Gemspring Capital, a Westport-headquartered private equity firm, has announced the expansion of its senior executive team with the hiring of two new executives.
Donald Gerne joins the company as managing director on the investment team. Gerne was previously a partner at the private equity firm Metalmark Capital Partners, where he focused on investments on diverse industries including business and industrial services, environmental services, healthcare, telecommunications, energy and infrastructure. Prior to that, Gerne was a private equity investor with Greenhill Capital Partners and J.W. Childs Associates.
Charles Fraas joined Gemspring as managing director and head of portfolio operations. He previously ran his own firm Allele Advisors, and earlier in his career he was chief operating officer at 1800Flowers.com and a senior manager at Deloitte Consulting.
“I am excited to welcome Don and Charlie to the team,” said Bret Wiener, managing partner of Gemspring Capital. “Don is a successful investor with a strong experience base and an entrepreneurial drive that is a great match for Gemspring. I have had the pleasure of working with Charlie as an executive adviser to Gemspring over the last three years and seen the transformational change and value creation that he has helped deliver across a range of businesses and industries. These key additions expand our execution capacity and will help us drive value at our portfolio companies.”
