Rodney L. Goldstein
Co-Managing Partner
Rod has been an investment professional and has worked with business-owning families for 35 years. He joined WSP in 2017 and leads the firm’s work with family-owned businesses. Rod presently is an Independent Director of two $1 billion+ family businesses and is a frequent speaker on family and family business related topics.
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 and their owners. 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; and until recently, he served on the Global Advisory Board of Edelman, Inc. Prior to Frontenac, Rod was a member of the strategy consulting practice at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Rod is a trustee of the University of Chicago, a member of its Investment Committee, and is 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 serves Phillips Academy – Andover as a member of its investment committee, as he has 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.