John Garcia
Chairman of AEA and Partner
John is the Chairman of AEA Investors and a Partner. John joined AEA in 1999 as a Partner and Head of AEA’s then newly-formed European operations based in London. In 2002, he became President of AEA while continuing to head European operations and lead AEA’s global value-added industrials team. John became CEO of AEA in 2006 and was named Chairman in 2012. As CEO, he was responsible for AEA’s investment review process and overall strategy and operations. He was also instrumental in the creation of the AEA Private Debt Funds and the AEA Small Business Funds.
John has served on the board of numerous AEA portfolio companies in addition to various other companies. John serves as the chairman or member of the investment committee for all the various AEA private equity and private debt funds.
Before joining AEA, John held various positions at Credit Suisse First Boston, including global head of the chemicals group, member of the European investment banking department’s management committee, head of the European acquisitions, leveraged finance and financial sponsors group, and head of the European natural resources group. Earlier in his career, he was a managing director at Schroder Wertheim in New York and held a number of industrial positions at Atlantic Richfield in Philadelphia.
John earned a B.Sc. from the University of Kent, an M.A. and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University and an M.B.A from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.