The Private Equity Podcast, by Raw Selection
Hosted by Alex Rawlings, Managing Partner of Raw Selection, a specialist executive search firm. Join us as we interview the leading experts in Private Equity, unlocking their secrets of success to share with you.
Discover how some of the top Private Equity professionals got into Private Equity, how they rose to success and learn about some of the mistakes they made along the way.
Alex has strong connections to the Private Equity industry through his executive search firm, Raw Selection, which specialises in working with Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies across Europe and North America. Alex is straight talking and to the point and aims to unlock real gold you can build into your firm or portfolio companies. Find out more at www.raw-selection.com
The Private Equity Podcast, by Raw Selection
Billion-dollar portfolio executive to infrastructure private equity investor with Chris Rozzell
Chris Rozell, Managing Partner at Cresta, joins us to discuss his journey from portfolio exec to founding a PE firm, scaling businesses to billions, and investing in decarbonization-focused infrastructure. He shares pragmatic insights on ESG, early-stage infra, and building trust with management teams—plus how Cresta bridges the gap between VC and large infra players.
[00:00] Chris Rizel, Managing Partner at Cresta, on infra investing, founding a PE firm, LP returns, and ESG.
[00:29] Early career: banking, power, then scaling Regency to billions and launching Cresta.
[01:49] Lessons from CCO role—scaling a PE-backed startup to public exit.
[02:40] Real leadership is learned in the trenches, not in transactions.
[04:33] Portfolio vs. PE firm: loss of customer insight, importance of trust.
[06:24] Mistake: avoiding early-stage infra. Cresta tackles it head-on.
[08:20] Built Cresta Fund Services to support early-stage founders.
[09:18] Go all-in on early infra—don’t dabble.
[10:17] Why decarbonization? Deep sector knowledge, big opportunity.
[11:44] Focused on waste, ag, logistics, and industry—high emission areas.
[12:43] Not impact-first. Returns come from low-cost, proven tech.
[14:08] Avoid high-cost hype. Stick to scalable, pragmatic solutions.
[15:35] Investing in “dirty” sectors to drive green efficiency and profit.
[16:56] Strategy: build from scratch, bridge gap between VC and big infra.
[18:21] Targeting the “missing middle” — commercial but small-scale tech.
[19:48] De-risk, scale, exit to strategics or infra roll-ups.
[21:41] Trends like RNG and biofuels are consolidating—Cresta’s in it.
[23:37] Long-term contracts appeal to infra buyers—interest growing.
[24:01] ESG: take a pragmatic, cost-first approach.
[25:27] Climate’s real, but so are other global issues—balance the spend.
[26:51] Keep climate solutions affordable to avoid wider harm.
[27:18] Influences: Founders Podcast, Acquired, stoicism.
[29:10] Stoic mindset: control your response, not external events.
Connect with Chris Rozzell on LinkedIn. Thanks for tuning in.
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Got feedback or questions? Email Alex at alex.rawlings@raw-selection.com. Until next time—keep smashing it!
The discussion in this podcast is for informational purposes and should not be relied on as investment advice or an offer to sell or a solicitation for an offer to buy any securities. Any opinions expressed are those of the speaker and are subject to change. Any discussion of past performance is provided for informational purposes only, is not track record information and should not be relied upon as a guarantee of future performance. Any information regarding the performance of prior companies was discussed in order to illustrate the experience of the partners of the firm and does not reflect the private equity fund management experience of the partners. It should not be assumed that investments made by Cresta will be comparable in quality or performance to the prior companies.