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Private Equity: The Portfolio Company Perspective with Al Drewes, Director, Former COO, Sun Products Corp.

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Extracurricular/Social Career Management Food and Beverage Private Equity

Tue, Sep 22, 2026

12:45 PM – 2 PM EDT (GMT-4)

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During this session Al will be discussing his experiences as the Chief Operating Officer of Sun Products, a private equity portfolio company that was owned by Vestar Capital Partners. We monetized the Sun investment in 2016 for $3.6 billion. Most of the discussions at Columbia about private equity are from the perspective of the sponsor, i.e. the private equity firm that has invested in the company. In his session he will be talking about private equity from the perspective of the management of the portfolio company, a very different lens from that of the sponsor. He has led this Lunch and Learn in previous semesters and found that students who are interested in careers in P.E., even if it is working for the sponsor, find the sessions very valuable.

Speakers

Al Drewes ’82's profile photo

Al Drewes '82

Executives in Residence Program Director and Former COO, Sun Products Corp. Former SVP, CFO, Pepsi Bottling Group

Executives in Residence Program

Al Drewes '82 brings over 35 years of executive experience with both global public and private equity portfolio companies in the consumer products space.  Most recently he was the Chief Operating Officer of the Sun Products Corporation.  Sun was a portfolio company owned by the private equity sponsor, Vestar Capital Partners.  Al joined Sun in 2012 at a time when the company was struggling.  Responsible for supply chain, finance, procurement, IT and customer service, he led the turnaround of the company through productivity and topline growth initiatives resulting in a highly successful monetization.  In 2016, Sun was sold to Henkel AG for $3.6 Billion, a 12.9x multiple of EBITDA and one of the five largest private equity monetizations that year.    Prior to joining Sun Products, Al was the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Pepsi Bottling Group for nine years.  PBG was a $13.2 Billion NYSE company with operations across the globe.  During his tenure as CFO, Al led initiates including multibillion dollar acquisitions in Mexico and Russia, successfully navigating the 2008 financial crisis while generating 10% CAGR EPS growth and a nearly 4x improvement in stock price.   Prior to Sun he held multiple leadership positions with PepsiCo, including CFO, VP of Manufacturing Operations, General Manager of Sub Sahara Africa and VP of Planning and Business Development with PepsiCo International.  He is currently a member of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Audit Committee of Tab Foods Investments, based in Istanbul.  He was formerly a Director of the Meredith Corporation.  Al took his BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts and his MBA from Columbia, where he was Class Respondent. Areas of interest: private equity, public company CFO, multinational executive leadership, consumer products, emerging markets and M&A.

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