Colm Lanigan

Worth knowing

He invests permanent capital in control positions and then stays, taking board seats at the companies he buys, from fire and life safety services to oral surgery platforms bought out of other sponsors' hands. He has also run a company himself, buying a manufacturer, rebuilding it as a supplier to semiconductor and aerospace OEMs and selling it to a NYSE-listed buyer.

Story

Colm took two degrees at the University of Toronto, molecular biology and then law, and began his career as an associate at McCarthy Tétrault. He left law for capital markets, advising the International Monetary Fund on debt market development in Asia, then spent four years in leveraged finance at Credit Suisse First Boston before moving into private equity at Caxton-Iseman. In 2005 he founded Tara Capital in New York and, rather than staying on the investor's side, became CEO of the platform company he bought. He later spent seven years building the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority's direct investing business, arriving in 2012 to a newly created role with a principal investments mandate of up to $50 billion.

Highlights

• Co-founder, Global Head and CIO, BlackRock Long Term Private Capital (2019)
• Board member, Authentic Brands Group, Summit Companies, Paradigm Oral Health and Outcomes
• Head of Private Equities, Americas, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (2017-2019)
• Founder of Tara Capital; sold Tara Technologies to EnPro Industries (NYSE: NPO), 2011
• Independent Director, ConforMIS, Inc. (2013-2017)