David Gee

David Gee spent the bulk of his career — reported as 33 years — at YFM Equity Partners, the Leeds-headquartered private equity house formerly known as Yorkshire Fund Managers. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Grant Thornton and specialised in corporate finance before moving into the venture capital and private equity world. From 1996 he served as an Investment Director on the Yorkshire Fund Managers / YFM Private Equity board.

Over three decades of investing, Gee sat on the Investment Committee of all of YFM's Private Equity funds and served on the boards of more than 20 portfolio companies spanning engineering, construction, technology and retail. He led YFM's Northern team, sourcing and leading new deals across the region. His experience straddled multiple economic cycles — he invested through the early-1990s recession and recovery, the dot-com bubble, and the 2008 banking crisis — and he frequently cited this longevity as the basis for a "long-term supportive partner" approach to backing companies.

Gee stepped back from the YFM partnership in 2018. Drawing on his own "lived experience" of mental-health challenges, he became a trustee and later treasurer of Leeds Mind, one of the UK's leading mental-health charities, and championed the cause within YFM (the firm named Leeds Mind a charity partner).

David Gee has since passed away. In 2025, colleagues from YFM completed the Edale Skyline (a ~32km, ~1,050m-of-climbing hill walk) in his memory, raising funds for Leeds Mind — a cause he personally believed in. He is remembered within the firm as a quiet, principled and deeply fair figure who helped shape its culture.

• Backed established, revenue-generating UK SMEs through management buyouts, buy-ins and growth/development capital, not early-stage seed rounds.
• Believed a good investor is *"a long-term supportive partner that knows the business well"* and does not overreact when a plan changes.
• Viewed downturns as opportunity, not retreat: *"Taking investment in a downturn can free up a company to expand both by acquisition and in preparing an organic plan."*
• Favoured getting close to portfolio businesses — understanding the people and the market — and structuring deals with robust financing, strong headroom and minimal gearing to withstand economic uncertainty.
• Sector-agnostic in practice, with hands-on non-executive board involvement rather than passive capital.