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30 Cover Story : The 30 most influential LPs in Europe

In June 2002, based on the view that for all its growing up,private equity fundamentally remains an industry whereengaged individuals can make more of a difference than

institutional might, Private Equity International published a listof who we thought were the 50 most influential practitioners inEurope. Drawing on dozens of views of professionals acrossthe industry’s core constituencies, the list was a subjective A-Z of the people who we concluded were having the greatestimpact on the European private equity market.

A year on, following the same motivation and methodology, wefocus on just one of the groups of professionals: the investors.The questions we asked the market were: who are theinvestors, indigenous or from overseas, that really stand out inEurope? Which limited partners are most active as providers ofcapital to European private equity firms, and who has the mostinsight into the mechanics of the asset class? Who, in otherwords, ranks among the most influential LPs in Europe?

For an LP to be influential can mean many things. Of coursemoney matters, and there are people on the buyside who byinvesting large amounts of capital have helped establish privateequity as a potent source of funding to private companies inEurope. But investors don’t have to have a fat chequebook inorder to have ‘influence’. It’s also how you use it. Which LPs dogeneral partners most want to see commit to their funds early on,knowing that their presence will attract others? Who is rated forsuperior understanding of private equity investing and best-in-class due diligence? And who have been the most vocal advo-cates for changing the ways in which GPs and LPs interact?

These questions are particularly relevant at a time when theindustry is still getting to grips with the fallout from the publicmarkets. Less experienced investors are turning to more sea-

soned colleagues to see how they are dealing with problems intheir portfolios and general partners will also consult with theinvestors they rate.

It’s obviously not just the investors who play a crucial part inthis process. One such group of practitioners who we do notconsider here because they don’t fall into the LP category butwhose influence is probably at a peak right now are the gate-keepers that do not handle discretionary capital: US-basedCambridge Associates and Pacific Corporate Group forinstance, and pension consultants Watson Wyatt and HewittBacon & Woodrow. Also missing from our list are the struc-tured finance specialists such Capital Dynamics, which recent-ly helped US insurer AIG to complete an innovative $1bn secu-ritisation of private equity fund investments, who do much tomould the asset class by opening up new routes to liquidity forinvestors. And then there are the placement agents: theirinsight into what will and won’t sell on today’s fundraising trailis invaluable to GPs and LPs alike.

Despite the proximity to the buyside that these groups enjoy,we concentrated strictly on professionals who make a livingout of putting capital into private equity funds. With onenotable exception, the people on this list are all active limitedpartners operating in Europe - managers of funds of funds andpublic sector money, of insurance, bank and pension assets,of family offices and endowments.

Appearing in alphabetical order, all the investors mentionedhere, through their monetary and intellectual contributions, areaiding the evolution of the European private equity market.Crucially, the list is not a ranking, and it doesn’t purport to becomprehensive. But if you are active in the industry, you willrecognise most of the people in these pages.

The 30 mostinfluential LPs in EuropeAt this point in the cycle, the ambitions and anxieties of investors have a strong bearingon the mood in the asset class. So which buyside representatives are setting the tone onfundraising, terms and conditions and alignment of interest with general partners? Private Equity International selects the limited partners that matter in Europe.

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Wanching Ang, Allianz PEP

German corporate behemoth Allianz is thecountry’s leading privateequity investor and oneof Europe’s most activeinsurers participating inthe asset class. Munich-based Wanching Ang isin charge of AllianzPrivate Equity Partners,the group’s fund of fundsinvestment operation.The team comprises several highly respectedinvestment professionalsincluding James Kester(brother of Kevin, thewell-known investor wholeads private equityinvestment at US pension Colorado PERA),Elliot Royce and MarcThiery, but one insiderdescribes Ang, whojoined in 1999, as “themother of the group”.General partners whohave tried to persuadeAPEP of the merits of their investmentpropositions say they are tough customers. In a difficult market, Ang’sgroup had a tough timefinding sufficient qualityproduct to invest lastyear’s of €1bn targetallocation for Europe.This year’s target isthought to be lower, but Allianz can do a great deal to put a fundon the map by making asizeable commitment.

