A Chicago investment firm with ties to Barack Obama has hired former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick from Bain Capital as a senior adviser.
Patrick, 67, is joining Vistria Group, an $11 billion impact investment firm cofounded by Marty Nesbitt, treasurer for Obama’s presidential campaigns, according to a statement on Friday. He comes from Bain, the private equity firm cofounded by fellow ex-Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Nesbitt — a close ally of Obama who also serves as chairman of the former president’s foundation — started Vistria in 2013 with Kip Kirkpatrick, who also cofounded One Equity Partners. The Chicago firm has grown to include health care, education, and financial services and last year launched a housing fund.
“Governor Patrick shares our strong conviction that private capital is an essential lever to help build a thriving economy and society,” Nesbitt said in the statement. “Our focus has been building value in sectors that are at the intersection of the public and private sectors.”
The appointment comes just over a year after Vistria sold a stake to Bennett Goodman’s Hunter Point Capital and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ. At the time, the company said it would use the proceeds to expand its business.
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Patrick, who grew up on the south side of Chicago before moving to Boston as an eighth-grader, also has ties to Obama, who encouraged him to consider running for president in 2020. He joined Bain in 2015 to oversee a social impact fund after his terms as governor.
At Vistria, he will act across fund-raising, deal sources, and portfolio performance. “Like the founders, I believe that private capital should be the engine for innovation and prosperity,” Patrick said in the statement.
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The Harvard graduate also serves as the co-director of the university’s Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership — a position he plans to step down from in July. He will remain on the Kennedy School’s faculty.