On a Monday in the fall of 1986, Andrew Sheiner arrived at McKinsey for his first job after college. Dominic Barton arrived that day too. Decades later, Sheiner remembered the contrast with a little amusement: “I felt totally inadequate.” Barton, he recalled, seemed quietly confident. The future founder of Altas Partners did not begin his working life with the composure he would eventually make part of his firm's identity.
Nearly forty years on, the two early colleagues are connected through another beginning. Barton sits on the advisory council of Wolf Scholars, the undergraduate scholarship program Sheiner founded at the University of Toronto. The young consultant who wondered whether he belonged now helps other young people get enough room to find their footing.
Between those Mondays and those scholarships lies a career built around an unusually practical question: how much time does good work actually need? Sheiner's answer became Altas, a private equity firm he founded in Toronto in 2012. Its premise allows ownership to follow a business's possibilities, with fewer acquisitions and more latitude over when to sell. Even in a profession that likes a schedule, the calendar need not chair every meeting.
Seventeen years before the blank sheet
Sheiner's academic preparation was conventional enough for finance: a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics from McGill, where he finished first in his class, followed by an MBA at Harvard Business School. Before joining Onex in 1995, he worked at McKinsey and in a private family business. Consulting gave way to investing, and investing became an apprenticeship in building an organization.
At Onex, Sheiner helped establish the large-cap private equity platform in 2001 and oversaw other investment platforms, including ONCAP. He spent seventeen years there, working under founder Gerry Schwartz. That is a substantial stretch of a career to devote to someone else's enterprise, long enough to understand its habits as well as its transactions.
In an early account of his departure, Sheiner spoke appreciatively of the culture Schwartz and his team had created. He singled out the principle of investing their own money alongside the firm's capital, an alignment that remained as Onex began managing outside investors' partnerships. He also pointed to his working relationship with Michael Lay in developing ONCAP. His account of the past gave other people plenty of space.
Then came his own beginning. “When innovating, sometimes you need a blank sheet of paper,” he said. Altas was the result. By March 2013, the fledgling firm had seven professionals and its first backer. A new name on the door was only the visible part; the difficult work was deciding what kind of owner would walk through it.
A business is allowed to take its time
The issue Sheiner wanted to address was embedded in private equity's structure. A conventional fund could have a ten-year life, with a period to invest followed by a period to sell. The resulting ownership cycle often lasted three to five years. That arrangement made sense as a way to organize capital. It could also impose a deadline on a company that still had worthwhile work ahead.
He described an investor's frustration with owning funds that bought companies, sold them to other funds, and effectively bought them again through another investment. The company continued; the costs of changing hands accumulated. Management teams had to accommodate the changes too. From that vantage point, a successful sale and a useful change of ownership were separate questions.
Altas adopted three connected principles: be discerning about acquisitions, seek businesses of established quality, and retain flexibility over the ownership period. A decade or more could be appropriate. An earlier sale could be appropriate as well. The freedom ran in both directions. A long horizon was permission to exercise judgment, rather than a requirement to stay forever.
That distinction keeps the idea grounded. Time does not improve a weak business by itself. Giving an owner longer to act is valuable only if there is something productive to do. Sheiner's approach asks the buying decision to carry more of the burden: understand what makes the business durable before counting on the years ahead.
“When innovating, sometimes you need a blank sheet of paper.”
Andrew Sheiner
Salt, roofs, and the work of looking closely
Altas's first acquisition, in late 2013, was NSC Minerals, a Saskatoon company supplying salt for road de-icing and agricultural uses in Western Canada and the northwestern United States. It was a tangible first expression of the strategy. Road salt is easy to describe at dinner; understanding the business that delivers it still requires attention to customers, assets and economics.
By 2014, Sheiner had assembled colleagues with experience at firms including KKR and Providence Equity Partners. The young firm was looking for one or two large acquisitions each year, a deliberately narrow output for a team engaged in a crowded market. He was already concerned with whether a business could withstand changes that might quickly overturn an established model.