George Anson,HarbourVest PartnersWith over $15bn inassets, Boston-head-quartered HarbourVestPartners is one of thegiants amongst the fundsof funds community.In September last year it held a final close on itshybrid direct invest-ment/fund of funds vehicle, HarbourVestInternational PrivateEquity Partners IV, on$2.8bn, which the invest-ment team is currentlybusy deploying across arange of fund types andgeographies. A key member of this group isLondon-based managingdirector George Ansonwho joined the firm in1990, after spendingseven years at rivalPantheon Ventures.

HarbourVest have developed a strong reputation for class-leading due diligence, so much so that manyregard their arrival in afund’s LP group a note-worthy seal of approval.And as a leading privateequity advisor says:“George has lots ofmoney dedicated toEurope. He’s beenaround a long time, butcouple that with the factthat they have a lot ofcapital to put to work,and that makes him pretty influential.”

Robert Baird, PEIAThe Private EquityInvestors Association, theEuropean equivalent ofthe US-basedInstitutional LimitedPartners Association, isrun by Robert Baird, aformer investment man-ager for that longstand-ing, and highly regardedprivate equity investor,the Wellcome Trust.Refreshingly practical anddown-to-earth, Baird hashelped move theAssociation from a loosegathering of private equity LPs to a more formal entity designed togive European LPs aforum to both share andadvance knowledgeabout private equityinvesting. Headline writers are itching to castPEIA (just as with ILPA)as a grouping ofaggrieved LPs itching togang up on fat GPs:Baird is careful to countersuch assumptions. Hewas recently quoted assaying that the PEIA wasnot setting out to bedestructive in any wayand that its membersrecognised that privateequity investing is allabout having a construc-tive relationship withGPs. But do expect tohear more European buyside perspectiveappear via thisAssociation.

Jens Bisgaard-Frantzen,ATP PEPMany see Jens Bisgaard-Frantzen as one ofEurope’s rising stars. A little over a year ago,general partners inEurope and NorthAmerica sat up straightwhen ArbejdsmarkedetsTillægspension (ATP), the€37bn Danish LabourMarket SupplementaryPension Scheme,announced plans to dramatically step up itsprivate equity investmenteffort and build a €4.5bndiversified internationalfund investment pro-gramme over the comingyears. Since then the

private equity group, ledby Bisgaard-Frantzen,has been quietly goingabout sifting the marketfor suitable investmentopportunities. Observerssay their approach hasbeen measured and wellpaced. As one LP puts it:“Jens is making a namefor himself, and GPs arevery keen to get close.He’s already learned agreat deal about the market, and they havebeen picky, turning a lotof people down.” InEurope, ATP has so farinvested with GraphiteCapital, Nordic Capitaland Cinven, which it hasalso teamed up with forits debut co-investment,in UK bingo chain Gala.

Wim Borgdorff, NIB CapitalAlthough others on thislist may cause readersto pause briefly, few willbe surprised to see NIBCapital and managingpartner Wim Borgdorffhere. One reason is

simply the size of itsfunds under manage-ment allocated to private equity: €14bn attractsattention. The group has two key clients forwhom it invests: Dutchpensions giants ABPand PGGM. It hasinvested significantly in infrastructure and now has around 50investment professionalsand offices inAmsterdam, Antwerp,Frankfurt, London andNew York. Borgdorffhimself sees plenty ofwork still to do. Hewants to make NIB oneof the pre-eminent global private equityinvestors. Certainly thegroup is prepared tomake bold moves: theyare known to make sizeable commitments(€100m upwards) tofunds they like. InFebruary NIB led theinvestor syndicate thatbacked the €1.5bn buyout of DB Capital’sdirect investments toform MidOceanPartners, committing€312m to this deal.



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Louis Brenninkmeijer,BregalCommitting €495m to afirst time private equityfund is a bold move –particularly if it comesfrom a first timeinvestor. No wonder themarket took notice inJanuary when EnglefieldCapital, the newlyestablished London-based private equityfirm led by DominicShorthouse, announcedthat Bregal Investmentshad sent in a chequeover just that amount.The Swiss-based subsidiary of CofraHoldings, which manages the wealth of the Brenninkmeijerfamily, owners ofEuropean retailer C&A,almost single-handedlymade Englefield’s debutfundraising campaign asuccess (Englefield hassince closed the fund at €700m). The markethadn’t fully absorbedthe news when Bregalturned up in yet anotherhigh profile deal, thistime as a member of the blue-chip consor-tium that funded thespin-off of MidOceanfrom Deutsche Bank.Bregal is run by co-chairs LouisBrenninkmeijer and Yves de Balmann, a for-mer senior investmentbanker at Deutsche inNew York. It’s early daysfor Bregal in the assetclass, but it has certain-ly fired the market’simagination about whatfamily investors with thiskind of commitment cando in private equity.More of the same wouldnot surprise.

