Super Bowl Special: The Private Equity All-Pro Team
- Mike Lucas for Dow Jones
Selling cars, opening restaurants, analyzing games. Or, lining up a syndicate of banks to finance an LBO or conducting due diligence on a venture investment.
While the prior three get more press, the latter two turn out to be not unusual next steps for pro athletes. We took the opportunity of the upcoming Super Bowl XLIV in Miami to investigate, and found a disproportionate number of ex-National Football League players filling out the PE ranks, compared with alumni of the other three major leagues: baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League.
Within the NFL subset, one team dominates: the San Francisco 49ers. Steve Young, Ronnie Lott, Harris Barton, Joe Montana, Brent Jones, Thomas Vardell, Milt McColl and others all walked the sidelines at the former Candlestick Park before walking the beat of buyouts, venture capital and fund investing.
Young, the hall of fame quarterback, now a managing director with Huntsman Gay Global Capital, said the proximity to Silicon Valley plays a major role.
“(Fund-of-funds Northgate Capital Group LLC) and HRJ (Capital, formerly Champion Ventures, now part of Capital Dynamics) – they’re forged out of relationships out of Sand Hill Road,” Young said.
But Young also hinted at another factor – the intellectual acumen required to run the West Coast offense popularized by Young’s one-time coach.
“Bill Walsh attracted a certain kind of player,” Young said.
Young also said he was considering life after football long before he walked off the field for the last time. Young finished up his law degree at Brigham Young University prior to leading the Niners to a championship in 1995. He recalled team owner Eddie DeBartolo encouraging undergrads on the team to finish degrees. Young was also mentored by Riordan Lewis & Haden Managing Partner Pat Haden, himself a former quarterback.
Gary Fencik, a partner with Adams Street Partners and formerly an all-pro safety with the Chicago Bears, says he followed a similar path. Leading up to starting games on the 15-1, Super Bowl Shuffling Bears of 1985, Fencik, a Yale grad, was taking night classes, working towards his MBA.
It started after a 1979 season marred by injuries. After blowing out his knee in a game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Fencik received some advice from then Bell & Howell Co. executive Bob Huff on heading to business school.
“It gave me a lot of confidence coming out of football that I would have a tool kit to make good decisions,” Fencik said.
In meetings with clients or business partners now, Fencik said football is the great equalizer, pointing out, jokingly, “people are surprised I am not bigger than I am.”
While not endorsing either the individual’s investing acumen or their football skills, here’s our Private Equity All Pro Team.
- Steve Young
Quarterback: Steve Young, managing director, Huntsman Gay Global Capital; Pat Haden, managing partner, Riordan Lewis & Haden
Running Back: Thomas Vardell, managing director, Northgate Capital
Tight End: Brent Jones, managing director, Northgate Capital
Offensive Line: Harris Barton, managing director, Capital Dynamics
Kicker: Billy Cundiff, associate, Pacific Southwest Ventures; Daniel Villanueva, partner, Rustin Canyon/Fontis Partners LP
Defensive Line: Jim Flanigan, managing director, Granite Hall Partners
Linebacker: Milt McColl, venture partner, New Leaf Ventures
- Gary Fencik
Defensive Back: Gary Fencik, partner, Adams Street Partners; Patrick Eilers, managing director, Madison Dearborn Partners
Other NFL/PE players (some now out of the business): Ronnie Lott, Joe Montana, Steve Bono, Mark Harris, Drew Bledsoe, Greg Baty, Courtney Hall
Other sports:
NHL: Mike Richter, partner, Environmental Capital Partners
NBA: David Robinson, co-founder, Admiral Capital Group; Earl “Butch” Graves, managing partner, Black Enterprise/Greenwich Street Growth Partners; John Hummer, managing director, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
