Vestar bolsters resources team

Like many private equity firms that take pride in their stables of operating partners, Vestar Capital Partners touts this model as one of its strengths. The New York-based middle market buyout and growth capital firm is now banking on a recent operating partner hire, Chris Durbin, to strengthen its financial services industry vertical. Durbin recently joined the firm as a principal of Vestar Resources, Vestar’s team of senior advisors and operating and strategic professionals who serve as on-call resources for management teams of Vestar’s portfolio companies. He was most recently a managing director in the global wealth and investment management business at Bank of America, responsible for business strategy and growth initiatives for the $7 billion unit. “In our resources team we have people with strong backgrounds in consumer products, retail, media, manufacturing, supply chain, logistics and marketing. Functionally and industry wise, we have a lot of skills, but we did not have someone with Chris’s depth in financial services and his strategic and operational experience in that area. We found that very attractive,” says Kevin Mundt, managing director and leader of Vestar Resources. Durbin, who will become the fifth full-time team member of Vestar Resources and the first with in-house banking experience, expects to contribute his strategic and operational skills to help the firm explore opportunities and work with management teams after an investment is made. Vestar Resources firm has eight other senior advisors. “I am reconnecting with some individuals and the company I had done work with in the past,” says Durbin, of his joining Vestar. “This role is the natural extension of work I had done in the past 20 years of my career.” Durbin will be based in Boston. Before Bank of America, Durbin was a vice president at Mercer Management Consulting, where he advised several Fortune 500 and start up companies on operating, investing and business strategies; a manager at Corporate Decisions; and managed forensic accounting assignments at Peterson Consulting. Durbin in particular is expected to work closely with the financial services industry vertical. The firm, which was founded in 1988 by seven members of First Boston’s buyout team, has made six investments in the financial services industry to date: Duff & Phelps, an investment banking and financial advisory firm, and six insurance companies.