Christian Strain

Christian Strain is a Managing Director at Summit Partners where he leads the firm’s efforts in the Business Services and Financial Services sector across Europe. Founded in 1984, Summit has become the investment partner of choice for many of the best growth companies in the world. Entrepreneurs and management teams use capital from Summit Partners for a variety of purposes - from growth and shareholder liquidity to recapitalisations and management buyouts. Summit Partners currently manages more than $23 billion in capital dedicated to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities from offices in Menlo Park, Boston, Luxembourg and London.

Mr. Strain has been with Summit Partners for the past sixteen years, and has led investments in the fiber-optic, insurance, e-commerce, data, and certification industries. He has significant experience across Europe having led investments and served as a board member of multiple companies in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium among other countries. Prior to joining Summit Partners, Mr. Strain worked in the Paris office of Apax Partners, a global private equity firm, where he was a member of the technology and telecommunications team.

Mr. Strain is a former Board Member and is the former Treasurer of Invest Europe (formerly known as the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association). Invest Europe is the world’s largest association of private capital providers, representing Europe’s Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Infrastructure industry. He was the former chairman of Invest Europe’s growth equity council, and remains a member of the mid-market council.

Mr. Strain holds a BA in History from Yale University and a MBA from Harvard Business School. He is bi-lingual in French and English. Mr. Strain is married with four children and splits his time between London and Paris.