Les Brun, Hamilton Lane There are probably few private equity practitioners who havenot at some time or other sat in the audience of a confer-ence and listened to Les Brun talk about the challenges andopportunities that liewithin private equity.

He is a compelling andcoherent proponent ofthe asset class and hehas made HamiltonLane one of the indus-try’s best-known investment advisers, as well as fund of fundsmanagers. Since itsinception in 1991, thePhiladelpia-headquar-tered firm has helped$23bn of investmentcapital be deployed inprivate equity. Brun continues to be anenthusiast for Europeanprivate equity, seeing its ongoing evolution as an ideal time to applyStateside experience toa less mature version of the asset class. Says one GP: “HamiltonLane is building tractionin Europe: we’ll all beseeing and hearing more from them.” Brun’s colleague WayneHarber is clocking upairmiles as he traversesthe region.

Jeremy Coller, Coller CapitalWhen Coller Capitalclosed its latest second-ary fund at $2.5bn lastyear, few private equitypractitioners failed tonotice. In part this wasbecause here wasemphatic evidence thatthe provision of greaterliquidity in private equityvia secondary sales wasessential. It was alsonoticeable because offounder Jeremy Coller, avoluble, opinionated andsometimes polarising private equity buyer.Coller and his firm havereal impact, somethingthat is set to grow furtheras more personnel areadded and officesopened (most recently in New York). An unsurprising scepticwhen it comes to alternative liquidityoptions (such as securitisation), Coller

wants to see more secondary sales takeplace across the industryand he is not backwardsin coming forwards inorder to make that happen. In February thisyear, Coller was amongstthe roster of keyinvestors who helpedspin out MidOceanPartners from DeutscheBank as the bank soughtto shrink its exposure tothe asset class.

Peter Dolan, Harvard ManagementPeter Dolan has beendescribed as the “gold standard” ofendowment investorspartly because of theprestige his institutioncan bring to a fund, andpartly because of howother investors rate hisassessment of a privateequity partnerhip afterhe has kicked its tires.Dolan himself has been known to turn adark crimson as hevociferously airs hisopinions on the privateequity market. He hasbeen an outspoken critic of GP avarice,particularly where oversized funds andexcessive managementfees are involved.Dolan’s easygoing personality bears noresemblance to hisexacting due diligenceregimen. A placementagent calls him “very smart and verythorough” when evaluating an invest-ment. Dolan zeros in on the integrity of theGP in executing whatwas promised in thePPM; any differentialbetween promise anddelivery will be questioned. Fund managers, increasinglyEuropean fund man-agers, can’t get enoughof the Dolan regimen. “He sees everything,” says an industry consultant. Funds thatwant access to the$17bn endowment's 13 per cent target allocation to privateequity are eager to have Dolan take a look.

Chuck Flynn, Deutsche BankDeutsche Bank has a realasset in Chuck Flynn. Inan industry whereinvestors often mincewords and qualify assertions - and sufferbecause of it - Flynn hasa reputation for calling aspade a spade. Flynn’s

flexibility in language mirrors his abilities to find solutions to complexportfolio problems. Herecently worked with hisbank to sell $1.6bn worthof inventoried privateequity partnerships toMidOcean Partners in alandmark secondarytransaction. In addition to building an expertise in structured private equity, Flynn overseesDeutsche Bank’s influential fund of fundsprogram. Before joiningDeutsche Bank, hehelped established theglobal third-party fund offunds business for AXAInvestment Managers,alongside Sasha van deWater. Now his aim is toprovide the clients ofDeutsche AssetManagement with “acomplete suite” of privateequity opportunities.Given his creativity inpackaging private equity,a commitment fromFlynn’s team is likely tobe anything other than“plain-vanilla” capital.


