Donald Roberts

Don Roberts spent more than four decades in financial leadership, the bulk of it in industrial and manufacturing businesses centered in the Midwest. He began his career in public accounting, working eight years in the audit practice of Ernst & Young, and is a CPA. He holds a degree in Accounting from the University of Missouri–Columbia. Over his career his areas of expertise included financial leadership, mergers and acquisitions, risk management, and strategic and financial planning.

Before HBM, Roberts held CFO roles at Big River Minerals Corporation, IMC Agribusiness, Inc., and Mississippi Lime Company (MLC), where he joined as CFO in 1999. Following more than a decade of profitable growth at MLC — a 110-year-old company that mines limestone and manufactures calcium-based products — Roberts became part of the founding leadership team that launched HBM Holdings in 2011/2012. HBM was created to diversify the family trust associated with Mississippi Lime and to build a portfolio of industrial businesses beyond mining and chemicals.

At HBM Holdings, Roberts served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Chief Financial Officer, helping establish the firm's acquisition and talent-development strategies and participating in numerous acquisitions of privately held companies. Importantly, HBM is not an angel or venture investor: it acquires 100% ownership of established, profitable middle-market companies and operates them under a long-term, partnership-oriented model in which each portfolio business keeps its own CEO and CFO. Roberts described the approach as hands-on — "we are really kind of working with them" on strategy and implementation rather than passive oversight.

Roberts retired from HBM Holdings in May 2023 after a transition period, and was succeeded as SVP & CFO by Patrick Fitzgerald (formerly VP of Finance and CFO at Emerson Process Systems and Solutions). On his departure he reflected, "My time at HBM and at MLC has been a gift, and I am proud of what our teams have built."

• Acquires 100% ownership of established, profitable middle-market industrial and manufacturing businesses — a control-buyout model, not seed/angel investing.
• Long-term, "patient capital" hold horizon backed by a family trust, rather than a fixed fund life or quick-flip exit.
• Sector focus: Flow Control, Specialty Chemicals, Aerospace, Off-Highway Mobility, and Packaging; broadly North American manufacturing.
• Operating partnership model: each acquired company retains its own CEO/CFO leadership; HBM works alongside management on strategy, strategic-planning facilitation, safety, and employee development rather than replacing teams.
• Roberts personally emphasized understanding "what drives the business" and active engagement with management — favoring companies with strong teams and durable growth potential.
• Views manufacturing as experiencing "a rebirth," with appeal for operators interested in building and running efficient industrial businesses.