History

The Sterling Group was founded in 1982 by Frank Hevrdejs and the late Gordon Cain to acquire and improve businesses through strategic and operational initiatives. Since our founding, Sterling has closed 36 platform acquisitions as well as numerous add-on acquisitions, for a total of over $8 billion in transaction value.

During the period of 1982 to 2000, Sterling made 25 platform investments, while operating without a dedicated fund. During that period the firm developed an outstanding track record of returning over 5x invested capital. Major milestones during this period included: Billy Oehmig joining in 1984; the acquisition of Cain Chemical for over $1 billion in 1987; Hunter Nelson joining in 1989, John Hawkins joining in 1992 and Gordon Cain’s retirement in 1992 at the age of 80. This period of the 80’s and 90’s was marked by both a pioneering approach and great success for Sterling in private equity.

In 2001, Sterling raised its first institutional fund with total commitments of $120 million. This fund also achieved great success with 3 of the 4 companies returning between 3x and 7.5x invested capital. Also in 2001, both Kevin Garland and Kent Wallace joined the firm.

Sterling’s second institutional fund was raised in 2005 and totaled $470 million. In that same year Gary Rosenthal rejoined Sterling. In 2008, both Greg Elliott and Luc Desjardins (Operating Partner) joined Sterling. Also, in 2008 Sterling had its first exit in Fund II by selling Hudson Products for over 6x return on investment. The 2000 to 2009 period has been one of continued success for Sterling, while developing further resources, depth and infrastructure to assure future top return performance.

Most recently, Sterling successfully raised its third institutional fund, which totaled $820 million. Sterling now manages $1.3 billion in capital and maintains the strategy of acquiring companies with significant opportunities to drive strategic and operational improvements in partnership with management.