Vincent A Mai

Bio

Mr Mai joined AEA in 1989 as chief executive officer and in 1998 became chairman. He led AEA in a new direction by committing the firm to extensive due diligence, successfully implementing operating improvements in portfolio companies, and working in close partnership with management teams to build businesses. Mr Mai has been intensively involved in every aspect of AEA's decision-making process on all investments. He is chairman of the investment committees of AEA's 2006 Investment Program and both the AEA Mezzanine Fund and the AEA Small Business Fund. He has served on the boards of many AEA portfolio companies and currently serves as chairman of the board of directors of Burt's Bees. Before joining AEA, Mr Mai was a partner at Lehman Brothers for 14 years. He was head of that firm's international investment banking activities and co-head of all of its investment banking activities for three years. Before assuming management responsibilities at Lehman, Mr Mai worked with a broad range of European and US businesses on their strategic and capital-raising needs. He started his career at S. G. Warburg & Co. in London, where he became an executive director. During that period, Mr Mai worked closely with Sir Siegmund Warburg, one of the co-founders of AEA. Mr Mai is involved in several not-for-profit activities. He is chairman of the board of Sesame Workshop, producers of Sesame Street, a leading children's educational television program featured in more than one hundred countries. He also serves on the boards of the International Center for Transitional Justice and the Juilliard School. Mr Mai was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations, of which he remains a member, The Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Fannie Mae. Mr Mai is a Chartered Accountant and was educated at the University of Cape Town.