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Sarr Group
Leslie Brun’s Sarr Group runs a boardroom-bred investment platform from Wayne, PA, deploying permanent capital alongside a CEO network with no outside LPs.
Sarr Group
Sarr Group functions as the private investment and advisory vehicle for Leslie A. Brun, a veteran operator whose career arcs through commercial banking, investment banking, and board-level governance. Brun is best known for founding Hamilton Lane in 1991, taking it from a start-up to a giant in private-markets advisory and fund-of-funds management before selling a controlling stake to a consortium led by Cascade Investment in 2003. Post-Hamilton Lane, Brun has concentrated his activities through Sarr Group, operating from a corporate headquarters in Wayne, Pennsylvania. The firm makes direct investments and co-investments across the capital structure, with an emphasis on private equity, structured credit, and select public-market positions. Brun's investment posture is relationship-driven — he partners with operators he knows from his board work at Merck, where he served alongside Ken Frazier, and from networks cultivated through the Council on Foreign Relations and G100 Companies, where he serves as Vice Chairman and Senior Advisor. The firm does not market to outside limited partners; it deploys Brun's own wealth and participates in syndicates alongside a discreet group of institutional collaborators. Sarr Group operates with a deliberately lean footprint. Investment decisions run through Brun, supported by a small team at the Wayne office. His influence extends through his role on the University at Buffalo Foundation board and recognition as one of America's Top 100 Corporate Directors by the National Association of Corporate Directors. No recent operational events have been publicly disclosed in the last 24 months that would alter the firm's known posture; the firm maintains the same deliberate opacity that has characterized it since Hamilton Lane's sale. What sets Sarr Group apart is an architecture designed for permanent capital with no LPA constraints. Brun controls both investment pacing and exit timing without needing to consider redemption profiles or fund-life limitations. This structure allows the firm to hold assets longer than a typical drawdown fund — indefinitely, when an asset compounds well — while selectively recycling capital from realized positions. The model looks less like a modern family office and more like a personal principal-investment desk operating inside a board director's network.
General information
Firm type
Generalist
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Wayne
Corporate office
435 Devon Park Drive, 700 Building, Wayne, PA 19087, United States
Principals
Leslie A. Brun
Chairman and CEO
Frequently asked questions
Who makes investment decisions at Sarr Group?
Leslie A. Brun, as Chairman and CEO, is the central decision-maker for all investment activity. His authority is concentrated; Sarr Group does not run an institutional committee process but operates more like a personal investment office where Brun's judgment, shaped by decades of board service and private-markets deal-making, controls capital deployment.
What is the relationship between Sarr Group and Hamilton Lane?
Leslie Brun founded Hamilton Lane in 1991 and built it into a leading private-markets advisory and fund-of-funds manager. In 2003, he sold a controlling stake to a consortium led by Cascade Investment, the firm that manages Bill Gates's personal wealth. Sarr Group formed after that exit and now serves as Brun's direct investment platform, independent of the Hamilton Lane franchise.
Is Sarr Group a family office or an asset manager?
Sarr Group is structured as an asset manager in name, but its behavior aligns more with a single-principal investment vehicle. The firm deploys Leslie Brun's personal capital and does not actively solicit third-party funds. Its asset-manager designation likely stems from the regulatory posture it first secured, but the economic reality is that of a permanent-capital vehicle run for one principal.
Where does the underlying capital come from?
The capital base originates from Leslie Brun's business career, notably the sale of his controlling stake in Hamilton Lane in 2003. Additional wealth has been accumulated through four decades of board service at public companies including Merck, and through Sarr Group's own investment returns. The firm does not disclose total assets.
Does Sarr Group participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
Sarr Group's known activity centers on direct investments and co-investments rather than blind-pool fund commitments. Brun's background as a fund-of-funds operator at Hamilton Lane gives him the relationships to access manager-led co-investment opportunities, but the firm's private-capital posture tilts toward direct positions where Brun can evaluate specific assets using his boardroom governance lens.
What is Leslie Brun's board network, and how does it shape deal flow?
Brun's network runs through multiple interlocking institutions: he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves as Vice Chairman and Senior Advisor at G100 Companies, and was recognized by the National Association of Corporate Directors as a Top 100 director. His long board tenure at Merck connected him with Ken Frazier. These relationships, rather than a formal sourcing engine, shape the inbound opportunities Sarr Group sees.
Does Sarr Group maintain any philanthropic structures?
Brun serves on the University at Buffalo Foundation board, indicating a philanthropic presence channeled through institutional vehicles rather than a separate private foundation operating under the Sarr name. No dedicated Sarr Group foundation has been publicly identified.
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