Private Equity Talks

This latest episode of Top of the Ops sees The Drawdown team assess the challenges of succession planning in PE operations. As the industry elders enter retirement, how can firms ensure the next generation of CFOs and COOs are prepared to take over?Picking up from our recent cover story, No country for old men, we speak to Khuram Bajwa, director at executive search firm One Ten Associates about how to hire future operational leaders and ensure your team has the right balance between specialists and generalists.

In this episode of Top of the Ops, The Drawdown team debates whether the operations of US private funds are beginning to look more European due to regulatory and investor pressures. Following on from our recent cover story, Bridging the Atlantic, we investigate whether the global nature of private markets means the gap between the US and Europe in terms of operational complexity has narrowed, despite the SEC’s proposed Private Fund Adviser Rules being quashed in court. To help us analyse the difference between US and European operations, we speak to Amy Knapp, partner and COO at Corsair Capital, a US-based firm that also has a team in London.

The latest episode of Top of the Ops, The Drawdown’s podcast in which the editorial team discusses a recent cover feature, is all about diversity and inclusion. In the corresponding article - Ecosystemic Change - we investigate the commonly accepted narrative that LPs are the main drivers behind DEI initiatives in private equity and what GPs can do to make the industry more inclusive for everyone. Enter: Lucie Mills, partner for value creation and ESG at Northedge. Her focus is on creating an inclusive environment. Because if your firm is inclusive, diversity will naturally follow. Lucie’s thoughts guided the editorial team in this episode of TOTO.

The Drawdown trio tickles your eardrums once more, with our monthly podcast accompanying our latest cover feature. This time, we talk about gen AI trends. But with some substance - trust us.The cover story, entitled Strength Tr -AI- ning, examines how technological innovation is linked with operational resilience. It focuses on the emerging use of gen AI in operations with Microsoft Copilot, legal tech and in valuations processes. We attempt to satiate our avid listeners with what the cover feature did not have scope for: addressing AI risk management techniques and adopting the appropriate guardrails. For this, we were guided by our conversation with CTO at Sure Valley Ventures, John Frizelle.Click on the link to listen to what John has to say.

The Drawdown team is back again, this month discussing talent attraction and retention in private equity.Following on from a recent cover story on PE’s relative attractiveness as a career destination, we speak to Kerry Heaton, chief people officer at Hg, about how her firm is adapting its offer to younger generations.We assess how central the promise of carried interest is to PE’s appeal and how GPs are working hard to create the right culture for their employees.

The latest from your favourite PE operations editorial team! In this episode, we’re talking fund finance and credit rating agencies off the back of The Drawdown’s latest cover feature. The issue gave shape and form to the ominous third party which has recently sneaked up on the fund finance marketplace. In conversation with Gopal Narsimhamurthy, managing director and global head of fund ratings at KBRA, we discuss his view on the increase of rating providers in this space, what it means for industry dynamics and the role agencies play in private equity. Whether or not this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, we’re too early in the story to say. But one thing is certain: Credit rating agencies are here to stay.

In this podcast, Real Deals is joined by British Patient Capital’s Christine Hockley to discuss the importance of patient capital, what VCs must do to appeal to LPs and how GPs can build a value proposition that aligns with their investors’ interests.

In this exclusive podcast, Real Deals reporter Xhulio Ismalaj is joined by Richard Burrett, chief sustainability officer at early-stage cleantech investor Earth Capital, where he also holds a board director position.During the discussion, he covers the breadth of competing reporting requirements, the volume of activity it creates for GPs, the importance of materiality and the inherent issue with ESG reports as they currently are.To find out more about the topic, check out Real Deals’ recent article on ESG reporting below, in which we speak to representatives from ICG, Livingbridge and Suma Capital.

Your favourite PE operations editorial team is back! This time, the trio tackles evergreen fund structures, off the back of The Drawdown’s latest cover feature on the challenges of setting up semi-liquid fund structures for traditionally closed-ended fund managers. The Drawdown speaks to Luc Maruenda of Eurazeo, who explains how to set up an evergreen structure. We discuss the complexities of managing liquidity expectations, potential investors to target, navigation fluctuations in the economy, and much more. The hows and whys of the strategy are uncovered, but the decision to launch an evergreen fund remains up to you.

What if you were to found a private equity firm that entirely outsourced the investment function and focused solely on operations? Impossible dream or the future direction of the market?The Drawdown speaks to Stephen Branagan of Pantheon Ventures, who argues that it might not be such a crazy concept as it first appears. With LP and regulatory demands ever increasing and tech stacks increasingly complex, a firm specialising in ops could have an advantage when marketing to investors. Stephen and The Drawdown team discuss the pros and cons of an operations-first approach and whether this dream could ever become reality.