Medline Industries

A consortium of Blackstone, Carlyle Group, and Hellman & Friedman acquired a controlling majority stake in Medline in June 2021. The Mills family, which founded the company in 1966, remains significant minority shareholders and retains board representation. Day-to-day operations continue under a professional management team, with CEO Jim Abrams and President Jim Boyle leading the company.

James Mills started the business in 1966 by pivoting a hospital-garment manufacturing operation into a broader medical-supply company. His sons, Charlie and Andy Mills, scaled the firm over several decades into the largest private-label medical-supply distributor in the country. The 2021 partial sale to private-equity sponsors partially monetized the family's multigenerational stake.

Medline distributes over 300,000 products through a network of more than 50 distribution centers serving acute-care, post-acute, and consumer-health markets. The company reports annual revenue exceeding $20 billion and employs approximately 35,000 people globally. It competes directly with publicly traded distributors while also manufacturing a significant share of its own product line.

Medline Industries is a privately held operating company, not a family office. The Mills family's shareholder wealth is embedded in the operating business rather than managed through a separate investment entity. Since the 2021 recapitalization, the family has maintained a minority equity stake alongside institutional private-equity sponsors.

The consortium-backed structure replaced purely family governance with a board that includes institutional sponsor representatives alongside family members. The sponsors bring financial structuring expertise and a focus on operational efficiency, while the Mills family's retained stake ensures alignment on long-term strategic direction.