Samantha Adams

Samantha Adams is a Managing Director at Berkshire Partners, where she focuses on people and operations — leading the firm's talent and human-capital function rather than sourcing or leading investment deals. She joined Berkshire in 2012 and has been part of the firm's leadership on the talent side for over a decade.

Before Berkshire, Adams was Senior Vice President of Enterprise Brand Strategy at Bank of America. Earlier in her career she began at Bain & Company and held marketing roles at Hill Holliday Advertising and the Discovery Health Channel, giving her a background that blends management consulting with brand and marketing strategy.

She holds an A.B. from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. At Berkshire — a Boston-based private equity firm founded in the 1980s that has raised eleven funds and more than $20 billion in commitments, currently investing from a ~$7.8B fund — her remit centers on attracting, developing, and organizing the firm's own talent and that of its portfolio, contributing to Berkshire's investment objectives through people strategy rather than through capital deployment.

• Adams is not an individual/angel investor and does not write personal checks or lead deals; there is no publicly documented personal investment thesis for her.
• Her role — People and Operations — is about talent acquisition, talent development, and organizational strategy for Berkshire and, by extension, its portfolio companies.
• For context, Berkshire Partners' firm-level strategy (which she supports operationally, not as a deal partner):
• Equity investments of roughly $50M–$500M per company.
• Targets middle-market businesses with enterprise values of ~$100M–$1.5B.
• Transaction types include leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, growth capital financings, and take-privates.
• Core sectors: consumer products & retail, business services, communications, industrials, healthcare, and technology/digital infrastructure.