Claus Benkert and Yair Erez join Bain in Europe as partner

Bain & Company has added two partners to its private equity practice in Europe: Claus Benkert and Yair Erez.

Claus Benkert joins Bain & Company with over 25 years of consulting experience under his belt. Most recently, he was responsible for managing European portfolio companies at private equity company KKR, and before that, he worked for arch-rival McKinsey & Company for 24 years, latterly as a senior partner.

Benkert has now relocated from the UK back to Germany, and will focus on helping Bain’s private equity clients with growth, value creation, digitalisation, acquisitions and integration, process optimisation and reorganisation. He works for Bain’s Technology practice, and is based out of the Munich office.

Meanwhile, in London, Yair Erez joined Bain’s Healthcare Private Equity service line as a partner in the fourth quarter of 2019. Similarly to Benkert, he brings a background at McKinsey & Company, which he served for over a decade in the UK. Before that, Erez practiced as an obstetrician/gynaecologist and led an innovative start-up company manufacturing assistive technology for blind people.

As a consultant, Erez has worked on deals in the European healthcare space, covering buy-side due diligence, and helping portfolio companies thrive post-acquisition. He has also worked with investors and executives across the Middle East and North America.

Commenting on the appointments, Christophe De Vusser, head of Bain & Company’s Private Equity practice in EMEA said, “We are delighted to welcome Claus and Yair to our team. Yair joins our expanding team in the exciting area of healthcare private equity and Claus’ experience with portfolio company operations will provide unparalleled expertise to our clients across the region.”

Last month, Bain announced that it will buy Nordic strategy consultancy Qvartz.