Paul Scribner Featured in CEO Times on the Union-First Investment Thesis

CEO Times has featured Paul Scribner, founder and Chief Executive Officer of General Holdings Limited, in a new article examining his argument that the success of complex industrial investments can depend on engaging the workforce before the traditional transaction process takes shape.

Published August 18, “General Holdings and the Union-First Thesis” explores a central principle behind Scribner’s investment philosophy: the people who operate an industrial asset often possess both the institutional knowledge and practical influence that determine whether a transaction can ultimately succeed.

The article examines why General Holdings begins its approach to certain industrial opportunities with labor rather than treating workforce engagement as a later stage of the investment process.

“The workforce at a state-built asset holds a veto whether or not your term sheet acknowledges it,” Scribner told CEO Times. “You can find that out at the beginning or you can find it out two years in.”

CEO Times positions the approach as a challenge to conventional thinking around political risk. Where investors may attribute difficulties surrounding industrial assets to politics, regulation, legacy ownership, or market conditions, Scribner argues that investors should also examine whether their own approach has failed to account for the social and institutional structure surrounding an asset.

The feature also connects the union-first thesis to Scribner’s broader thinking about ownership and responsibility. Through General Holdings, GH Insights, and his personal writing, Scribner has consistently explored the obligations that accompany capital and long-term ownership.

“Ownership carries obligations that outlive the transaction,” Scribner said. “That is not sentiment. In these markets it is the operating condition.”

Ultimately, the CEO Times feature presents the union-first thesis as more than a labor strategy. It is an argument about how investors understand risk, establish legitimacy, and approach assets whose value is inseparable from the people and communities around them.

Read the full feature: General Holdings and the Union-First Thesis — CEO Times