History

Sterling has a 25 year history of forming partnerships with talented entrepreneurs and management teams that result in world-class organizations. In 1983, four Sterling Partners (Doug Becker, Eric Becker, Chris Hoehn-Saric, and Steven Taslitz) co-founded LifeCard™, a multi-million dollar business venture that established the foundation for Sterling’s tradition of excellence. In 1985, LifeCard was acquired by Blue Cross Blue Shield, reflecting the early entrepreneurial aptitude of the Sterling founders. Today, we are one of the top middle-market private equity groups in the U.S. and abroad. Our focus is on the acquisition and management of promising small and middle-market companies in high-growth industry sectors.

Sterling’s founders have remained together since its inception. With 11 Managing Directors with an average of 18 years at the firm, Sterling continues to expand, and now has nearly 50 team members in the U.S., Latin America and Asia. Our success is driven by Sterling’s investment in operationally-focused strategy, and by our unique team of industry veterans, operators, investors, strategy experts and human capital professionals. Our proprietary methodologies, like our Business Value Accelerator (BVA) tools, enable us to continually accelerate growth for portfolio investments.

Since the beginning, Sterling has remained committed to an investment philosophy based on the belief that deep industry knowledge and specialization improves the ability to source and create transactions, to conduct effective due diligence, to develop strong relationships with management teams, and to identify potential buyers. The result is a consistent track record of successful partnerships with entrepreneurs and executives that result in high-growth organizations that yield outstanding returns.