Randall Swift

Randall Swift is a Partner on the investment team at American Industrial Partners (AIP), a New York–based private equity firm founded in 1988 that focuses on control investments in middle-market industrial businesses and manages roughly $17 billion of capital. He joined AIP in 2015 and sits in an operations-focused role, responsible for developing and implementing operating initiatives across the firm's portfolio companies — a reflection of AIP's engineering-and-operations-centric model rather than a purely financial one.

Before AIP, Swift built a long operating career in the transportation and heavy-equipment industry, with more than 25 years of experience. He served as President and CEO of Heil Trailer International, and led EnTrans International — the combined entity built from Heil Trailer, Kalyn Siebert, SERVA Group, and Polar Tank Trailers — as President and CEO. Earlier, he was President and CEO of several predecessor companies of what is now REV Group, Inc., including Capacity of Texas, Collins Industries, and Allied Specialty Vehicles. Prior to those roles, he held various management positions within a Cummins distributor organization.

At AIP, Swift has repeatedly stepped into hands-on leadership of portfolio companies, serving as interim CEO at Current (the lighting business AIP carved out of GE, "Current Lighting Holdco") and at The Brock Group, an industrial services company. This pattern — a senior operator deployed directly into portfolio companies during transitions — is characteristic of how he adds value at the firm.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

• Invests through American Industrial Partners in control buyouts of middle-market industrial companies, not early-stage/seed deals.
• AIP's stated approach: pursue "businesses where both the operating opportunities and risks are familiar to the Firm's partners," targeting companies with "competitive positions, proprietary capabilities, and/or leading market shares" that have "potential for significant value enhancement through operating improvements, technological innovation, global marketing and sourcing, or add-on investments."
• Flexible across the capital structure and in special situations — primary and secondary credit, structured financings, DIP and rescue loans, and preferred/common equity.
• Swift's personal contribution is on the operations side: driving operating initiatives, integration of add-ons, and interim leadership of portfolio companies during turnarounds and transitions.
• Sector emphasis on heavy industry, transportation/logistics, capital equipment, and industrial services — aligned with his career operating trailer, vehicle, and industrial-services businesses.