Taking Flight: Monomoy Capital’s Hands-on Approach to Helping Portcos Soar

After being encouraged to apply to GE’s financial management program, Humphreys was brought on by the company’s aircraft engine business—a move that would establish the trajectory of his career.

In the years since, his experience in aerospace restructuring at GE, operations work at Cerberus Capital Management and various roles at BlackRock and other firms helped prepare him to become a trusted advisor to Monomoy’s portfolio companies.

“Ben has a unique ability to spot trends and insights and see numbers into the future in a way that I’ve never seen anyone else be able to do,” says Prab Sandhu, a private equity investment professional who worked with Humphreys at Monomoy. “His ability to work with management teams and companies to understand not just the industry and the people but what the problems are that need to be solved is uncanny.”

A Career Takes Off

Humphreys spent his first year with General Electric in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked in accounting and credit, financial planning and analysis, and business development—what he refers to as “corporate speak for M&A.” But following the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and its upheaval of the aviation industry, Humphreys was given the opportunity to go to Cardiff, Wales, to help restructure an aircraft engine repair facility that GE had purchased from British Airways.

“I went to Cardiff for what was supposed to be six months and spent the next two and a half years there,” says Humphreys, who was born in England but moved to the U.S. when he was only a month old, growing up between Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Maplewood, New Jersey, which he considers his hometown. “It was serendipity. I stumbled into a part of GE that needed some intensive restructuring. … We had to close some excess facilities, re-lay out the plant, renegotiate some commercial arrangements with our principal customers. It was a fantastic learning experience.”

It was during a visit home to New Jersey during this period that Humphreys began dating his now-wife, kicking off what he describes as a “whirlwind romance.” Just six months later, the two were married, and within months they welcomed their first of three children. “We basically went from being single to married with a child in a little over a year, but it was the best set of decisions that ever happened,” says Humphreys, now 46. When his wife’s efforts to get transferred to Europe didn’t pan out, Humphreys returned to the U.S. to work as a manager in financial planning and analysis at GE Water & Process Technologies.

After five years with GE, Humphreys followed a colleague who had moved on to Cerberus. “GE was such a fantastic place, and I always thought I was going to be there for my entire career. But having an opportunity at such a young age in private equity, my wife thought it was crazy not to take the chance, and she encouraged me.” Humphreys spent seven years at Cerberus, working his way up to managing director and partner. While there, he worked on the private equity operating team, taking on the chief financial officer role for multiple portfolio companies, including a bus company and DaimlerChrysler, in which Cerberus had a majority stake at the time.

In 2012, after the head of Cerberus’ human resources moved to BlackRock, Humphreys was one of the first people she recruited. He held multiple roles in his years with BlackRock, including corporate business operations, business finance, and global marketing and communications. Subsequent roles included a brief stint as the CFO of Canary, an early entrant into internet of things security that competed against Nest, prior to its acquisition by Google, and Ring, before its acquisition by Amazon. Humphreys also worked as an operating partner at middle-market PE firm Staple Street Capital.

Guiding Portfolio Companies

The multiple hats Humphreys has worn throughout his career have given him a wealth of experiences to pull from at Monomoy. His principal roles there involve working with the firm’s investment team to help underwrite new investments, then partnering with portfolio companies’ management teams.

With a team of 20 professionals at Monomoy, which has about $5 billion in assets under management, Humphreys says the firm is able to devote an inordinate amount of attention to value creation for an organization its size. He personally likes to take a hands-on approach. Those who have worked with him throughout his career describe Humphreys as not only a team player but quite often the MVP.

Humphreys’ work ethic and ability to dig deep and look at things differently from others were qualities that Ethan Klemperer, a senior operating executive and head of Monomoy’s operating team, sought when he recruited Humphreys to the firm in 2019. “Ben is the person who is always willing to question stuff, and in a really good way,” says Klemperer, who also worked with Humphreys at Cerberus.

Ben is the person who is always willing to question stuff, and in a really good way.

Ethan Klemperer

Monomoy Capital Partners

In one recent instance, Monomoy’s team was struggling to lower a product’s manufacturing costs. “The way Ben approached it was, ‘Well, maybe we should be thinking about changing our product.’ So, he partnered with the company to come up with a new product for that portfolio company—it’s the same product, but the way it gets put together and manufactured is totally different,” says Klemperer, who notes that the company was a second-generation family-owned manufacturer when Monomoy acquired the business.

Adds Patrick Olson, CEO of governance, risk and compliance firm ACA Group, who managed Humphreys during his time at BlackRock: “All too often you get large-scale problems and big project teams, and nothing ever comes of it. But Ben takes complexity and breaks it into components that people can really focus on.” Beyond that, Olson says that Humphreys applies an ownership mentality to the organizations he works with, demonstrating a level of commitment typically limited to business owners.

