David Layton

Overview

David Layton
Citizenship	American
Education	Bachelor's degree in finance
Alma mater	Brigham Young University Marriott School of Management
Occupation	Private equity executive
Employer	Partners Group
Known for	Chief executive of Partners Group; thematic private markets investing; banning the word "deal"
Title	Chief Executive Officer
Term	2021–present
Predecessor	André Frei (co-CEO)
Board member of	KinderCare Education; Pacific Bells; Advisory Council of Fifth Century Partners
Spouse	Lara Layton
Children	6

💼 David Layton is an American private equity executive and the chief executive officer (CEO) of Partners Group, a Swiss-based global investment firm specialising in private markets. Under his leadership, Partners Group has become one of Europe's largest publicly listed private equity firms, with a market capitalisation of around US$25 billion and assets under management (AUM) exceeding US$170 billion as of 2025. Layton became sole CEO in 2021 at the age of 39, following a period as co-chief executive, and was the first American to hold the top executive role at the Swiss-based firm.

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Early life and education

🎓 Education and early interests. Born in the United States, Layton studied finance at the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2005. During his time at BYU he was active in student finance circles, including leading the university's investment banking club, and initially planned to pursue a conventional Wall Street career with a position at Lehman Brothers in New York.

🧭 Decision to join Partners Group. Layton's trajectory changed when a Partners Group co-founder visited the BYU campus and encouraged him to consider a career in private markets at the then relatively small Swiss investment firm. Impressed by the firm's entrepreneurial culture and international focus, he declined his offer from Lehman Brothers and accepted a role at Partners Group straight out of university, a decision that would shape his subsequent rise in the private equity industry.

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Career

🌍 Early years in Switzerland. In 2005 Layton moved to Partners Group's headquarters in Zug, Switzerland, to begin work as an analyst. Consistent with the firm's practice of immersing new recruits in its Swiss "centre of gravity," he rotated across private equity, private debt and secondary investment teams, often working with multiple departments at once. Layton later characterised this period as a "baptism by fire," reflecting both the breadth of responsibilities he was given as one of the firm's youngest professionals and the entrepreneurial culture he encountered in Zug.

🏙️ Expansion to the United States. After several years at headquarters, Layton relocated to New York to help develop Partners Group's presence in the Americas as the firm shifted from primarily allocating capital to external fund managers towards a model focused on direct investments. In this role he sourced transactions, built local investment teams and contributed to establishing the United States as one of Partners Group's fastest-growing markets during a period when the firm was consolidating its position as a global private equity player.

🏔️ Building the Americas hub in Colorado. From the mid-2010s Layton played a central role in shaping Partners Group's North American strategy by championing the creation of an Americas headquarters in Colorado. Seeking to replicate the tight-knit culture of the firm's Swiss base while remaining "intentionally away from Wall Street," he advocated locating the hub in the Denver area to attract employees interested in long-term careers and family life outside traditional financial centres. The campus opened in 2019 and quickly grew into a major operational centre housing hundreds of staff, strengthening Partners Group's recruiting position among professionals drawn by its lifestyle offering and ownership culture.

📈 Leadership of private equity activities. By his mid-30s Layton had become head of Partners Group's private equity business in the Americas, overseeing teams investing in sectors such as security services, education and restaurant franchising. He was associated with investments in companies including Universal Services of America, Nobel Learning Communities and Pacific Bells, among others, which generated strong outcomes for the firm's clients and helped consolidate his internal reputation as a specialist in direct private equity transactions. Partners Group co-founder Alfred Gantner later credited Layton with being instrumental in developing what the firm regarded as a leading global direct private equity practice.

🏢 Appointment as co-chief executive. In August 2018 Partners Group announced that Layton would join its executive board and serve as co-chief executive officer from January 2019, succeeding long-serving co-CEO Christoph Rubeli in that role. Under the dual-CEO structure Layton focused on investment activities and corporate strategy, while co-CEO André Frei concentrated on client relationships and sustainability initiatives, reflecting the firm's desire to balance operational management with its external stakeholder and environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda.

👔 Elevation to sole CEO. In March 2021 Partners Group decided to simplify its leadership structure by moving from a co-CEO model to a single-CEO framework, appointing Layton as sole chief executive while Frei adopted a new position overseeing sustainability and impact programmes. Layton formally assumed full responsibility for the firm in July 2021, becoming the first non-European, and specifically the first American, to head its executive committee. His promotion marked both a generational shift and the culmination of a career spent entirely at Partners Group, during which he progressed from entry-level analyst to chief executive of the company.

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Business strategy and leadership

📊 Thematic and entrepreneurial investing. As CEO, Layton has articulated a strategy centred on thematic investing and "entrepreneurial ownership" of portfolio companies rather than short-term trading or financial engineering. In practice this approach involves acquiring significant or controlling stakes in mid-market businesses positioned to benefit from long-term trends such as digitisation, demographic change and the energy transition, and then working closely with their management teams to expand operations, improve efficiency and pursue add-on acquisitions over multi-year holding periods. Layton has emphasised that Partners Group aims to think like an industrial owner, using active governance and operational initiatives to create value.

