€60 billion of capital.
In March 2023, Permira had closed the latest flagship fund Permira VIII, with total capital commitments of €16.7 billion, above its hard cap of €15 billion, which represented a about a 50% increase in size compared to its predecessor Permira VII.
The fund has agreed on ten investments to date: Adevinta, Acuity, Ergomed, Gruppo Florence, GGW Group, Mimecast, Pharmacord, Reorg, Squarespace, and Zendesk. Permira Growth Opportunities, a minority-focused growth investing strategy, closed its latest fund in 2021 with total capital commitments of $4 billion and has since made 11 investments, including AllTrails, AltamarCAM, BioCatch, GoCardless, and Housecall Pro.
Permira Credit is one of Europe’s leading specialist credit investors. It supports businesses with flexible financing solutions across Direct Lending, Strategic Opportunities, CLO Management, and Structured Credit. The firm advises investment funds and products that have provided approximately €20 billion of debt capital to over 300 European businesses.
KEY QUOTES:
“Dipan and Brian have been strong leaders and vital contributors to Permira’s strategy, culture and investing track record for over 15 years. They embody the Permira values of partnership, creativity and integrity and have collectively worked on 22 investments across Permira’s sectors, representing c.€17.5 billion of capital, including LP co-investment. Appointing Brian and Dipan as co-Managing Partners begins the next chapter in our long history of successfully evolving our leadership and reflects our commitment to careful stewardship of the firm. I am excited to remain actively involved as Executive Chairman and work closely with them as we continue to grow the firm and drive performance for the benefit of our investors and our team.”
- Kurt Björklund
“It is a privilege to be the next leaders of Permira, a firm that has been shaped by the thoughtful guidance of Kurt and the Managing Partners before him. Permira’s strategy is to generate enduring investment returns through backing and building exceptional businesses. Along with Kurt, our partners and colleagues across our global office footprint, we are excited to write our firm’s next chapter.”
- Brian Ruder and Dipan Patel
