Karen Gordon Mills
Her Excellent Adventures

To the next level: Dividing her time between Maine and Manhattan, a private-equity firm's managing director embraces two worlds. Photo by Steve Boljonis

Early every Tuesday morning, Karen Gordon Mills leaves her house in Brunswick, Maine, and embarks on her weekly commute to Manhattan. She spends the next several days immersed in her work as managing director of a new private-equity firm, Solera Capital, LLC.

Solera, which Mills cofounded in 2000 with a group of other investment professionals, has $250 million under management and specializes in later-stage invest-ments in companies that could use a boost in capital to grow substantially. “Our operating philosophy is to invest about $15–20 million in each deal and take a controlling interest,” notes Mills. “We like to be the capital that comes in to grow the business to the next level — build the next plant, make an acquisition, or expand the brand.”

What makes Solera unique, she adds, is its research-intensive focus and the fact that its four managing partners are women. “But we're not a firm that invests only in women-owned companies,” says Mills. “What we've done is build a network — beyond our usual network — of powerful women executives, including HBS classmates Orit Gadiesh and Ann Fudge, who help us in deals with knowledge and access.” With one acquisition, Latina magazine, under its belt, the firm is now looking into the natural and organic food sector. “We're aiming to complete two or three deals annually,” notes Mills, who honed her expertise as a former managing director and COO for E.S. Jacobs & Co., a leveraged buyout firm.

A big deal of a different sort came to fruition about two years ago when Mills's husband, Barry, a Bowdoin College graduate, was offered his dream job: the presidency of his alma mater. The couple packed up their three sons, now ages 9, 13, and 16, and left New York for what Mills calls an “excellent adventure” in Maine. “We live in a wonderful old house across from campus,” says Mills. “The boys have made a great adjustment. Brunswick and Maine are very special, and it's really a privilege to live there.”

At home, the cheerful and unflappable Mills often has official duties as the college president's wife. Last spring, during weeklong commencement and reunion activities, she recalls, “I had nearly two dozen events, involving hundreds of guests. But it's not always like that, and there's not a piece of it I would change.”

A onetime McKinsey consultant, Mills holds several directorships (including Arrow Electronics and, as befits this gardening enthusiast, The Scotts Company) and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of the George Mitchell Scholarship Fund in Maine. A graduate and longtime supporter of Radcliffe, she has served on the HBS Visiting Committee and is currently a Harvard Overseer. “It's been great fun,” she notes. “Particularly now with the Allston planning and the new president, the board seems to be engaged in real strategic thought about where the University is going.”

All her roles, she reflects, give her opportunities to share what she's absorbed during her many years in business. “I've learned how to see the path ahead and motivate people to move forward productively,” she says. “I can't see the future, but I can see what makes sense and where to go. That gives me a lot of satisfaction.”

— Margie Kelley

 

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DISTINCT YET OF A PIECE
PROFILES FROM THE CLASS OF 1977

John R. Davis: Nature's Blessing

Michael F. Cronin: A Focus on the Fundamentals

Ann M. Fudge: Enhanced Perspective

Steven C. Watson: Course Change

Karen Gordon Mills: Her Excellent Adventures

Amy S. Langer: Fighting the Good Fight

Jeremiah P. Murphy, Jr.: Improving the Coop's Numbers

Andrew H. Tisch: Family Matters