Kosty Gilis, Director

Kosty Gilis is a private equity executive and active leader in the tennis community. He is a Managing Director at Onex Partners, where he has worked since 2004 and has held his current role since 2010. He co-leads the firm's North American Business Services investment activity and has led or co-led over US$5 billion in equity investments across a diverse portfolio of companies headquartered in the United States and Europe with global operations. He is also a member of the Onex Partners Investment Committee. He works closely with portfolio company CEOs and CFOs on strategy, operations, financial matters and growth initiatives, and serves on the boards and committees of all of his portfolio investments. His prior experience includes roles at Willis Stein & Partners and Bain & Company.

Deeply committed to tennis, Kosty has been involved in the sport since childhood and remains an active player.

As a teenager, he competed in Ontario tournaments, worked as a certified instructor during the summers and was a ball kid for several years at the National Bank Open. He has also contributed to the sport through volunteerism, including as a part-time coach to youth in underserved communities in Chicago when he lived and worked there for several years. In Canada, he has been a long-time member of the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club and has served for a decade on the board of the Doug Philpott Inner-City Children's Tennis Fund, which is dedicated to helping change the lives of children through tennis in Toronto's highest priority neighbourhoods.

He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Born in the former Soviet Union and raised in Toronto after immigrating to Canada in the 1970s as a child refugee with his family, he brings a global perspective to both his professional and personal life. He is married with three children, three of whom attend McGill University.