Andrew Balson

Managing Partner

Prior to founding Cove Hill, Andrew worked for seventeen years at Bain Capital. For the last thirteen years of his tenure at Bain, he served as a Managing Director. While at Bain, Andrew co-led the global private equity investment committee process (2011-2013), was a member of Bain Capital’s Policy Board (2013) and was also part of the Global Private Equity Board (2012-2013). From 2010-2013, Andrew also co-led the group focused on investments in technology, media and telecom and certain consumer sectors including restaurants.

Andrew participated in 11 investments and held 14 board seats during his tenure as Managing Director at Bain Capital. The transactions that Andrew completed with his colleagues at Bain Capital were primarily in the technology, business services and consumer markets.

Since his retirement from Bain Capital and prior to founding Cove Hill Partners, Andrew was the founding Chief Executive Officer at Duet (formerly Match Beyond). Duet is an innovative college completion program that helps low-income young adults attain college degrees and prepare for the workforce. To achieve this mission, Duet provides personal coaching, study support, and job placement services to high school graduates in Boston who simultaneously enroll in low-cost Associate’s and Bachelor’s degree programs at College for America, an original online arm of Southern New Hampshire University.

In early 2021, Andrew, on behalf of Cove Hill, joined the Massachusetts Business Coalition for Early Childhood Education. As a founding member of the coalition, Cove Hill will join 70 businesses (and growing) in Massachusetts to advocate for policies and programs that make early child care and education more readily available to Massachusetts workers. The Massachusetts Business Coalition will identify opportunities to improve program access, affordability and quality; collaborate around employer best practices for supporting early childhood needs; and focus on advancing equitable child care solutions.

He lives in Newton, MA with his college sweetheart, Melora and their six children.

Cove Hill Company Involvement

Artlogic
Caring.com
Fast Growing Trees
Gamma Technologies
Kalkomey
LiveAuctioneers
myDigitalOffice
NetDocuments
SecureLink
Storable
Momentus

Prior Investments at Bain Capital

Advertising Directory Solutions
Applied Systems
Bellsystems24
Bloomin’ Brands (incl. Outback Steakhouse)
Bright Horizons
Burger King
Domino’s Pizza Japan
Dunkin Brands
FleetCor
Skylark
UGS PLM

Additional Board Involvement

Domino’s Pizza (current, since 1999)
Odwalla
US Internetworking

Education

Andrew graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1988 and from Harvard Business School with an M.B.A. with distinction in 1994.