$23B Investor on Warren Buffett, Compounding & Playing the Long Game
American Securities co-founder and CEO Michael Fisch joins host David Weisburd to discuss the evolution of private equity from sub-billion-dollar leveraged buyouts into a multi-trillion-dollar industry. Fisch details his firm's 30-year philosophy of disciplined middle-market industrial investing, maintaining an 80%-plus CEO win rate through functional resources, the rigorous triangulation framework behind executive hiring, and why human relationships and proactive communication remain indispensable in an AI-driven dealmaking environment.
- In 1983, the entire institutional private equity market was smaller than $1 billion, split among fewer than ten firms. Read →
- American Securities maintains an 80%-plus CEO retention rate across its 30-year history, keeping the incumbent executive from acquisition through exit. Read →
- American Securities grew assets under management from $71.4 million in 1994 to $23 billion without straying from U.S. industrial and industrial-service assets. Read →
- American Securities co-founder Michael Fisch built a 30-year investing track record by prioritizing active human contact over passive spreadsheet modeling. Read →
- American Securities maintains an 80%-plus CEO win rate across its 30-year industrial portfolio by treating executive talent evaluation like commercial due diligence. Read →
- Institutional pension funds currently allocate 8% to 15% of their capital to private equity, while retail investors sit between 0% and 1%. Read →