MEET ULRIK - THE PROFESSIONAL

Ulrik Binzer is the Founder and Managing Partner of Fairplay Capital Partners and an entrepreneurial executive with  a rare combination of a top-tier private equity investing expertise and executive leadership experience from venture capital backed start-ups, turn-around companies and the military. 

Prior to founding Fairplay Capital Partners, Ulrik served as Chief Operating Officer of Soligent Distribution LLC - the largest solar distributor in the Americas, supplying thousands of solar installers and contractors with solar energy equipment, engineering services, and project financing solutions. While at Soligent. Ulrik was responsible for the company's multi-hundred million dollar P&L, strategy and daily operations including Supply Chain, Sales, Sales Ops, Marketing, Customer Service, HR and IT. As COO Ulrik's direct and indirect headcount included ~160 employees in 6 offices and distribution centers across the U.S. 

Before joining Soligent, Ulrik served in various executive roles of Work4, a Venture Capital backed technology start-up company with offices in Silicon Valley and Europe. In his ending role as Chief Operating Officer, Ulrik oversaw the company's operational excellence programs and the daily operations of the company’s Sales, Account Management, Sales Ops, Marketing, Customer Service, HR, Finance and internal IT departments. Direct and indirect headcount included ~80 employees.

Prior to assuming management roles in operating companies, Ulrik served as Vice President of Golden Gate Capital -  a top tier private equity firm with $12B under management and a proven track-record of significantly enhancing company value through strategic and operating initiatives. During his 7-year tenure at Golden Gate, Ulrik worked on 10 transactions with a combined enterprise value of more than $1.2 billion.

Before Joining Golden Gate in 2005, Ulrik worked as Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company in New York. While at McKinsey, Ulrik worked as part of various project teams to develop customized solutions to finance- and strategy related issues facing C-level executives across multiple industries. 

Prior to joining McKinsey in 2003, Ulrik served as an Officer in the Danish Army where he commanded a 42-person Platoon and graduated first in his class from the Danish Army’s Lieutenant School.

Ulrik received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School where he was as a Baker Scholar (top 5% of his class) and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in International Business from Copenhagen Business School and New York University.

For Ulrik's full professional profile on LinkedIn please click here.

Meet Ulrik - the PERSON 

Hi I'm Ulrik!

While some would say that professional credentials and achievements are all that matters in business, I would argue that really knowing the people one chooses to work with is just as important. If you are interested, here is therefore the story behind my professional profile above.

background

It all started when I left Denmark at age 16 to spend a year as a Rotary sponsored exchange-student in upstate New York. My host family exemplified the promise of America, having built a 1-person shop into a multi-million dollar software company.  I returned to my tiny Danish village inspired to pursue my own American dream.

Although my Danish middle-class parents could not directly help me in my journey, their hard work and determination inspired me to forge my own path. Recognizing the importance of education, I pushed to always graduate at the top of my class.  To prove I could compete in America, I fought for the opportunity to study in New York City (as Sinatra said: "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere").  My efforts were rewarded when I first got an opportunity to study at New York University and subsequently landed a job in the Big Apple.

Since moving permanently to the U.S. and becoming a citizen it has been my vision to find, acquire and run my own company. This is meaningful to me because it not only combines the most enjoyable aspects of my prior experiences in the army, consulting, technology and private investing (people leadership, execution, strategy formulation, and financial wizardry), but also enables me to assure that what I am working on simultaneously does well and does good. 

To me, that is how a business should be run, and in my opinion companies must take responsibility for their actions and seek an active role in developing their employees and solutions to societal and environmental problems. Unfortunately many businesses are measured only by quarterly earnings and taking a more holistic stand can thus be difficult - particularly for employees with no significant financial stake in the venture. Ownership alleviates that problem and will allow me to run the business I acquire in a way that is 1.) true to the values of its founder(s), and 2.) serves the interests of all stakeholders and future generations.

now

I currently live just north of San Francisco with my wife Teresa and our 3 boys Erik, Aleksander and Oliver. Teresa works in a promising Silicon Valley based start-up company with the mission to improve the treatment of behavioral health issues. 

Erik and Aleksander are cheerful, outgoing, energetic and easy-going 6 year old twins.  Aleksander is always smiling, and while Erik is a little shyer to smile, he is quicker to laugh. They love to play outside and explore, trying to do everything that they see us do--so they read, dance, and talk with everybody they meet.  We would like them to learn 3 languages (English, Danish and Mandarin Chinese) and our general philosophy is to try and expose the kids to as much as possible. As a result they stay very active and practice and enjoy baseball, swimming, tae-kwon-do, gymnastics and soccer.

Our 3 year old son Oliver is a sweet independent little boy, who tries to emulate his twin brothers in everything.  He walked earlier, climbed earlier and fed himself earlier, all in his efforts to prove himself to be one of the "big boys".  He is very verbal and he is always ready to jump into the discussion, even if it is only to parrot the latest thing that Erik or Aleks said.  He loves to listen to music and sing, play soccer and knock over his brothers' latest Lego projects :-)  He is extremely cuddly, and the best part of his (and our) day is when I get home, and he comes running over with his arms raised, for a big hug that turns into just being held for 5-10 minutes.

Prior to having children, Teresa and I were known as a couple that was always on the go, with different activities in new locations always planned.  With 3 children, we have definitely slowed down a bit, but we still enjoy travel, outdoor activities and keeping busy.  In fact, we recently took the whole family (and a 100 pound black Labrador retriever) on a 10,000 mile RV trip across the western U.S. and Canada so the kids could experience as many National Parks as possible.

For our personal blog please click here.