That commitment was on display in Humphreys’ work with a Monomoy portfolio company that was hit hard by inflation in 2022. The company was particularly vulnerable due to its steel-centric business and active importing, according to Sandhu. When freight rates surged, the company faced significant margin pressures while the CFO position was vacant. But Sandhu says Humphreys sprang into action and stepped in as the interim CFO, dedicating long hours from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily to address the challenges.

“Typically, in a situation like this, third parties are engaged to support and fill in the gaps, but Ben took the initiative, working closely with the CEO and the team. He demonstrated strong leadership and resilience, effectively guiding the company and keeping everyone focused,” says Sandhu. “With Ben’s leadership, he was able to transform the finance function and the organization into a data-driven operation, implementing KPIs and reporting systems that maintained a strong pulse on the business and directly improved the margin profile. This transformation contributed to the company becoming one of the top performers in the portfolio.”

Navigating a Tough Market

Humphreys believes a recession could be on the horizon and describes a challenging revenue environment with low demand. To prepare, he and his team are focused on improving the efficiency of Monomoy’s portfolio companies, with an eye toward reaping the benefits when market conditions improve. “We can’t control the macro market or environmental behavior, but we can control our productivity plans,” says Humphreys.

At the same time, he’s aware that investors want GPs to put money to work. Humphreys says Monomoy has exited one to two portfolio companies per year on average and has consistently generated strong returns for its LPs. In early July, Monomoy closed its fifth PE fund, which was significantly oversubscribed, after only eight weeks of fundraising. Fund V, which set out to raise $1.6 billion, closed with $2.25 billion, with $250 million of that representing a GP commitment.

The potential impact of the November U.S. presidential election on the market is also on Humphreys’ radar, as is the political uncertainty among consumers that could make it harder for PE firms to deploy capital. He adds that Monomoy’s focus on industrial consumer products insulates the firm a bit from pressures other sectors may face because it tends to have a steadier stream of activity. Additionally, he notes that Monomoy is expanding its investment mandate into industrial services, which will enable it to cast an even wider net.

Monomoy mainly focuses on corporate carve-outs, family-owned businesses and some public-to-private deals in the $250 million to $500 million enterprise value range. But it can invest in larger businesses, according to Humphreys, as it did with the recent acquisition of Wisconsin-based Waupaca Foundry, one of the world’s largest suppliers of iron castings.

Monomoy portfolio companies Humphreys works with include Astro Shapes, a manufacturer of custom aluminum extrusions; Edsal Manufacturing, a steel shelving products company; Mac Papers + Packaging, a distributor of paper, packaging and envelopes in the southeastern U.S.; and Thetford, a designer, manufacturer and distributor of sanitation, refrigeration and cooking products for RVs and marine vessels.

Despite his wide range of experiences and competencies, Humphreys believes that to enact real change and enhance the value of portfolio companies, PE firms need to focus on just a few things to fix or change. “If everything’s a priority, nothing’s a priority,” he says. “We look for three to five key things and make sure they are resourced and can really drive differential returns,” he says, noting that most of his time with portfolio companies is spent helping them acquire the resources and capabilities needed to achieve those core things, which could include talent, margin optimization or working capital improvements.

Scott White, president and CEO of Edsal Manufacturing, says Humphreys actually “walks the talk” and is incredibly hands-on. “He is an excellent business partner in terms of pushing the envelope,” White says, noting that he includes Humphreys in all staff meetings, operations meetings and strategic offsites. “When there are issues, he doesn’t just sit in New York and run things from a computer. He’s on a plane and will show up at 8 o’clock Monday morning and be here until 5 o’clock Friday night and over weekends, if necessary, to help us resolve issues.”

Because of his hands-on nature, traveling is a major part of Humphrey’s life. “This is a guy who is on the road four days a week, most weeks of the year, and he never tires,” says Monomoy’s Klemperer. While that means frequently being away from home, Humphreys is dedicated to his family and is an active participant in the lives of his children, ages 20, 15 and 10.

Humphreys is an avid golfer and soccer player, trying to find time to hit the green or the pitch whenever possible. He shares his love for soccer with his three children. He’s coached a couple of their teams, though he freely admits that his youngest child’s soccer skills are so far beyond his own that he didn’t think about trying to coach her. “Now I just get to watch,” he quips. And, with his family being from Liverpool, all the Humphreys are Liverpool Football Club fans. “The only time I describe myself as not American is when England is playing in the World Cup or European Championship,” says Humphreys.

While some people describe him as a workaholic and say his expectations of people can sometimes be too high, Humphreys believes these are strengths. “I know my standards for excellence are high. I also recognize that being partners with a management team is largely about convincing them and helping them be successful without trying to be individually successful,” he says, joking that people in his role often get blamed for the rain but not praised for the sun. “It’s incredibly fulfilling to see these businesses and the teams that I partner with achieve incredible outcomes.”

Britt Erica Tunick is an award-winning journalist with extensive experience writing about the financial industry and alternative investing.

Middle Market Growth is produced by the Association for Corporate Growth. To learn more about the organization and how to become a member, visit www.acg.org.