Fundraising

Senior changes at Rutland

The UK mid-market private equity firm has announced changes to its senior management team, with Chris Dowling stepping down as managing partner.

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Rutland Partners, the UK mid-market turnaround investor, said in a statement that Chris Dowling has decided to “reduce his time commitment to Rutland’s future fund activities in order to develop a range of external interests”.

A spokesperson for Rutland declined to comment on the nature of the “interests”, and Dowling could not be contacted for comment on the matter.      

Although Dowling “will remain directly involved in certain…existing investments” he is relinquishing his role of managing partner at the firm. Rutland has opted to promote two of its existing partners – Nick Morrill and Paul Cartwright – to the role of managing partner.

Nick Morrill, managing partner, Rutland Partners

Morrill and Cartwright will report to chairman Michael Langdon, who founded the firm with Dowling in 1986. Morrill joined as a partner the following year from the corporate finance department of Barclays Merchant Bank, with Cartwright joining in 1988 from Arthur Andersen. The Rutland team also includes partners Mike Harris and Jon Brooks.

Rutland Partners manages The Rutland Fund, a £210 million capital pool which closed in March 2001, and from which £137 million has so far been put to work. The firm typically invests between £10 million and £40 million in companies facing what it calls “strategic challenges”, including under-performance, the need for restructuring or a period of change.

The firm’s most recent investment came in March, when it backed the £9 million buyout of Advantage Healthcare Group, a collection of UK healthcare staffing businesses formerly owned by BUPA.