Carl Hart’s Long Game: Building Millbank Capital; New Frontier, For the New Vanguards.
Based in Dallas, The London raised British-Nigerian investor is turning succession gaps into a Private Equity investment thesis.
There is a particular moment in a market cycle when the numbers stop being the story and the handoffs become the headline.
As the baby boomer generation approaches retirement, some face critical succession decisions. Annually, an average of 350,000 businesses are sold—a dynamic trend set to facilitate the transfer of an astounding $14 trillion in business value over the next two decades.
For Carl Hart, this is not merely a talking point. It is the thesis. He moved to Dallas to build a private equity firm around what he sees as a defining shift in this era: a major wealth transfer, mirrored by a broader transfer of influence. Recent examples make the pattern visible. Rupert Murdoch stepped down as Chairman of Fox Corp and News Corp, installing his son Lachlan in his place. George Soros transitioned leadership of the Open Society Foundations to his son, Alexander. Larry Ellison provided $40 billion in backing to support his son David’s Paramount–Skydance bid to acquire Warner Bros.
His argument is blunt. Power and influence changes hands whether people are ready for it or not. The only difference is whether it is bequeathed or usurped.
The Wealth Transfer Everyone Feels but Few Can Name
Hart does not describe this moment in abstract terms. He frames it as a practical void: an entire generation of business owners nearing retirement without a clear succession plan, while many next generation heirs choose social media influencer over continuation. Operating unsexy businesses often do not match the aspirations of the people set to inherit them.
That gap creates a different kind of marketplace, one shaped less by invention than by transition. In Hart’s view, mergers and acquisitions become the most effective way to participate in this transfer or wealth, not as a spectator, but as an operator. His model is structurally simple though demanding in execution: identify a fragmented sector, acquire mid market businesses, consolidate them onto a platform, modernize what needs modernizing, increase profitability and eventually exit to a strategic buyer.
The detail that matters is what he believes modernization actually means. It is not cosmetic. It is infrastructure. Hart talks about companies performing well on paper while still running processes and systems that belong to another decade. The opportunity, as he sees it, is to add value through product / service optimization, digitalization, operational redesign, erecting new verticals, and expanding into new markets; Position those businesses for an AI driven world already reshaping expectations and possibilities.
A Background Built for Systems, Not Shortcuts
Hart’s story carries a geographic tension that shows up in his worldview. He is Nigerian by heritage, born in London, and raised partly on the African continent. He speaks about the West with the clarity of someone who has benefited and gleaned insights from the enabling environment and stable structure of its institutions. He speaks about Africa with the frustration of someone who refuses to romanticize potential.
By his observation, Africa remains the only major region still waiting for full scale industrialization and modern infrastructure. He highlights the demographic of a young ambitious population, as an advantage only if it is met with the necessary infrastructure: such as electricity, transportation, and education. Without those basic foundations, the same growth in population engenders an acute problem.
He brings the comparison back to place and proof. Look at Dubai, he says, and how it has been transformed over the last few decades. It has gone from being a desert to a metropolis. The message is not envy. It is insistence. With a paradigm shift in self concept as a people; structures, processes, the right incentives, security, access and private, public partnerships, radical transformation is possible. Without these prime factors, “potential” becomes a permanent label.
Leadership as a Disposition, Not a title.
Hart’s language about leadership is structured. He does not describe leadership as charisma or presence. He describes it as a disposition and mental posture.
He names four cardinal features of leadership: prudence, temperance, fairness, and fortitude. Prudence is stewardship of resources, thrift with capital and scrupulous in allocation. Temperance is poise, not being reactive, but calm and collected, maintaining equanimity at all times. Fairness means making judgements free of prejudice, based on merit and equity. Fortitude is the credibility of a good decision, pattern recognition, data interpretation, and the ability to see beyond the obvious.
It is also where his view of risk becomes clear. Risk, in his framing, is a derivative. It is a symptom. Risk expands when you do guess work. Data analysis, stress testing, conservative assumptions shrink avoidable exposure. He admits black swans exist. He simply refuses to build his life around the fear of them, but factors them in. Most people focus on ‘the worst that can happen, more than the best that can happen’.
The Four Capitals Behind Any Endeavour
Hart’s most useful framework is the one he uses to demystify momentum. Money alone, he insists, does not create it.
He describes four forms of capital. The first is “adventure capital,” the vision and ability to conceive an actionable concept / idea. The second is human capital, very important- recruiting the right people for the right roles to get the job done. The third is financial capital, important but ultimately, “jet fuel” that gets us from point A to point B. The fourth is favor capital, the alignment that cannot be manufactured, the door that just opens, that miraculous thing that changes everything, the timing that no spreadsheet can predict.
This is where Hart’s worldview reveals its edge. He rejects the mythology of self made success. Too much of the outcome, he argues, comes from dependent variables. That concept merely fuels one’s ego. It is Positioning, dedication, and the willingness to keep climbing even when the climb looks unreasonable.
Why Dallas, Why Now
Hart is explicit that Texas was a strategic decision. He describes Dallas as a burgeoning market across sectors, a region affluent with the factors of production: land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship. He points to the steady migration of companies and talent into Texas, alongside developments such as the launch of the Texas Stock Exchange, informally dubbed “Y’all Street.” Centrally located, the state provides efficient access across the United States.
He also describes something more cultural, and more personal: an environment where it is not unusual to open a business meeting with prayer, asking for wisdom before talking business. For Hart, that matters, it reinforces purpose and mission.
Legacy as Access, Not a Balance Sheet
Hart’s definition of legacy is not in material. It is relational power used as leverage for the benefit of others.
He tells a story about visiting a mentor inside the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and how the attitude of a room changes towards him when he voiced the name he was associated with. His conclusion is direct: legacy is when your name becomes a key, granting people access they would not have on their own merit.
That definition comes with a price. To become that kind of key, he says, you have to supply value at scale, over time. It demands a high standard and reputation.
The Heritage Project and a Broader Aim
Hart’s ambition is not limited to roll-ups. He has also launched a new initiative: The Heritage Project, focused on historically Black colleges and universities. The initiative aims to restore and upgrade sports stadiums and arenas, building student housing, and mixed-use development. His goal is to reverse what he sees as a brain drain in athletic and academic talent by rebuilding the infrastructure that attracts it. He describes using sports anchored, mixed use districts to drive education, enterprise, entertainment, and environment, creating year round facilities and modern campuses that serve students and surrounding communities.
It is consistent with everything else he believes. Systems create outcomes. Infrastructure manifests potential.
Hart wants readers to leave with a single takeaway: the world we have known over the last half-century is shifting. The influence of long-standing institutions, individuals, and nations is fading, as new and unorthodox players are emerging across business and politics.
His view is unsentimental. Know where you stand. If you are holding power, prepare to pass the baton. If you are among the up-and-coming; the underdogs, develop capacity. Be ready to step up when the moment arrives.
He does not promise certainty. He promises commitment.
