Lee Equity adds James Rothstein as Operating Partner

NEW YORK—Lee Equity Partners, a New York-based middle-market private equity firm, announced that James Rothstein has joined the firm as an Operating Partner. He will work with the firm to source and evaluate investments in the security and fire services segment.

Rothstein is a 30-year executive in the security industry and most recently led Wesco/Anixter’s $2 billion-plus global security and fire business as Senior Vice President, Global Security Solutions.

Prior to Anixter, Rothstein was Executive Vice President and Principal at Tri-Ed Distribution, which he acquired from TYCO in 2004 with former Honeywell colleagues. During a ten-year period, Tri-Ed grew six-fold, becoming the largest independent security products distributor in North America through a combination of acquisitions and strong organic growth. Tri-Ed was acquired by Anixter in 2006. Rothstein began his career with the Pittway Corporation and Honeywell in Sales and Marketing roles, including VP of Marketing for ADI. 

“We are extremely pleased to be partnering with James Rothstein to pursue growth investment opportunities in the commercial security and fire services sector,” said Yoo Jin Kim, a Partner at Lee Equity. “He has demonstrated a strong historical track record of growing companies both organically and via acquisition at several platform companies and with several owners. As Chairman-Elect of the Security Industry Association, James is well respected and has a broad set of relationships in the security industry.”

Rothstein holds a B.S. in Economics from Colgate University. He is a Chairman-Elect of the Security Industry Association (SIA) and a member of the Board of Directors since 2019.