Chuck Esserman
CEO / Founder, Senior Managing Director
Biography
Chuck has 40 years of private equity investment experience and is a founding partner of TSG Consumer. Together with the partners of TSG, he built one of the first private equity firms focused exclusively on the consumer sector. Chuck oversees current and prospective investments and serves as Chair of the Investment Committee.
Prior to founding TSG Consumer, Chuck was at Bain & Company, a leading global management consulting firm. He has also served on the Board of Advisors of Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Board of Trust of Vanderbilt University.
Education
Chuck holds a degree in Computer Science Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he graduated with top honors, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Q&A
The idea of a consumer-focused private fund was novel in 1986 when I started TSG, yet it made perfect sense to me to build a firm that had the skills and experience to bring a lot more than capital to the table.
The idea of building a firm with a gender balance across all levels of the organization also made perfect sense to me based upon the varied perspectives of the team (and the fact that women make many of the buying decisions for our companies and products).
I enjoy working with exceptionally smart, exceptionally creative, and exceptionally driven teams. I have my family and my work and I love both as well as the many professional and personal relationships that have been created through TSG.
Our culture is based upon applying the golden rule in every relationship. That needs to be the basis for any real partnership, internally and externally, and it is fundamental to building trust. We are very focused on working with entrepreneurs and teams that share these same values.
We invest in brands that have a clear purpose and values, which results in both meaning and authenticity for their consumers. Planet Fitness and EoS Fitness, for example, share an exceptional value proposition: high-quality facilities at an affordable price point, in an environment where members feel welcomed. Both brands are successful because they deliver on something the health club industry does not.