Cover Story : The 30 most influential LPs in Europe36

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Rick Hayes, CalPERS

European GPs havemore incentive to travelto California than simplythe sunshine - no fundof any size can afford toskip a trip toSacramento to pitch one of the biggest private equity participantof them all - CalPERS.Hayes oversees a $20bnalternative investmentprogram on behalf of thepublic employees of theGolden State, and histeam’s due diligenceprocess is so thoroughthat many other institutional investors will wait to see howCalPERS responds to afund before committing.The list of CalPERS’involvement in Europeincludes commitmentsto Polish EnterpriseFund, Permira, KKREuropean, DoughtyHanson, CVC, CollerCapital, Carlyle Europeand Candover. Hayes isthe head of theInstitutional LimitedPartners Association,and as such is influentialamong LPs both by dintof money and thoughtleadership. He has ledthe charge on standardsand transparency, buthas done so with a dis-arming affability, ratherthan, as he once put it,“hammering on fees.”

Björn König, Inter Ikea TreasuryInter Ikea is the familyoffice of the Kampradfamily, which foundedSweden’s Ikea furnitureempire. Its alternativeinvestment effort is led by Björn König, a former managing director at TallardVenture Group, whom practitionersdescribe as very active. A deeply private organisation,Inter Ikea does not disclose details of its alternative invest-ment programme,although it controlsCatella, a private equity investor based in Stockholm. Königsits on the board of Danske Private Equity,the Danish €1.2bn private equity manager,and he helped TritonGroup, the Jersey-based private equityhouse that invests in Northern Europe,spin out of DoughtyHanson and raise a€600m debut fund in2000. According to one investment professional, whilemany LPs still take toomuch of a backseatwhen interacting withprivate equity fundmanagers, “Björn hasstrong opinions and I think he’s very knowledgeable aboutprivate equity. He asks all the difficultquestions at investormeetings.” Anotherpractitioner commend-ed König for being a vocal defender of limited partner interests.

Jim Leech, Ontario Teachers’Teachers’ MerchantBank, the private equitydivision of the US$45bnOntario Teachers’Pension Fund, likes to doits own investing, thankyou. The programmeoverseen by Jim Leechacts as an in-house direct investment arm for theteachers of Ontario. But Leech is quick topoint out that where there are investmentopportunities to realiseoutside of his team’s areaof expertise - Europe, forexample - he is willing topay a GP group to do the investing for him, provided Teachers’Merchant Bank be given co-investmentopportunities. Leech’sgroup has substantiallybacked BC Partners, a major European private equity firm, since 1992. The firm has co-invested with NIBCapital in Europe andalongside KKR in the US.

Leech, himself the formerhead of publicly tradedCanadian buyout firmUnicorp Canada, knows a thing or two about the LBO business, andEuropean GPs who don’t demonstrate a similar skill set canexpect a chilly receptionfrom this Canadianinvestor.

Stefan Marelid, SEB Asset ManagementMarelid is in charge ofprivate equity investmentat Copenhagen-basedSEB Asset Management,a heavyweightScandinavian investmentgroup that is activeacross a host of assetclasses (and hencewrestling at present with marked declines in its public equity investments). Marelid was a participant in arecent LP Roundtable PEI hosted andimpressed with his measured, pragmaticapproach to investing inwhat to some may seema disturbingly unruly

asset class. Marelid’sexpectations for privateequity are at once tingedwith the disciplines foundin other investment arenas(one comment we hadwas that “when he speaksabout private equity hecan seem more anti thanpro”) and with a realismthat comes from hisrecognising that privateequity is a unique animal.With around €1.5bn allocated to the assetclass SEB is a significantLP already. Marelid looksset to ratchet up thegroup’s activities furtheras the right funds appearat what he regards as a good time to be committing capital.

Jonny Maxwell,Standard LifeIf this was a rankingbased on the number of nominations received,

Jonny Maxwell wouldbe near the top: practically everybodywe spoke to put him onthis list. RunningStandard Life’s privateequity business,Maxwell is recognisedfor his investment skills,his activist stance onterms and conditions aswell as the team that heand his right hand DavidCurrie have assembledup in Edinburgh. “It’s not just him”, saysan admirer. “The team is deep, and they havethe ability to makedirect investments anywhere in Europebased on their own due diligence. Theyhave the battle scars,and they know where to look in the documentation for anyproblems.” Maxwellhimself has great passion for the assetclass and is one of themost outspoken proponents of the viewthat general partnerswill have to adapt someof their ways of doingbusiness in order toaccommodate theirclients’ needs. His message to fellowinvestors: do speak up.



