Dr. Robert Easton is a Managing Director focused on European buyout opportunities in the industrial and chemical sectors. He joined Carlyle in 2000 and leads the Leveraged Buyout team. He is based in London.
In addition, he has been involved with a number of cross fund transactions at Carlyle in the United States and Japan.
Prior to joining Carlyle, Dr. Easton was Vice President of Corporate Development at Invensys plc with responsibility for the execution of acquisitions and disposals. Dr. Easton was a key figure in the mid-nineties transformation of BTR from a diversified conglomerate to a focused engineering group and, following the merger of BTR and Siebe to form Invensys in 1999, in the further focusing of Invensys to become a leading Automation and Controls group. During this period of substantial change, he executed a total of 35 acquisitions and disposals with an aggregate value of €7 billion. Dr. Easton joined BTR in 1996 from Trafalgar House, another major U.K. engineering group where he was Director of Corporate Finance and Planning with responsibility for strategic planning and acquisitions and disposals.
Prior to becoming a corporate development executive, Dr. Easton spent eight years in the investment banking business working initially for CSFB and then for a period of five years for Wasserstein Perella, a mergers and acquisitions specialist boutique. During this time he was based in London and New York representing major multinational corporations on mergers and acquisitions and executing capital markets business. In particular, he advised on transactions in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors and on debt and equity capital raising in the Euro markets.
He has a first class honours degree in chemistry from Imperial College in London and a Doctorate in organic synthesis from Oxford University.
In addition to his Directorships of Carlyle portfolio companies, Dr. Easton also Chairs the Global Buyout Committee of the BVCA, is a member of Walker Guidelines Monitoring Group and sits on the Advisory Board of the Tanaka Business School at Imperial College. Dr. Easton is a member of the Board of Directors of AZ Electronic Materials, Stahl, Ensus and Neochimiki.