1Includes H&F’s active portfolio companies as of 12/31/20. Employee growth excludes Vantage Group, a new Bermuda-based commercial property & casualty insurance carrier that launched in October 2020. Active portfolio companies exclude companies where H&F has exited >50% of H&F’s initial equity position.
2Represents the increase in number of total employees from the time of H&F’s original investment through 12/31/20 and may include inorganic growth. For investments where significant acquisitions were made (whereby the target company had revenues >50% of the acquiring company’s revenue), the target company number of employees at the time of acquisition was deducted from the total job growth. For companies that have made smaller acquisitions, no adjustments were made to employee growth figures and thus represent inorganic growth.
3Represents the % increase in total employees across all active portfolio companies from the time of H&F’s original investment through 12/31/20.
1Includes H&F’s active portfolio companies as of 12/31/20. Employee growth excludes Vantage Group, a new Bermuda-based commercial property & casualty insurance carrier that launched in October 2020. Active portfolio companies exclude companies where H&F has exited >50% of H&F’s initial equity position.
4For non-US companies, investment figures were converted to USD on an annual basis using the applicable average FX rate during the relevant year.
5Based on latest available public information as of 12/31/2020.
Investing in ESG goes hand in hand with building a growing business that will endure—a sustainable business. Long before others talked about ESG, it was embedded in H&F’s DNA to look for quality in enduring franchises and help them invest in their own continuous improvement. We invest for the long haul and care about doing business the right way.
We are deeply invested in the success of our companies and believe that people thrive when they are working toward a common and focused goal. We take a collaborative style with management focused on the long-term vision. And with a concentrated portfolio of ~30 companies5, we are able to provide appropriate attention and oversight to support our portfolio companies. As the largest investor in our most recent fund, we have significant skin in the game and strong alignment with both our companies and our investors.
5As of 12/31/2022
We make only a few investments each year, so each investment really matters. We therefore have to choose wisely. We look for high-quality, growing businesses that look to innovate and improve their products and services. To us, ESG is not a separate due diligence exercise, it is fundamental to a company’s long-term sustainability and an integral part of our investment selection.
Valuable companies aren’t created overnight. They continuously look to the future and invest to make themselves better. It may involve a more disciplined focus on product management, ramping up R&D, or capital expenditures that will improve assets and resources. It may also involve capturing a creative, innovative idea they already had, and giving them the confidence to run with it. We will often support our companies making big upfront investments because we are focused on long-term outcomes.
Enduring value. Many companies can be viable for a short time, but far fewer are long-term players that get bigger and better. They have the economic, social, and environmental wherewithal to grow while doing business the right way. These are the winners we look for, and the ones we want in our portfolio.
—Warren Hellman, H&F Founder
We prefer to share news with our partners—good or bad. It’s part of our commitment to transparency and building long-term partnerships. Almost a decade ago, we adopted the American Investment Council’s Guidelines for Responsible Investing—guidelines that apply prior to investing and during our ownership and cover environmental, health, safety, labor, governance and social issues. We engage deeply with our management teams, seek governance structures with appropriate levels of oversight, help ensure compliance, and much more.
Organizational Health—
A High-Performing Company
Diversity and Inclusion—
An Environment of Respect
Environmental Stewards—
For a Better World
Community Support—
The Right Thing to Do
Information Security and
Data Privacy—An
Offensive/Defensive Strategy
Operational Efficiency
& Excellence
Organizational Health—
A High-Performing Company
Best practices are meant to be shared and can provide valuable information to a growing company. H&F and our companies are committed to strong strategic alignment, culture, leadership, performance management, and communications for cultivating high-performing, high-growth organizations. We facilitate and support the sharing of best practices by bringing together our portfolio companies to discuss relevant functional areas or strategic topics.
Diversity and Inclusion—
An Environment of Respect
Organizations that prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion create an environment that respects and values individual differences and can improve team productivity and innovation, and lead to better solutions. As an example, H&F hosts a Women’s Leadership Summit to support senior female performers within our portfolio companies and hosts Women’s Summits at H&F for the women on our investment staff covering topics such as leadership, executive development, mentorship, best practices, diversity, and more.
Environmental Stewards—
For a Better World
We believe in the responsible use of our natural resources. As part of H&F’s investment philosophy, we take environmental risks into consideration with our rigorous investment selection. While we invest in many service-oriented businesses that are not as significant contributors of waste production or carbon emissions, we think there are growing opportunities for value-creation initiatives at our portfolio companies in the areas of energy efficiency and waste reduction. In addition, for many years, we’ve been partnering with the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps by sponsoring at least one Fellow every summer at one of our portfolio companies to tackle energy- or sustainability-related opportunities.
Community Support—
The Right Thing to Do
Our founder deeply believed in the power of people to accomplish incredible things. He used his success to improve and enrich the lives of countless people. That philosophy lives on at H&F today. We give both our time and our money to the communities in which we live and work. We are proud of the organizations that H&F has supported over the years, each led at the initiative of an engaged employee.
Information Security and
Data Privacy—An
Offensive/Defensive Strategy
We see information security and data privacy as a primary business risk driver that can serve as both an offensive and defensive pillar of sustainability. In this ever-changing landscape, industry leaders must continually adapt their security posture. To help our portfolio companies, we built a community of security leaders to share best practices, tap into a network of cyber specialists, and host an annual portfolio-wide cybersecurity conference. We also provide software advisory support and offer deep dive webinars with distinguished thought leaders in the industry.
Operational Efficiency
& Excellence
We strive to drive operational excellence, cost optimization, and the right decisions about material purchases. H&F has built a community among procurement leaders across our companies to discuss best practices, collaborate on key initiatives, and share preferred suppliers.