Ray Maxwell, Invesco Private Capital

Maxwell is one of the elderstatesmen of Europeanprivate equity and, like hisScottish namesake, aholder of strong views onwhat works and whatdoesn’t in the industrytoday. Maxwell has nearly30 years of investmentmanagement experience,much of it spent investingin unquoted assets. Priorto taking over InvescoPrivate Capital’s privateequity fund investmentbusiness in 1997, he practiced direct and indi-rect investing for Greenoakand Hermes InvestmentManagement. “He hasseen various cycles anddoes not get swayed bytemporary developments”,was one observation.Invesco may not rankamong the funds of fundswith the deepest pocketsin the business (the grouphas discretion over $2bn incommitments and alsooperates an advisory fran-chise), but Maxwell enjoysa high profile and muchrespect among his peersas a tireless advocate ofgreater alignment of inter-est between general part-ners and their investors.He is an eloquent speakerand engaging columnist,fond of quoting the likes ofBlake and Shakespeare ininvestor presentations andconference speeches.

David Pinkerton, AIG Global InvestmentPinkerton has led hisposse in hot pursuit ofinnovative private equity transactionssince 1988, but hismost recent coup wasthe recent securitisationof $1bn worth of AIG’s private equitypartnerships and theplacement of roughly$250m in triple-A rated bonds backed bythe funds. This dealmarked the first time aportfolio of private equity funds has everreceived a triple-A rating. Pinkerton himself receives similarly high ratingsfrom GPs who havereceived commitmentsfrom AIG – of whomthere are many: lastyear the group’s fund offunds capital stood at $12bn - as well as from other investorswho benefit from hisgroup’s pioneering work on the frontiers of liquidity. The securitisation initiativewas born of necessity.Like many institutions,Pinkerton’s private equity arm is seeking to prune and reorganise its allocation to the asset class while at the same time grow its third-party fund of funds business and have cash for fresh investments.Pinkerton deservescredit for making whatother LPs dream of a reality for AIG. Watch out for more of the same.

Bruno Raschle, Adveq ManagementBruno Raschle is one of the three managingdirectors of Swiss private equity funds of funds manager AdveqManagement that hasover €1bn under management. A seasoned investor in the venture space, having started 18 yearsago, Raschle also brings real-life opera-tional experience tobear on his investmentactivities. He is widelyrespected for his dedication particularly to venture that ensuresa degree of commitmentto GPs that otherinvestors lack. “Hedoesn’t blindly follow afund but he does havean empathy with GPsthat not only adds valuefor investors in Adveqfunds but also encour-ages a long term relationship with keyventure firms,” com-ments a source. Fewneed reminding thatventure is a difficultplace to be at present.

Adveq’s latest fund offunds, a US-oriented ITvehicle, closed beloworiginal target last June,but it was testimony tothe esteem Adveq isheld in that it nonethe-less raised $300m in thecurrent environment.

Sandra Robertson,Wellcome TrustLondon-based WellcomeTrust, with assets of aboutUS$18bn, is the secondlargest trust in the world,and the world’s largestmedical research charity. It is also a long-standinginvestor in private equityand Sandra Robertsonheads its alternative assetsinvestment team who lookafter some $2.7bn, or 15per cent of total assets.Wellcome has a well-defined strategy towardsprivate equity, understand-ing its long-term natureand the need to have a rig-orous investment regime. Italso takes full advantage ofits access to leading edge

life-science know-howwhen investing in VC fundsactive in that sector.Straight talking and clearlycomfortable with both thesoft and hard characteris-tics of the asset class,Robertson wins respectfrom both her fellowinvestors and from GPs.Says a fellow LP: “Sandrais never shy of putting forward her opinion. In amarketing meeting, if shedoesn’t like something, shehas no hesitation in lettinganyone know.” RecentlyRobertson has been keento debate what she regardsas the inequitable divisionof pain between LPs andGPs as funds make massive write-downs.

