Marco Mendes joined Advent in 2013 and is a Managing Director in Boston. He leads the Portfolio Support Group. Marco has worked with more than 40 private equity portfolio companies during his career, 25 while at Advent.
Prior to joining Advent, Marco spent seven years with Doughty Hanson, based in London, as an investment committee partner. Before his private equity career, he worked for 10 years in strategy consulting and executive positions in consumer goods, banking, and telecoms, with responsibilities that included business development, marketing, sales, and strategy.
Marco has a BS in Business Administration and a master’s degree in Marketing, both from Universidade Católica Portuguesa, as well as an MBA from IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland.
What would you like management teams to say about working with Advent?
I’d like our management teams to say the Portfolio Support Group acts as an extension of their own team, works hard alongside them, and helps them to perform better. We achieve this by leveraging the best practices our team members have accumulated through the years and also by leveraging the Advent ecosystem of curated resources. I would hope that by working together, we support their companies in becoming more resilient and help them perform at a higher level.
How has the Portfolio Support Group evolved over recent years?
Advent has always been operationally focused but it has become increasingly important to prioritize operational improvements in our companies – and that’s the Portfolio Support Group’s focus. Over the past five years, we’ve started to provide more specialized support, based on the five sectors in which Advent operates. That has led to more effective teamwork, stronger playbook development, and better curation of the resources specific to each sector. We’ve also launched two new capabilities. One is a human capital team, looking after talent acquisition, development opportunities, and succession planning. The second is our digital teams, making sure businesses are future proof through best practices in e-commerce, cyber security, data science, artificial intelligence, and other initiatives.
“I’d like our management teams to say the Portfolio Support Group acted as an extension of their own team, worked hard alongside them, and helped them to perform better.”
Marco Mendes
Managing Director, Advent
How do you maintain a culture of continuous improvement?
We’re constantly tracking everything we do. We measure the financial output of all our initiatives and have sessions where we evaluate every project. We also connect frequently with our stakeholders to collect their feedback. I speak with all of our North American CEOs at least twice a year to hear their perspective, and I spend a lot of time talking with internal stakeholders, understanding their views on performance. In addition, we have portfolio reviews as part of our Investment Committee meetings where we discuss all of our companies. These multiple touch points let us fine tune each project to ensure we’re best supporting our portfolio companies.
What aspects of your job keep you inspired and engaged?
This job is never boring. I’ve had a varied career at Advent – I joined in Latin America, where I hired the team and set up the operating model, initially covering the whole region from São Paulo. Then, five years ago, I was invited to lead the team in North America. I love the fact you never face the same challenge twice: every investment we make has different elements, and we’re always working with different management teams and industries. I’m very passionate about the teams we build and the people we hire.
What keeps you busy outside work?
I spend a lot of time with my family and my four dogs, and we do a lot of traveling. I also support several nonprofits – giving back and helping people who are disadvantaged is extremely important to me. I’m involved in nonprofits that support children and teenagers, both by sponsoring scholarships and through volunteering. It’s something I used to do in Brazil and have kept up in Boston with organizations such as Cradles to Crayons.
