successful company founders and business builders in technology. The merger of BDT and MSD brought together complementary strengths, and today BDT and MSD Partners is a 500-person team serving more than 250 founders and business owners with the full breadth of advice, capital and investment solutions.
Byron spent his career supporting people who create jobs, grow companies and strengthen communities across the country. And he and his wife, Tina, care deeply about expanding opportunity for young people in rural communities. They understand firsthand that talent is everywhere, but access is not. Their support for rural education reflects their belief. It is truly authentic.
It’ s a pleasure and an honor to stand here for Byron this evening. Please join me in honoring him.
BYRON D. TROTT
Chairman, Co-CEO & Co-CIO, BDT & MSD Partners
I can’ t tell you how honored I am to accept the Whitehead Award tonight. To be associated with John Whitehead’ s name and legacy is something I take with tremendous pride and humility. I grew up in a small rural town of Missouri. My parents did not attend college, but they instilled in me a deep respect for education, hard work, accountability and integrity. They taught me to be the very best you could be at whatever you chose to do, and then to make sure you lent a helping hand to others along the way. Those Midwestern values stayed with me through my studies at the University of Chicago and throughout my 27 years at Goldman Sachs. They’ re embedded in the foundation of BDT & MSD, which we founded 17 years ago. I learned early that your word matters and that trust is earned over time.
When I arrived at Goldman Sachs in 1982, John Whitehead’ s principles were not just words on the wall. They were expected to be lived every day. The client’ s interests come first, always. That was the standard. That experience was formative for me. It reinforced everything I had learned growing up, and it became a foundational element of everything I’ ve done since. Integrity is not situational.
Stewardship is long-term, and reputation and trust are earned over decades. And if ever lost, they are almost impossible to regain.
Hank, we’ ve known each other for now almost 40 years. And you have been an extraordinary role model ever since. You set a high standard for yourself and those around you, a tone of integrity, determination, responsibility and accountability that left a lasting impression on me and so many others around you. During the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, when you were Secretary of the Treasury, I had the opportunity to admire your leadership during extraordinarily difficult times. I watched you successfully navigate severe market volatility, a sometimes-difficult Congress and strong-minded Wall Street CEOs— some of whom did not completely grasp the full scale of the financial ruin that might be in front of us.
While you and your team were stabilizing the financial system with creative and impactful solutions, I got to play a very small role by doing the same for Goldman Sachs and General Electric and negotiating capital from Warren Buffett on their behalf. It was a remarkable learning experience during extraordinarily difficult times. I learned more in those 18 months than I had in my prior 25 years at Goldman Sachs. I’ m incredibly grateful for your leadership during those times and your mentorship throughout my career.
In the spirit of John Whitehead, let me say a word about our clients. We founded BDT 17 years ago to fill what I saw was a growing need among business owners. The need for trusted advice and longterm aligned partnership capital. Across the country, not just on the coast, but in cities and towns throughout the Midwest and beyond, families are quietly building enduring enterprises. Some are still in the first 20 years, the founder’ s generation, as we call it; others are in their second, third, all the way through seven generations in some places of stewardship and success. Most don’ t seek headlines. They grow quietly, constantly adapting, innovating and investing to better serve their customers, their employees and their communities. For founders and next generation business owners, the stakes are deeply personal. Part of what we do is to bring together a network of owners, encouraging them to share best practices and worst mistakes, and creating meaningful connections across our platform. Our role is simple, to stand beside them, to listen first, to bring thoughtful advice and advise as if we own the company ourselves.
We structure solutions that respect what they have built and help them think generationally and to meet their longterm objectives. And when needed, if it’ s a fit, we will provide long-term and aligned capital. Capital alone— we have learned— is relatively easy to come by and somewhat of a commodity, but creative aligned capital is almost impossible to find.
In today’ s environment, at the beginning of an AI revolution, we witness something powerful when we connect a third-generation industrial family with a first-generation technology entrepreneur. They learn from one another, and in the process, experience mutual benefit. One brings operating knowledge and stewardship, the other brings reinvention and a disruption mindset. Both are builders and visionaries, and our mission is to help them help each other. We’ re a firm that is rooted in that belief, a firm designed to serve family business owners and founders with creativity, patience, discretion and long-term alignment. [ We’ re ] a firm that measures success not by headlines or quarterly outcomes, but by whether our clients feel supported and respected many years into our relationship.
In many ways, that reflects the spirit of John Whitehead’ s principles applied to a different generation. Put the client first, serve them well, act with integrity, think long-term, earn their trust and your success will follow. American finance at its best is about enabling builders, backing people with vision and conviction. When we lose sight of that, we lose something important.
The Museum of American Finance plays an important role in preserving those stories and reminding us that markets are ultimately about people, entrepreneurs and stewardship. So I accept this award with gratitude and humility on behalf of my colleagues, my mentors, my family and all of those who have supported me in doing what I love to do— and especially on behalf of our clients, the founders and family business owners that we learn from and who inspire us each and every day. They are the ones who deserve the recognition.
www. MoAF. org | Spring / Summer 2026 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 29