After graduating, Leder joined
Lehman Brothers in January 1987 as an analyst, and worked his way up to Senior Vice President. In 1995, he left Lehman's with Krouse to found the
private equity firm
Sun Capital Partners, Inc. Sun Capital Partners Leder and Krouse founded Sun Capital in 1995. They chose
Boca Raton, Florida for their headquarters, believing the New York market was already too saturated and competitive. Leder describes the difficult first five years for Sun Capital, saying he and Krouse were, "just two investment bankers trying to get into private equity." And, when he asked his private equity contacts for advice, they told him, "stick with investment banking." Undeterred, Leder says they honed a careful strategy, which was "to buy companies that others didn't want to buy." Through perseverance, their strategy proved successful, leading to nearly a decade of rapid growth until 2008, when the market downturn and global
Great Recession took hold. That forced Leder and Krouse to retrench, and to once again rework their strategy, and by July 2013, Sun Capital had $8 billion in invested assets. Leder credits the lessons learned from the global recession for helping him guide Sun Capital's path through the
COVID-19 pandemic a decade later. He told
RSM US, "We had the playbook for this pandemic—not the social distancing, but the dramatic economic impact, the deep recession we find ourselves in. And we shared that playbook with our management teams, and they were outstanding at getting and understanding the challenges that were facing them, whether it be employee safety and health, to cutting costs, to maintaining liquidity, to serving customers." As of January 2024, Sun Capital reports $14 billion in cumulative capital commitments from a portfolio of around 40 companies that employ nearly 28,000 people worldwide.
The Sun Capital Partners Foundation In 2007, Leder and Krouse created the charitable arm of the company called the Sun Capital Partners Foundation. The foundation pools and triple-matches employee contributions. The foundation says its goal is to "promote sustainable, positive change" by working with local nonprofit organizations. ==Investments in Professional Sports Franchises==