‘Master of universe’ welcomed as head of National Theatre

The National Theatre hailed the “cultural understanding” of private equity boss Damon Buffini as it named him as its chairman.

Mr Buffini was one of the so-called “masters of the universe” who made a fortune as they rode the growth of the private equity industry in the run-up to the financial crisis.

He is no stranger to drama, reluctantly entering the public eye a decade ago when he was targeted by unions in protest over job cuts at several companies owned by Permira, the private-equity firm he ran for almost 10 years.

The National Theatre praised his “deep engagement with theatre”, citing his membership of the board at the Royal Shakespeare Company since 2010. He is also a governor of the Wellcome Trust, Britain’s biggest charity, and co-founder of the Social Business Trust, a social enterprise fund.

“My family and I have been coming to the National Theatre for years; it’s one of this country’s great cultural institutions and I am honoured to have been appointed as chair,” Mr Buffini stated.

Before stepping down as Permira chairman in 2009, he was among a handful of buyout bosses called before a parliamentary inquiry to defend their industry against accusations of asset-stripping and tax-dodging.

At the peak of the protests, unions paraded a camel outside Mr Buffini’s church, reminding the millionaire of the biblical parable that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.

He will replace John Makinson, a former Financial Times journalist and current chairman of publisher Penguin Random House, who is retiring as chairman of the National Theatre after five years at the helm.

Mr Buffini, who will not be paid as chairman,is the second former private equity boss to join the National Theatre’s board alongside Clive Sherling, a former senior partner at Apax Partners.

Other financiers on the theatre’s board include Dominic Casserley, chairman of insurance broker Willis, and Glenn Earle, a former Goldman Sachs executive.

The National Theatre recently completed an £80m overhaul and seems unlikely to require much financial engineering after making a “surplus” of £1.3m last year, despite its government funding being cut by a quarter.

Mr Buffini was brought up in a small Leicester council flat by his mother; his American serviceman father was not part of the family. He won a place at Cambridge and went on to study for an MBA at Harvard.