🏦 Growth of Partners Group under his tenure. Partners Group's assets under management continued to grow strongly around the time of Layton's leadership transition, supported by capital inflows from institutional and private wealth clients and by investment performance across private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private credit strategies. Despite an 11 per cent decline in profits in 2020 amid the global COVID-19 pandemic and the postponement of some planned exits, the firm ended that year with US$109 billion in AUM, an increase of 16 per cent compared with 2019. By the mid-2020s its AUM had risen to around US$174 billion and its market capitalisation was approximately US$25 billion, placing it among Europe's most valuable listed private markets investment managers. In communications with shareholders during this period, Layton expressed confidence in the firm's prospects despite the pandemic and supported that message with measures such as dividend increases.

🌱 Emphasis on ESG and firm culture. Layton has also highlighted ESG considerations and corporate culture as integral to Partners Group's long-term strategy. The firm has committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its operations and portfolio by 2030 and has expanded its corporate social responsibility activities, with Frei playing a prominent role in these initiatives. Internally, Layton has sought to preserve what he describes as an entrepreneurial, partnership-oriented culture as the organisation has scaled, pointing to broad employee share ownership and alignment of interests with clients as key features of the business model.

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Financials and wealth

💷 Executive compensation. Layton's remuneration as CEO has increased alongside Partners Group's expansion. In the 2022 financial year his total compensation was reported at approximately CHF 9 million (around US$9.5 million), comprising a base salary of about CHF 1.72 million and long-term incentive awards valued at roughly CHF 7.25 million for that period. Partners Group's compensation framework is heavily performance-linked, and Layton was the highest-paid member of the executive team in 2022, reflecting the firm's results and its emphasis on variable, long-term incentive structures.

📑 Share ownership and alignment. In addition to his salary and incentive awards, Layton holds equity in Partners Group. As of late 2025 he owned approximately 0.02 per cent of the company's shares, a stake valued at around US$8 million based on prevailing market prices. The firm has a tradition of broad employee ownership, with a significant proportion of its stock held by current and former staff, and Layton's shareholding is cited as evidence of its model of aligning management incentives with the interests of investors.

🏛️ Board roles at portfolio companies. Beyond his executive responsibilities, Layton has served on the boards of several companies in which Partners Group has invested. These have included KinderCare Education, a major United States childcare provider acquired by Partners Group in 2015, and Pacific Bells, a large franchisee of Taco Bell restaurants. He has also served on the advisory council of Fifth Century Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm focusing on minority-owned businesses and underserved communities, providing guidance on investment strategy and governance issues.

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Personal life and leadership style

🏡 Family and personal interests. Layton is married to Lara Layton, and the couple have six children. The family maintains ties to both Switzerland and the United States, with homes in Colorado and in the Zug region, and one of his children has attended BYU, continuing the family's association with his alma mater. Outside his professional responsibilities Layton is described as an enthusiastic skier, taking advantage of both the Rocky Mountains and the Alps, and as a music enthusiast who cites playing and listening to music as important interests beyond work.

🧑‍💼 Management approach. Colleagues and interviewers have portrayed Layton as energetic, approachable and team-oriented, with a leadership style grounded in the partnership culture developed by Partners Group's founders. He has described himself as a steward of clients' capital rather than a traditional "deal-maker," emphasising disciplined risk-taking, collaborative decision-making and humility in managing a global investment platform. Within the firm he is known for encouraging open debate among investment professionals and for combining a willingness to listen to frontline views with decisive action on strategic priorities.

🚫 Ban on the word "deal". Shortly after becoming sole CEO, Layton attracted media attention by prohibiting the use of the word "deal" within Partners Group, arguing that the term fostered a transactional mindset inconsistent with the firm's philosophy of long-term ownership. To reinforce the message he introduced a system of symbolic fines under which senior executives who used the word were required to contribute CHF 1,000 to the firm's charitable foundation, with smaller contributions expected from junior staff. The policy, which reportedly led to at least one co-founder publicly contributing after repeated slips, was presented as a light-hearted but deliberate reminder that language shapes behaviour and has since become part of the firm's internal lore and external image.

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Challenges and outlook

📉 Navigating a competitive private equity landscape. In the mid-2020s Layton has faced the task of steering Partners Group through an increasingly competitive private equity environment characterised by high valuation multiples, abundant capital and heightened regulatory and stakeholder scrutiny. He has argued that traditional buyout strategies have become crowded and that focusing on mid-sized companies, operational value creation and differentiated thematic angles is critical to sustaining risk-adjusted performance. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic tested the resilience of Partners Group's portfolio and required active engagement with portfolio company management teams to preserve liquidity, adjust business plans and prepare for the subsequent recovery.

🔭 Future priorities. Looking ahead, Layton has identified continued expansion across asset classes such as infrastructure, private credit and real estate, together with increased engagement with private wealth clients, as key priorities for Partners Group's growth. He has also stressed sustained investment in ESG initiatives and responsible ownership practices, including the firm's net-zero commitment, as central to its positioning in the private markets industry. Observers have highlighted his role in articulating Partners Group's model of "being built differently" and in seeking to maintain a cohesive global culture as the organisation scales, presenting his leadership as an example of home-grown executive development within an international financial institution.

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