Erik Ragatz

Erik Ragatz is a Senior Advisor at Hellman & Friedman LLC (H&F), a global investment firm headquartered in San Francisco, and a lecturer in finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Erik was formerly a Partner at H&F, where he spent more than 20 years as a senior member of the investment team, leading H&F’s retail, consumer, and industrial efforts. He has chaired or been a member of numerous public and private boards, including Grocery Outlet, Caliber Collision, LPL Financial, Goodman Global, and Superplum. Erik is a graduate of Stanford University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He currently serves as Vice Chair of the Stanford Business School Trust, and he is a member of the Stanford Undergraduate Cabinet.

For the past 15 years Erik has been a dedicated practitioner of the Dharma and he is deeply moved by, and committed to, the Theravādan tradition. A student of the Dharma—both through study of the Buddha’s teachings and direct observation of his mind through a Vipassanā meditation practice—Erik seeks to bring his practice together with his investing work. Using his platform as an investor and Board Chair in combination with the wisdom and compassion of the Dharma, Erik works to help shape the cultures and practices of the businesses with which he works to positively impact the thousands of employees, customers, investors, and other stakeholders touched by the companies.