Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Northern European private equity firm FSN Capital Partners is undergoing a leadership change as founder and current managing partner Frode Strand-Nielsen hands over the reins to Robin Muerer (pictured right) and Ulrik Smith (pictured left) at the beginning of 2022. Morten Welo will continue in his role as Chief Operating Officer to round out the new leadership team.
Robin Muerer in Munich and Ulrik Smith in Oslo will serve as Co-Managing Partners of FSN Capital effective January 1, 2022, with founder Frode Strand-Nielsen stepping into his new role as Chairman of FSN Capital. “I am confident that Robin and Ulrik, with their energy, enthusiasm, and strategic vision, will add a fresh pair of eyes to the future of the firm when they assume their roles as Co-Managing Partners on January 1 next year,” Frode Strand-Nielsen, who co-founded FSN Capital in 1999, writes in a letter. “This transition will be the first of many, fulfilling the constitution we drafted in 1999 and that has guided FSN Capital through the past two decades.”
FSN Capital was established by Frode Strand-Nielsen alongside Cato A. Holmsen, who retired in 2010. Initially based out of Oslo, the firm expanded with offices in Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Munich. The private equity firm has around 70 employees, advising the FSN Capital Funds that oversee a combined €3.5 billion in assets under management and a portfolio of 22 companies.
“I am confident that Robin and Ulrik, with their energy, enthusiasm, and strategic vision, will add a fresh pair of eyes to the future of the firm when they assume their roles as Co-Managing Partners on January 1 next year.”
Having joined FSN Capital as an Associate in 2005, Ulrik Smith currently serves as a Partner in the Oslo office, while Robin Muerer joined the private equity firm in 2018 and serves as a Partner in the Munich office and Head of the DACH Region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland). “Over the past 20 years Frode has built one of the fastest growing and most successful private equity firms in Europe. The firm’s success has always been based on our unique culture of integrity, teamwork, and growth mindset,” commented Ulrik Smith and Robin Muerer. “Together, we will continue to work with the partner group and the entire team at FSN Capital to build and invest in this foundation and the FSN platform over the years to come, for the benefit of our investors, our portfolio companies and our employees.”
“Over the past 20 years Frode has built one of the fastest growing and most successful private equity firms in Europe.”
This leadership transition closely follows the structure that was originally laid out in FSN Capital’s constitution, which was designed to enable ownership of the firm to pass seamlessly from one generation of partners to the next. “The intent has always been that the Firm should gravitate from a founder-dominated ownership structure to an equal partnership,” says Frode Strand-Nielsen. “I am gratified to see FSN Capital fulfill the overarching vision on which it was founded: to grow and evolve as each generation of partners leaves the firm stronger than they found it.”