Nick Shaw, Shell UK Pension FundStarting out in the early1990s, Shaw has constructed a privateequity investment portfolio that currentlystands at £500m ofinvested capital, justover 7 per cent of hispension fund’s totalassets. Shaw, who has kept a low profileeven by private equitystandards, concentratedon European buyoutfunds throughout thedecade in order to gain access to corporate restructuringopportunities in the UK and mainlandEurope. People whoknow the portfolio saythat Shaw executed the strategy well, picking a cast of topperforming managers. In recent years, Shell has been reapingthe rewards: in 2002alone for example,according to onesource, 23 per cent of the portfolio returnedcash. A London-basedsenior placement agentsays he has long been a fan: “Nick gets it, he’s very smart.Whenever I hear thathe’s interested in afund, I start payingattention.” And Shawisn’t even a privateequity full-timer as itwere: as the group’s co-CIO, he has responsibility for itsentire investment portfolio in Europe. His private equity peers will do well tokeep track of where he’s headed next.


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John Shearburn,Goldman Sachs

“This is smart money,and a lot of it,” comments one UK-based GP about the private equity group of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and their push intoEurope. The group cancast a long shadow:$11bn of assets, thevast majority of it fromthird parties, is beingmanaged through anumber of differentfunds of funds, includingdedicated venture, distressed and secondaries vehicles.John Shearburn leadsthe London-based partof this team, reportinginto the rumbustiousglobal head Phil Cooper.Self-effacing but withthat steely resolve thatis a hallmark of manyGS personnel,Shearburn spends a lot of time on the roadgarnering further commitments.Meanwhile colleaguesled by Marc Boheim inLondon will stress testcandidate funds. Thegroup’s due diligence is often singled out as exemplary. “You andseveral hundred otherfunds are all put through their machineeach year,” says a GP,“it’s scary.”

Hanneke Smits, Adam Street PartnersHaving cut her teeth atPantheon Ventures,where she spent fiveyears, Hanneke Smitsarrived at Chicago-based fund of fundsgiant Adams Street in1997. Adams Street,which manages $7bn in discretionary and non-discretionary capital, has long been aleading light. In the US,it pioneered the fund offunds approach to pri-vate equity investment in the late 1970s. As head of the firm’sEuropean and Asianinvestments, Smits hassince led the group’sslow but sure expansionoutside its home market.

GPs like her measuredand decisive approach:“You know where youare with Hanneke,” saysone, “you get askedstraight questions butalso are given straightanswers.” At a timewhen closing commit-ments to a fund is especially protractedthis approach is valuedhighly. And LPs inAdams Street funds arealso appreciative of thisno-nonsense style thatensures that they getgiven an unvarnishedpicture of a fund’s typically diverse portfolioof fund investments.

Helen Steers, Frank RussellHelen Steers is managingdirector, private equityEurope, for global invest-ment services firm FrankRussell Company. This

multi-faceted company,now owned byNorthWestern Mutual, manages $70bn in assetsand has a large alternativeinvestments group provid-ing what it describes as“closely researched”opportunities in privateequity and venture capital.The company also jointlyproduces the influentialannual InstitutionalAlternative Investing Surveywith Goldman Sachs thatpolls major investors ontheir allocations to, and attitudes towards, alterna-tive asset classes. Russellhas built a sizeable funds offunds operation and Paris-based Steers leads theteam that examines theEuropean private equitylandscape for opportuni-ties. Several GP contactscited both Steers’ diligenceand market awareness asparticular attributes. Morebroadly, Russell’s traditionof in-depth research andanalysis provides an interesting reference pointfor the ongoing evolution of investors’ appraisal ofprivate equity funds.Expect Steers and herteam to be an integral partof this process.

Georges Sudarskis,ADIAThe involvement of Abu Dhabi InvestmentAuthority (ADIA) inEuropean private equity goes back manyyears. Unusually for an internationallyinvesting organisation,ADIA first started backing European general partner groupsbefore moving into the US market. The semi governmentorganisation, estab-lished in 1976 and managing a foreignasset portfolio estimated to be worthseveral hundred billiondollars on behalf of theUnited Arabic Emirates,keeps a tight lid on itsinvestment activities.The private equity programme, run byGeorges Sudarskis, has been one of themost potent providersof capital to the industry. Market insiders note thatrecently ADIA has been less active interms of making newcommitments, but their sustained influence is unques-tioned. Says a US-based placementagent source: “This is shrewd money. In the Middle East there are opinion setters.” Sudarskis,senior investment controller, runs a teamthat also includes Abu Baker Al Khouriand Ahmed Ghubash,who is based in the group’s Londonoffice.

