George Barsness

George Barsness is a private equity investor who currently serves as a Managing Director (titled Director on the Business Services team) at OMERS Private Equity in New York, the direct-investing arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. He joined OMERS in 2022 and is responsible for the origination, execution and management of investments in the business services sector. He sits on the boards of several OMERS portfolio companies, including North Highland, Epiq, and Integris.

Before OMERS, George was a Vice President at Gemspring Capital, the Westport, Connecticut–based middle-market private equity firm (founded 2015, roughly $5 billion of capital under management) that invests in business services, consumer services, financial and insurance services, healthcare, industrial, software and tech-enabled services companies with up to ~$2 billion in revenue. The stub contact record and his [hidden] email date from that role.

Earlier, George was an Associate at The Carlyle Group, where he evaluated business services and technology investments and worked directly with Carlyle's CEOs and CIOs on investing, fundraising and corporate strategy initiatives. He began his career in investment banking, working in Houlihan Lokey's Aerospace, Defense & Government Services Group and in M&T Bank's Mergers & Acquisitions Group, advising on sell-side and buy-side M&A, restructuring, and growth financing transactions.

George holds a BS in Business Administration from Washington & Lee University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He describes himself as having nearly a decade-plus (roughly 15 years) of experience investing in and working with companies across technology, business services, distribution and logistics, and diversified industrials.

• Invests as an institutional PE professional, not an angel — deploys committed fund capital into control buyouts and growth-equity positions in established, revenue-generating businesses, then works actively with management on value creation.
• Core sector expertise is business services, extending into technology / tech-enabled services, distribution and logistics, and diversified industrials.
• At OMERS PE, focus is on origination, execution and post-close management of North American business-services platforms, taking board seats and driving revenue growth and operational improvement.
• At Gemspring, the strategy he operated within targets companies with up to ~$2 billion in revenue across business, consumer, financial/insurance, healthcare, industrial and software/tech-enabled services, emphasizing a partnership approach with management teams to build sustainable competitive advantages.