ACG Members Network for a Good Cause

For years, ACG networking events have brought together members of the middle-market M&A community to exchange ideas and make deals. But when one ACG member’s wife was diagnosed with glioblastoma—an aggressive form of brain cancer—the association’s dealmakers rallied together with a different kind of goal in mind.

About two years ago, Ginger Dreier, the wife of ACG member and head of business development at H.I.G. Growth Partners Rob Dreier, was diagnosed with the disease. They battled the cancer together, with Ginger undergoing a successful surgery at Mass General Hospital in Boston, followed by chemotherapy and radiation treatments at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

But Rob’s longtime friend and fellow ACG member Gus Phelps, principal at Summit Partners, didn’t want the Dreiers to fight alone. Inspired to take action, Phelps and Rob took their networking skills into a new space, collaborating with other ACG members to organize a fundraising effort.

“It started out as a few buddies getting together to support a good cause at The Country Club here in Brookline,” Dreier tells Middle Market Growth. What it turned into, though, was more than $175,000 raised for glioblastoma research.

Golfing for a Cause

For Phelps, supporting glioblastoma research is personal. In addition to Ginger’s diagnosis, Phelps points to another family member, his aunt Barbara Dell, as well as Dave Hovey, the son of one of Phelps’ family friends. Hovey lost his battle with glioblastoma in 2017 at the age of 26. During his battle, he gave his fight the moniker CRUS11TOUR, which now lives on as a glioblastoma research fund.

To benefit that fund, and in support of Ginger, Phelps, along with nonprofit organization Golf Fights Cancer, organized a golf tournament—aptly dubbed Dreier Day—at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, earlier this summer. The event was met with enthusiastic support: Nearly everyone invited to the tournament RSVP’d “yes,” says Phelps, who adds that the initiative eventually added neuro-oncologist Dr. Patrick Wen as a recipient of funds to support his ongoing cancer research at Dana-Farber.

The golf tournament raised nearly $75,000, but it was only one component of a monthslong initiative. Along with 13 other members of Summit Partners as part of “Team Trustey,” Phelps ran the 2022 Boston Marathon last April to raise funds for glioblastoma research. A charity concert in collaboration with Funkhouse Productions in July brought in more than $30,000 for the effort, while a separate auction fundraiser raised more than $60,000.

All told, Phelps, Dreier, and the other supporters and donors for the fundraising initiative ultimately handed Dr. Wen a check for more than $175,000 at the golf tournament, turning the effort into the No. 1 charity fundraiser for the 2022 Boston Marathon.

It’s the networking that we all do, and have done for 20 years, that has resulted in these uniquely strong relationships that, in this case, have manifested in these dear friends coming forth and donating their time and money and resources toward this amazing cause.

Rob Dreier

H.I.G. Growth Partners

The Networking Community

In recounting this experience, both Dreier and Phelps emphasized the role of the ACG community.

“It’s the networking that we all do, and have done for 20 years, that has resulted in these uniquely strong relationships that, in this case, have manifested in these dear friends coming forth and donating their time and money and resources toward this amazing cause,” says Dreier, who credits this fellowship of supporters, his faith, and the “exceptional” doctors in Boston for the outcome of his wife’s “squeaky clean” MRIs today.

According to Phelps, nearly all the donors of the golf tournament are ACG members who came from across the country to show their support, which reached “far and beyond” his initial expectations. “We just kept getting bigger and bigger checks,” he says, adding that there was so much support for this fundraising initiative, there is demand to do it again next year.

For the middle market, networking events like those held by ACG are undoubtedly important to making the professional connections needed to get deals done. But after years of shaking hands and exchanging business cards, it’s clear that those networks can reach beyond the deal table to touch the personal lives of business collaborators.

“For the middle-market private equity community, its foundation is the relationships that we all have with one another,” says Phelps. “And this (fundraising) just exemplifies that. It shows that people have beyond just a commercial relationship, but instead really have true relationships and friendships, and legitimately care for one another. When someone is in need, they completely rally behind it. And I think this is a perfect example of that.”

Pictured above: fundraising contributors including (in alphabetical order)—Eric Andreozzi (Deloitte Corporate Finance), Wali Bacdayan (Delta-v Capital), Jim Beakey (Nautic  Partners), Christian Bullitt (Raymond James), Les Cheek (Baird), Phil Colaco (Deloitte Corporate Finance), Chris Crosby (Nautic Partners), John Donahue (Windjammer), Rob Dreier (H.I.G. Growth Partners), Philip Edwards (Jefferies & Co.), John Emery (Alantra), Scott Estill (Lancor), Jason Ficken (Quadriga Partners), Charlie Gifford (New Heritage), JJ Hearty (Two Sigma Impact), David Hellier (Bertram Capital), Jon Lemelman (Riverside Partners), Tim Lufkin (Rothschild), Don McDonough (GTCR), Rob Parker (Cowen & Co.), Scott Paton (William Blair), Gus Phelps (Summit Partners), B.T. Remmert (William Blair), Scott Smith (Goldman Sachs), Curt Tatham (Lincoln International), Brendan VanDeventer (Riparian Partners), Parker Weil (Cowen & Co.) and Rob Zielinski (Interlock Equity).