WESTPORT, CT (July 25, 2019) – Gemspring Capital, a middle-market private equity firm, announced two senior hires. Donald Gerne joined as a Managing Director on the investment team and Charles Fraas joined as a Managing Director and Head of Portfolio Operations.

Don brings nearly two decades of investing experience to Gemspring, most recently as a Partner at Metalmark Capital Partners, a private equity firm currently investing $2.5 billion through its latest fund. At Metalmark, Don focused on investments across a broad range of industries, including business and industrial services, environmental services, healthcare, telecommunications, energy and infrastructure. Earlier in his career, Don was a private equity investor with Greenhill Capital Partners and J.W. Childs Associates.

Charlie brings over 25 years of operating experience to Gemspring. Most recently, Charlie led a boutique advisory firm focused on operational transformation, profit enhancement, and restructuring / turnaround engagements. Over the course of his career, Charlie has worked with over 50 clients and executed projects across the strategic and operational spectrum including: strategic planning, post-merger integration, BPO / shared service adoption, robotics process automation, sourcing and procurement, supply chain network, lean manufacturing and ERP / technology implementation. Charlie began his career in consulting at Arthur Andersen and Deloitte Consulting before joining 1800flowers.com and eventually serving as COO before starting his boutique advisory firm.

Bret Wiener, Managing Partner of Gemspring Capital, commented: “I am excited to welcome Don and Charlie to the team. 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 Advisor 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.”

About Gemspring Capital

Gemspring Capital, a Westport, Connecticut-based private equity firm with $355 million of equity capital under management, focuses on making control and structured equity investments in lower middle market companies headquartered in the United States and Canada. Gemspring partners with talented management teams and takes a hands-on approach to driving revenue growth and value creation. Target companies have up to $350 million in revenue and are in the business services, healthcare services, industrial services, software and tech-enabled services or specialty manufacturing sectors. For more information, visit www.gemspring.com.