Building Companies and Re-building Lives with Private Equity Impresario Bryan Cressey

Have you ever wondered how the world of private equity and venture capital works? What are the ways to get started, how do you know what companies hold promise, how do you build and manage your own company and hold high standards and provide high performance results, year after year?

In this episode, Bryan Cressey, Partner and Founder of the health service private equity firm Cressey & Company discusses he his firm has invested in 13 companies with a valuation of about $2 billion. Bryan is one of the most authentic people I know. In this episode he discusses how he balances family, humanitarian work, athletics, writing, travel, and even acting with building and running one of the most successful boutique private equity firms in the country, as well as a nascent venture capital firm with former Senator William Frist, MD.  

Which should be no surprise, as he holds two post-graduate degrees from Harvard—one in Law and the other in business. Bryan is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at Harvard Law School and he Chairs the Harvard Law School Leadership Council of Chicago. He serves on more boards than I can count.  

His work and accomplishments have been recognized by Forbes and Time magazines, he’s a well-deserved member of the Chicago Business Hall of Fame, as well as member of the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, he is a Stanley C. Golder Medal award winner from the Illinois Venture Capital Association, and perhaps most notably, he is a recipient of the Healthcare Lifetime Achievement award from HCPEA.

Bryan is a robust exemplar of truly living his life in full. I think you’ll learn a great deal in this inspiring and information-packed episode.