Based in New York City, Grant Avenue Capital invests in the healthcare sector. The private equity firm was founded in 2019, and is led by Buddy Gumina, who was previously senior equity partner of the global healthcare team at Apax Partners.

How has your firm adjusted its workplace environment and policies in a post-pandemic world?

When the pandemic hit, it was early days for Grant Avenue. We had just completed our first transaction in January 2020. Looking back, it was an advantage of sorts to be starting out because we didn’t need to “fix” our policies in a post-pandemic workplace. Rather, we leaned into building a flexible, inclusive workplace from the get go – a culture that caters to employees’ needs.

Even before the pandemic, our goal was to establish an organization where employees felt mentored, like they had an impact, like they were heard (they are heard), and had ownership (because they do, quite literally, as partners in the business). We wanted employees to know their fingerprints were on the foundation of the firm.

Post-pandemic, we leaned into this even more by developing ways to make remote/hybrid work a positive. We enjoy collaborating in the office. In fact, we were all back as soon as we could be safely post vaccination in 2021, even trying to schedule vaccine appointments for one another.

But we also want people to enjoy time with their families and friends. We have promoted work-life balance through “work from anywhere summers and holidays” and encourage employees to block time on their calendars for important personal or non-profit related events.

Have you changed any policies toward in-person, virtual and hybrid work arrangements?

As noted, while starting our business during a pandemic was certainly not the scenario for which we had planned, we believe we benefited from being able to retrofit our workplace policies and culture based upon the cards we were dealt in 2020.

When the pandemic hit, we were at a point in our firm’s evolution where if you wanted to go see a family member and work remotely from that location, there was never a question about it. No one questioned whether you would be productive, and that’s because all our employees have skin in the game.

We are all professional, but we all also like what we do and have fun. We all recognize that it’s important to the entire team that everyone put in the work and value what’s getting done. We leaned into this even more in a post-pandemic world.

For the full list of 2022 PE Workplace Pioneers, see here.