Bud Scruggs’ mother told him he was a quitter, and his father told him his only option was to learn a trade. So he did—and then some.
Today, Bud Scruggs is the co-founder of the Cynosure Group, a private equity firm managing nearly $10 billion in assets. He has served as CEO of private and public companies, as chief of staff to a Utah governor, and as a full-time faculty member at two universities. He sits on the boards of Lendio, Fresh, Build Group, and Snowbird Ski Resort.
But none of that was his original plan.
In fact, there wasn’t really a plan at all, just a series of unexpected turns, unlikely mentors, and a lifelong willingness to walk through whatever came his way.
Low Expectations and High Standards
Bud grew up in Seattle with parents who believed in honesty above almost everything else—a lesson he now shares with the same humble, self-aware humor that make his stories so widely relatable. His mother, a registered nurse from New Jersey, had a straightforward theory on why he should tell the truth.
“Bud, to be a liar, you have to be really smart. You’ve got to be able to remember everything you said, and you’re not that bright. And we really recommend that you tell the truth.”
His father, a security guard from Georgia, had equally grounded advice: learn a trade. When Bud told his parents he planned to attend BYU, they didn’t celebrate. They sat him down and told him they thought he’d quit. So instead of heading to college, Bud graduated from high school in 1975 and went to work at Lockheed Shipyards in Seattle, earning his journeyman sheet metal worker certification while building Navy ships. On an inflation-adjusted basis, he was earning nearly $60 an hour right out of high school.
It wasn’t the path he expected, but it gave Bud something more valuable than a credential. It gave him the freedom that comes from low expectations.
“As long as I was honest, I knew I could never disappoint my parents,” he says.
Politics, Teaching, and Finding His Way
Bud eventually did make his way to BYU, where he earned a degree in political science and a JD. While attending school, he discovered politics through practical observation.
Bud said, “I saw in politics that you got high ego rewards for very mediocre performance, and I was drawn to it.”
Through campaign work, Bud crossed paths with future Utah Governor Mike Leavitt and Governor Bangerter, eventually serving as chief of staff. After helping Governor Leavitt get elected, Bud made the surprising decision to become a professor.
He went back to BYU, which took a chance on him, and he taught full-time for four years before spending a year as a visiting faculty member at UNC Chapel Hill. He loved the classroom, but the academic life had a quieter, more isolating side that didn’t sit right with him.
One evening, he came home and collapsed on the couch. He told his wife Shirley that he felt isolated. He felt that academia discouraged practical experience, and that he’d lost his voice as a writer. Shirley, who managed the family finances and had watched him take two consecutive pay cuts to become a professor, said this stern sentence with much love:
“Listen very carefully, I will not be married to an unhappy, poorly compensated man.”
Bud got up off the couch, sent a note to Leucadia National Corporation, and within the week had a plane ticket to New York. He finished out his teaching obligation and leaped into the deals side of business.
A world he knew almost nothing about.
Learning the Business of Business
Bud arrived at Leucadia with no business background and no formal training in finance. He was hired to run a movie company and negotiated one condition: that they teach him the business of deals.
Leucadia honored that deal. They made him get an accounting tutor, partly because, as Bud says, it was distracting when he confused revenue with income. Within a couple of years, he was responsible for all of their operating companies, overseeing confirmatory due diligence across a wildly diverse portfolio: manufacturing, banking, insurance, wineries, a copper mine, and even shoes.
For Bud, it turned out that being an outsider was an advantage. When he was dropped into Empire Insurance in New York to try and turn around a struggling company, he gathered the senior team and told them plainly:
“If any of you are inclined to play Stump the Dummy, it will be a very short game.”
Then he asked the only question he thought mattered: where are we making money, and where are we spending it?
In the end, they couldn’t save the company, but they executed what Bud describes as one of the most profitable insurance liquidations in New York State history. They were transparent with their employees. They honored every commitment.
They did hard things the right way.
That lesson would stick with Bud for the rest of his life.
He spent 12 years at Leucadia. And in that time, he came to understand something about himself: he wasn’t a visionary. His role was better suited to execute.
“When I’m feeling grandiose, I tell people that I’m a Joseph to other men’s Pharaohs.”
Building Cynosure
The Cynosure Group began at a kitchen table, when Bud’s longtime friend Randy Quarles—a former undersecretary of the Treasury and Carlyle Group veteran—laid out a vision for what the firm could become.
At first, Bud was skeptical about Randy’s vision. He says, “I remember coming out of that meeting thinking, isn’t that cute that that guy thinks we can do this? And I just rolled up my sleeves, and we made it happen.”
Thirteen years later, the firm Randy mapped out that day is almost exactly what Cynosure has become.
From the beginning, Cynosure built its identity around one idea: alignment. The firm targets founders who want a partner, not a buyer. They require a simple capital stack. They don’t compete on price. And they spend months, sometimes years, getting to know a team before putting a deal together.
“We almost never win a deal because we’re the highest payer. We win deals because we’re the most aligned with the founder and management team.”
They also made a deliberate decision to avoid heavy leverage. While the rest of the private equity world was using four to five times leverage on deals, Cynosure averaged less than one. Bud credits their discipline and their alignment model for helping the firm weather the era of rising interest rates.
When Cynosure invests, they hold. They want to let their investments compound rather than rush toward an exit. But they’re also honest with their founders: if the numbers aren’t there at year five, they need a way out. They try to avoid what Bud calls the Hotel California problem, where you can check out but never leave.
The result has been a firm that now manages nearly $10 billion in assets, employs 85 people across offices in Salt Lake City and New York, and has built a national reputation for doing private equity differently.
Their mission is as simple as it is clear: “Cynosure’s goal is to help good people do great things.”
Lessons for Entrepreneurs
Bud’s career is full of hard-won insight. Here are a few lessons to carry with you:
- Expertise isn’t everything: Some of Bud’s greatest successes came in industries he knew nothing about. Asking the right questions often matters more than having all the answers.
- Alignment beats price: Shared incentives and shared goals will outlast any deal structured on numbers alone.
- Do hard things the right way: Integrity isn’t just a value. It’s a strategy.
- Know who you are: Bud never pretended to be a visionary. Knowing your role is its own kind of strength.
- Be careful with leverage: Bud watched companies build on borrowed money, eventually collapse. Structure deals you can stand behind without depending on external conditions.
- Who you work with matters more than what you earn: Choosing the right people to work with is one of the highest-value decisions you can make.
Looking Ahead
Bud Scruggs will turn 69 this year, and he’ll be the first to tell you his ambitions have shifted. Where he once focused on deals, he now focuses on people. Specifically, on helping the younger generation of talent at Cynosure succeed.
Cynosure is approaching $10 billion in assets and is expanding its platform beyond private equity and private credit to include wealth management, a sports fund, a real estate fund, and a hedge fund.
Their reputation nationally is growing, and the firm’s founding philosophy is proving more relevant than ever in a market that’s finally being honest about the cost of money.
For Bud, the next chapter is about mentorship and meaning. He knows the value of having someone in your corner who expects more from you than you expect from yourself.
“One of the great blessings of my life is I’ve always worked with people that expected me to do better.”
Now, he intends to be that person for others.
Want the full story behind The Cynosure Group?
Listen to the complete MountainWest Capital Network Podcast episode, where Bud shares how he came to build one of the most successful companies in an unlikely way.
[Listen to Bud’s full story here →]
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4fB0EjhniLKijttroK5oOW?si=Dvtc4ygLStuz8ppl7-p_gA
Connect with The Cynosure Group:
- Cynosure’s Website: https://cynosuregroup.com/
- Cynosure on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-cynosure-group/