Mergers & Acquisitions names the 2021 Rising Stars of Private Equity, including Apax Partners’ Forrest Wilkinson.

Creative Problem Solver
It’s been “an extraordinarily busy year” for Wilkinson, said Apax Partners equity partner Ashish Karandikar. Wilkinson served as lead principal on the firm’s recent investment in PIB Group, a U.K. corporate insurance broker; and he led the sale process around Quality Carriers, which has agreed to be acquired by CSX Corp. “Forrest is a creative problem solver who thrives in situations that require decisions to be made with limited data,” Karandikar said. “He has great business judgment and has proven himself to be adept at calibrating business quality and thesis feasibility rapidly.”

“The biggest challenge to dealmaking this year has been in managing comprehensive due diligence processes without the ability to complete on-the-ground work,” Wilkinson told Mergers & Acquisitions. This was highlighted during the diligence work for PIB Group. “My Apax colleagues and I were spread across five different time zones in the U.S. and Europe, and we did not have the ability to build an in-person relationship with the management team that was addressing our requests for data and follow-ups. However, what we lacked in in-person sessions, we made up with an increased cadence of video meetings, incredible time flexibility, and as many casual team-building conversations as can be managed over Zoom. We completed our diligence over an accelerated timeline and were ultimately successful in adding another great asset to Apax’s portfolio.”

Wilkinson has championed environmental, social and governance issues and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives both within Apax and with its portfolio companies. On the portfolio front, one example is Tosca, a provider of packaging to grocery markets. Since investing in Tosca in 2017, Apax has been backing the company’s goal of converting an increasing share of the grocery supply chain from one-way packaging, such as corrugated boxes, to reusable plastic containers. More recently, Tosca’s management has deployed additional Apax capital to forward that mission as the company expands in the U.S. and Europe.

LGBTQ Dealmakers Thrive
Wilkinson co-founded and helped lead Apax Thrive, the firm’s first support group for the LGBTQ community: “The group is actively working towards attracting and retaining LGBTQ employees at Apax, while also supporting those individuals in building that network across the private equity industry.”