David Swensen, YaleSwensen, Yale’s chiefinvestment officer, wrotethe book on endowmentinvesting - literally. His2000 book, PioneeringPortfolio Management:An UnconventionalApproach to InstitutionalInvestment, is alreadyregarded by many as aclassic study on howand how not to investinstitutional capital.Swensen oversees morethan $10bn for theendowment. Despite hishigh recognition rate inthe industry, Swensenrefuses to publicly discuss how he hasinvested Yale’s money.But during his appear-ances at industry events,Swensen does not holdback in his assessmentof the private equitymarket - funds are toobig, exit opportunitiesare few, and returns willlikely come down.Accordingly, Yale hasreduced its allocation tothe private equity assetclass by $800m, according to insiders.Swensen was last year’skeynote speaker at theEVCA conference in

Geneva. European GPs hoping for supportfrom a thought leadercan do no better thanDavid Swensen.

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Rhoddy Swire,Pantheon Ventures

London-basedPantheon, which alsohas offices in Brussels,San Francisco and HongKong, is one of Europe’sfinest fund of fundsoperations with close to €6bn under manage-ment. Earlier this year,the firm closed its thirdEuropean fund of fundson €470m, which nowinvests as part of its€2bn European fundprogramme. In 2002,Pantheon lost formerchief executive RichardBowley after 16 years of service, but thegroup’s core teamretains considerableheft: Carol Kennedy,Dave Braman and Colin Wimsett in the UK are all well-regardedin the market. On top of the tree sitscharismatic chairmanRhoddy Swire, who firstjoined the business in1981 and led its buyoutfrom GT Management in 1988. “Swire is veryopinionated and hasbeen influential over the years”, says anobserver. One of hisnoteworthy achievementswas the establishment ofthe first ever private equity fund of funds vehicle to list on theLondon Stock Exchange,as early as 1987.

Ivan Vercoutère, LGT Capital PartnersVercoutère heads up theprivate equity group atLGT Capital Partners, a€3bn alternative assetmanager based inPfäffikon, Switzerland,which started out as thePrincely family ofLiechtenstein’s familyoffice in 1993. Vercoutèrefirst learned the tricks ofthe trade at US gatekeep-er Pacific CorporateGroup before returning toEurope to build a busi-ness in the then fledglingEuropean fund of fundsenvironment. Says a former PCG colleague:“Ivan is known forthoughtful and detaileddue diligence, and histeam are well-connectedacross Europe.” With twoof LGT’s investment vehi-cles, Castle Private Equityand Castle AlternativeInvest, listed on stockexchanges in Switzerlandand Luxembourg,

Vercoutère ranks amongEurope’s pioneers ofstructured private equityproducts. He has alsobuilt a reputation as asensible backer of newlyemerging private equitymanagers, committingearly to a number ofEuropean first-time funds.LGT, which also partici-pates in secondaries, hasinvested in over 180 pri-vate equity partnerships.

Mark Weisdorf, Canada Pension PlanIt’s hard to say “no” toMark Weisdorf. As thehead of private invest-ments for the CanadaPension Plan InvestmentBoard, one of the largestpensions in the world,Weisdorf is in a positionto write very largecheques for private equi-ty funds. And he has -for Bridgestone,

Candover, MidOceanand Terra Firma, amongothers. Weisdorf’s groupplans to commit roughly$3bn per year to theasset class, but firmsthat want his pension’s capital must demon-strate a long-term commitment and a substantive track record- not a past performancethat Weisdorf refers to as being the result of“bubble-mania.”Weisdorf’s heft hasallowed him to pushcauses that he feels areimportant to the LP community. He is aprominent member ofthe Institutional LimitedPartners Association and sponsored an ILPAgathering in Toronto lastyear. If Weisdorf’s contagious enthusiasm,fortified with billions ofdollars in dry powder,can’t effect change in the private equityindustry, nothing can.

Urs Wietlisbach,Partners Group As a sizeable privateequity fund of fundsmanager, Partnersneeds to be tracking the funds within itsportfolio closely. TheZug, Switzerland-based group has made an artof the science of suchtracking, having built aunique quantitative analytical team who are tasked with providing hard data todirect the Group’sinvestment strategy. The result? Partners is increasingly confidentthat it can see early onwhen good funds areset to turn bad, letalone the good get evenbetter. Partners is alsoan innovator of securi-tised private equity.Nominating any oneindividual from withinthe core team ofPartners is hard, butWietlisbach - a co-founder – should takecredit for helping develop both the theoryand practice of privateequity securitisation.

