Gonzalo Santos joined Advent in 2015 and is a Managing Director in Madrid. He advises on investments mainly in the business & financial services, consumer, and healthcare sectors. Gonzalo has advised on eight investments during his career, two while at Advent.
Prior to joining Advent, Gonzalo spent nine years at TPG and what is now Sixth Street in London, where he oversaw Spanish coverage for both the Private Equity and the Special Situations business. Prior to that, he worked for four years in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs in London. He is a member of the Madrid Bar and practiced law briefly at Uria Menendez in their Mercantile Law team prior to starting his career in finance.
Gonzalo holds a dual degree in Business Administration and Law from ICADE in Madrid.
How does Advent identify interesting companies in your sector/sub-sector of focus?
Advent takes a very disciplined sourcing approach in our five core sectors, where we have 40 years of experience. This allows us to intimately understand a market’s challenges and opportunities.
How has working with Operating Partners and Operations Advisors helped to improve your work at Advent?
They’re very much ingrained in the Advent culture and the way we do business. Advent has three core elements to an investment: the team, the Portfolio Support Group, and the Operating Partners and Operations Advisors. These are people who have led successful companies and investments in the past. They not only help Advent source interesting opportunities, but also ensure that there is alignment of interest with management teams. They play a vital role in delivering value creation plans. I personally find that in order to develop an investment thesis and build a credible value creation plan, it is important to collaborate with Operating Partners who have intimate knowledge of a sector or the company you want to invest in.
“Advent takes a very disciplined sourcing approach in our five core sectors, where we have 40 years of experience. This allows us to intimately understand a market’s challenges and opportunities.”
Gonzalo Santos
Managing Director, Advent
What does learning and growing look like at Advent?
One of the things we have in our office is a regular feedback system. The more experienced team members meet regularly with more junior professionals. The discussion is not centered around ‘what are we doing on this project?’ but ‘how can we help you keep achieving your goals – and can we address any learning or development gaps?’ I also do regular one-on-one sessions with every single member of the team. These are not to go over the last deal, or even the next deal, but to talk about career progression, any issues in their life, work-life balance… that sort of thing. I think that’s important.
When did you decide you wanted to be in this business? Why?
Personally, coming into finance wasn’t a vocation, but a way to make the best use of my education and to satisfy my curiosity. I spent a bit of time as a lawyer, which wasn’t for me. I then went into finance, because if you have intellectual curiosity, you’ll always be learning something new; and I went into private equity because it was more interesting than banking and I had started to develop an investor mindset vs. a deal-making mindset. I discovered I liked it and it’s now close to 20 years!
What’s the best career advice you’ve received?
It’s the same advice I pass on to my team. This business works on an apprenticeship model and demands intellect, common sense, hard work, and some people skills. If you have curiosity and honesty, and you’re willing to put effort, the rest is up to you.
