Rodney L. Goldstein
Co-Managing Partner
Rod has been an investment professional and has worked with business-owning families for 35 years. He began work with WSP in 2017 and is a member of the firm’s investment committee with a particular focus on private markets; he also is involved with family business owners on topics of governance, succession and liquidity planning.
Rod spent over 30 years with Frontenac, a Chicago-based private equity firm, including 22 years as the firm’s Chairman and Managing Partner; during his tenure, the firm grew from approximately $25 mm in assets under management to over $1 bn. Formed in 1971, Frontenac makes investments in, and serves as financial and strategic partner to, family owned businesses. While at Frontenac, Rod served as lead director of numerous private companies; he also was a director of several public companies including Big Lots (NYSE), DeVry, Inc. (NYSE), and AptarGroup (NYSE), serving on the audit and compensation committees of each. Prior to Frontenac, he was a member of the strategy consulting practice at Booz Allen Hamilton. He is an Independent Director or Advisory Board member of The Boler Company, Edelman, and MacLean-Fogg Company.
Rod is a frequent speaker on family and family business-related topics. He is a trustee of the University of Chicago, serves on its investment committee, and is immediate past chair of the University of Chicago Medical Center board of trustees. He is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, past vice chair of the Economic Club of Chicago, and a past director of the National Venture Capital Association. Rod is a member of the Phillips Academy – Andover investment committee, as he has been since 1988; he is a former trustee of Andover and the Berkshire School, and serves or has served on the boards of several Chicago based endowed charities, principally focused on inner city youth. Early in his career, Rod was engaged in the stewardship of a family business founded by his great-grandfather in 1879 in Peoria, Illinois, where Rod was raised.
Rod is a graduate of Phillips Academy – Andover, a cum laude graduate of Princeton University and received an M.B.A from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.