Atlantic Street hires Strautberg to recruit women for portfolio company boards

Connecticut and Florida-based Atlantic Street Capital, a middle-market private equity firm, hired Susan Strautberg as governance adviser. In her new role, Strautberg will be actively involved in recruiting women for Atlantic Street’s portfolio company boards.

PRESS RELEASE

STAMFORD, CT – July 31, 2018 – Becoming the first private equity firm to launch a significant, institutional effort to recruit women for its portfolio company boards, Atlantic Street Capital (Atlantic Street) has hired Susan Stautberg, founder and former CEO and chairman of WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD), as Governance Advisor.

As CalPERS, BlackRock, and other investing giants press for greater boardroom diversity to improve company performance, Atlantic Street is making the placement of women board candidates a key priority in its investments. Women currently hold only 9.4% of senior positions in the private equity industry, and this gender imbalance extends to PE firms’ portfolio company boards – largely composed of investors.

“We at Atlantic Street are committed to bringing more women onto boards to make sure we have the best officers, directors, and advisors for the companies in which we invest,” says Andy Wilkins, Managing Partner of Atlantic Street, which targets entrepreneurial businesses poised for their next level of growth.

“An early advocate for getting women onto boards, Susan Stautberg is one of the most influential connectors between corporate boards and the best-qualified women executives,” says Atlantic Street’s Senior Operating Advisor Bryan Bevin. “She will help us recruit extremely qualified operators for our portfolio companies and lend Atlantic Street a powerful advantage in performance and the governance space.”

Stautberg taps into a global network of executives and directors drawn from decades of helping put women on board slates. Eighteen years ago, she co-founded WCD, one of the first organizations actively working to increase board diversity. From a group of women executives sitting around Stautberg’s dining room table, WCD has now grown into a community with 80 chapters on six continents. With thousands of members serving on public and large, privately-run company boards, WCD is the largest organization of women board directors in the world. Stautberg also co-founded the Belizean Grove – a high-level network of women leaders in business, government service, nonprofits, and the arts – and created OnBoard Bootcamps, a program for executives seeking board positions and for new directors joining their first boards.

“What Atlantic Street’s dedicated management team is setting out to do is a significant step forward to getting more qualified women onto private equity boards,” says Stautberg. “The best investors are looking for the best returns, and this means having the best people, period, at the top of the house. Making sure that portfolio company boards are drawing from the broadest talent pool is what will move the needle in the private equity space.”

For more information, please contact Suzanne Oaks Brownstein of Temin and Company at 212-588-8788 or news@teminandco.com.

About Atlantic Street Capital
Atlantic Street Capital is a private equity firm that invests in middle market companies with between $4 million and $12 million of EBITDA. The firm invests in fundamentally sound companies that will benefit from capital investment and value-adding strategic and operational initiatives. Atlantic Street Capital’s partners are hands-on investors who work closely with management to unlock their business’ underlying value and help them succeed. The firm is currently investing in Atlantic Street Capital III, LP. For more information, visit www.atlanticstreetcapital.com.