Others reference partner Sandra Pajarola,co-head of the buyoutand special situationsgroup at the firm, whoattracts plaudits for her rigorous andinformed approach tofund selection.

Eugene Wong, GICSince its inception in1981 GIC, the managerof Singapore’s foreignreserves, has accumu-lated over $100bn,which it invests acrossassets classes on aglobal scale. Get theirprivate equity team into your fund early,and you’ll have theattention of others onthe buyside. Known for a low-key, unassuming approachto interacting with general partners – “they don’t feel theneed to prove they’resmart” was one observation – GIC haveinvested very largesums of money in European privateequity over the years.Following Lim HockTay’s recent transfer to New York, EugeneWong now heads up the London presence.Practitioners areimpressed with thequality of the group’sinvestment process.Here’s one placementagent’s verdict: “They’re absolutelymeticulous. They will grind you down on every aspect of your fund, and there will be no surpriseswhatsoever by the time you’ve gonethrough their process.The reward can be a$100m ticket.”Underlying such achunky allocation is often a keen interestto build a long-termrelationship andbecome a co-investor.


If you took the list to 47…

…or indeed North of that, which wouldn’t be difficult, you’dstop at some of the following names. In London for instance,Sue Scollan and Roger Wilkins at Morley Fund Managementhave been active and successful since the 1990s. At SchroderVentures (London), Guy Eastman has distinguished himselfsince joining from Hermes, where Rod Selkirk is now busybuilding the business as head of private equity. Sasha van deWater, formerly of Axa, is in the process of setting up her ownbusiness, Keyhaven Capital Partners, which will also be basedin the UK.

At Robeco Private Equity in Rotterdam, Harry Mejers, Ad van den Ouweland and Mikan van Zanten are all part of aformer NIB team that are growing an already sizeable fund offunds business for institutions and retail investors. Other Dutchnotables include Edwin Kunkels at Dutch Shell and Jos vanGisbergen at MN Services, who heads up private equity invest-ment at the €19bn metal workers pension.

In Finland, Ilmarinen Mutual’s Katja Salovaara is in the processof investing a €500m allocation in Europe, while Kimmo Lehtois constructing a fund portfolio for the Local GovernmentPension Institution. In Sweden, it is investors such as BengtHellström at AP3, who are channelling Swedish pension assetsinto private equity funds in Europe and beyond. In Denmark,Claus Stenbaek runs Danske Private Equity’s €1bn plus fundof funds business.

Paris-based Dominique Peninon at Access Capital Partnersand Charles Soulignac at Fondinvest are offering Frenchinvestors quality access to the asset class. In Germany, sever-al significant fund of funds operations are based in Munich:venture specialist VCM, which is led by Hellmuth Kirchner;Extorel, run by Falk Straschegg, who used to be one ofGermany’s most successful venture capitalists; von Braun andSchreiber, the firm established by former Allianz Private EquityPartners executive Emmeram von Braun; and JeremyGolding’s Golding Capital Partners. Meanwhile BrittaLindhorst at AMB Generali, the German insurer, has a mandateto invest €1bn over the coming years.

Then there is that multitude of US heavyweights that we wereunable to devote space to. Reàl Desrocher at CalSTRSrecently hired London-based Altius Associates to aid his pushinto Europe. Other resounding names investors include KevinKester at Colorado PERA, Frank Fernandez at Florida StateBoard of Administration, Jay Fewel at State of Washington andBob Boldt at UTIMCO, all which are known for their deep pock-ets and strong views on the class.

And that’s just the pensions. There are plenty of other major USinvestors backing private equity made in Europe in a big way.

Who’s missing?Send your thoughts on who else should have been includ-ed to: [email protected]

We are an investment company, listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange, that follows the principle of a fund of funds, providing easy access to private equity investments.

shaPE Capital Ltd | Grabenstrasse 32 | CH-6301 Zug | Telephone +41 (0) 41 710 3132 | Fax +41 (0) 41 710 3134 | [email protected] | www.shape-capital.com

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Combining Investments Gaining Perspective


Documents

PEI Issue16 June03sudarskisandpartners.com/assets/pei_-_30_most_influential_in_europe-2003.pdf · 30 Cover Story : The 30 most influential LPs in Europe I n June 2002, based on the