Chris Pike joined Advent in 1997 and is a Special Partner in Boston. He advises on investments in the business & financial services and healthcare sectors. Chris has advised on 21 investments during his career at Advent.
Prior to joining Advent, Chris spent five years at Coopers & Lybrand in the business assurance and financial advisory services groups, providing M&A advisory services to clients in the financial, manufacturing, and business services industries.
Chris received a BA in Economics and Spanish from Amherst College.
How do you identify the companies that would interest Advent?
Advent focuses on companies where our resources can drive change beyond what the company could otherwise achieve over five to seven years. The Investment Committee will always push the teams on why we should own the company, and the key tenets of the proposed value creation plan. We have to believe we have a thesis to make the company bigger and better.
How does Advent’s collaborative culture benefit the firm?
I think we’re better integrated and more collaborative than most global private equity firms. We work together across geographies, because we’ve organized our teams around five sectors, and those sector teams span the world. Because of the constant collaboration, we all know what’s going on and we’ll always help partners and deal teams in other parts of the world to get an investment done.
“There are no right answers, per se. Making investment decisions is an art, not a science.”
Chris Pike
Special Partner, Advent
What advice would you give to someone joining the firm?
Do what’s best for the firm, versus what you think is good for you. That means going out, looking for new investments, and then helping the Investment Committee have a good discussion about the opportunities and challenges for the business. Don’t get hung up on getting your own deals done. We’re a competitive group, but you have to be a team player and trust the investment process. It requires patience, and sometimes that can be hard; but that’s true north for us.
What continues to inspire you about working in this industry?
Every investment is a snowflake – one of a kind – so the job never gets old. Yes, pattern recognition comes with experience, and as I’ve gotten older and seen more, it provides a useful lens to apply to new deals. But there are no right answers, per se. Making investment decisions is an art, not a science. Artificial intelligence can’t figure these things out. It’s about judgment, and embracing the challenges.
What were your career aspirations when you were growing up?
I had an early interest in business without knowing much about it. I wrote something in sixth grade saying I wanted to be a businessman like my dad, who was a salesman at Kodak. I didn’t really understand what he did, but I perceived him to be in business. I grew up outside of Manhattan, and thought I’d just be able to take the train and do something on Wall Street. It turned out I couldn’t get a job like that after college, so I wound up in Boston doing accounting. That proved fortunate: I joined Advent after four-and-a-half years in accounting, and I’m incredibly privileged to have been here for the rest of my career.