In November 2018, Altas bought Tecta America, a commercial roofing business then employing more than 3,000 roofing professionals across more than sixty locations. It acquired the company from ONCAP, connecting Sheiner's new firm with a platform from his earlier career. Roofs provided another unglamorous subject for serious attention. The work was national, physical and performed by crews, with a business built around maintaining buildings.
The purchase also fits Altas's stated search for capabilities developed over many years and difficult to reproduce. Its current framework names three tests: quality, durability and opportunity. The business must have something distinctive, remain relevant into the future, and offer a credible way to increase cash flow. A familiar product is only the beginning of the inquiry.
Capabilities built over years.
A business with staying power.
A practical path forward.
The scale of a very small shopping list
The firm grew without making acquisition volume its central ambition. In 2016, Altas closed a US$1 billion fund. That vehicle gave it the option to own investments for up to seventeen years and charged management fees on invested capital rather than the whole pool raised. The fund's design made the ownership argument concrete. Patience had to appear in the paperwork, as well as in the conversation.
An example Sheiner cited was Onex's fifteen-year ownership of Sky Chefs. A business could develop substantially during a long relationship with an owner. Yet Altas retained the ability to sell sooner. Its structure addressed the pressure to dispose of a company for fund reasons when continued ownership still looked attractive.
In July 2023, Altas closed its third fund with US$4 billion in commitments, one-third larger than its US$3 billion predecessor. It planned to invest that fund in five to seven businesses. Sheiner reported that the firm had acquired ten businesses since its founding and expected an eleventh within months. That next investment would be its first in more than two years.
Those numbers make an instructive pairing: billions committed, a handful of intended purchases. Investors can supply more money faster than an attractive company becomes available. By limiting the intended shopping list, the firm leaves itself exposed to an obvious challenge: each choice matters considerably. Concentration demands diligence, and a quiet acquisition calendar still leaves plenty of work to do.
July 2023
for that fund
per year
An office that declines to look hurried
Sheiner's attention extends to the room in which the work happens. In 2020, he sought a new identity for Altas, replacing a website whose dark boardroom imagery felt impersonal. He became closely involved in the language and design. Furniture, art and the website were part of the same effort to communicate focus and calm.
His description of the desired atmosphere was explicit: “there is nothing frenetic about our firm, intentionally.” Altas commissions a piece by a Canadian artist when it buys a new business. Its office has no receptionist; visitors encounter contemporary art and furniture intended to invite a conversation over coffee. It is a surprisingly domestic detail in a story about institutional money.
Sheiner likens building a firm to assembling a jigsaw puzzle. Strategy, team, culture and the experience of the place should fit together. His interest in aesthetics serves that larger intention. A website can announce patience; an office can help people feel it. The chairs, apparently, have a job description too.
Sixteen students, and a grandfather's name
In April 2025, Sheiner's interest in developing people took another form with the launch of Wolf Scholars. The Wolf Cooper Foundation partnered with the University of Toronto and its Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. The program was designed around a small annual cohort, financial support and experiences that extend beyond the lecture hall.
The name honors Sheiner's late grandfather, Wolf Cooper, who cared deeply about history, ethics and philosophy and valued raising his family in Canada. The program carries those interests into a new setting. Broad study, travel, internships and mentorship are intended to help students understand a complicated world before they are asked to lead within it.
Sheiner developed the scholarship concept through conversations about university education with Melanie Woodin. His family made a multimillion-dollar commitment. The early vision emphasized students learning together on one campus and gaining an understanding of history, philosophy and political science alongside practical experience. His commerce education did not lead him to insist that everyone follow the same path.
By May 2026, the first sixteen scholars had been named. The program's current scope includes students in Arts & Science and Applied Science & Engineering, with a funded four-year undergraduate journey. That provides a fresh measure of Sheiner's interests. After years spent assessing what established businesses might become, he has helped create a setting for people who are just beginning.
The parallel is an interpretation, but a useful one: both efforts make room for development before demanding a finished result. A business needs a capable owner and an appropriate horizon. A student needs support, experiences and the freedom to ask a better question. Sheiner has built institutions around giving those processes time. It is a patient ambition, with quite a lot scheduled inside it.