Fund Shack

Daniel Zwirn is CEO of Arena Investors LP. In this episode of the Fund Shack private equity podcast, he talks to Ross Butler about the opportunities in private markets, and how to prosecute them in a way that truly aligns incentives with underlying investors. [00:00:16] Ross Butler: You’re listening to fund Shack. I’m Ross Butler, and today my guest is Daniel Zwern, CEO and CIO of Arena Investors, a global asset manager that seeks out special situations across the world. Daniel has some very alternative perspectives on the opportunities in private markets and how to prosecute them. And so we […]

Hans Lovrek stumbled on Medieval Florentine documents that showed structures were being used to align interests in ventures with high information asymmetry that were uncannily similar to today’s limited partnerships. Through a method of historical institutionalism, Hans demonstrates how the same techniques have been used to solve similar problems, down the ages, and that today’s private equity industry is based on ideas that successful trading nations have used before. This episodes was recorded in March 2019 and is released on podcast for the first time in December 2023. [00:00:00] Ross Butler: You’re listening to fund Shack. I’m Ross Butler, and […]

Yaron Valler is a founder of venture capital firm Target Global. He is a successful entrepreneur and investor, and was part of the team at Intel that invented the Pentium Processor. In this episode of the Fund Shack podcast, he talks to Ross Butler about how AI will change ‘everything’, virtual reality, how government’s should direct innovation and risk capital, and much more. [00:00:00] Ross Butler: You’re listening to Fund Shack. I’m Ross Butler, and today I’m speaking with Yaron Valler, a founder at Target Global, a venture capital firm with offices in London, Berlin, Barcelona, Tel Aviv and elsewhere. […]

Sanjay Panchal is a partner at Livingbridge, a leading international growth capital investor, where he specialises in healthcare. In this episode he speaks to Ross Butler about the opportunities for private equity investors across the healthcare sector. [00:00:00] Ross Butler: You’re listening to Fund Shack. I’m Ross Butler and this week I’m talking with Sanjay Panchal, a partner at Livingbridge, a leading mid market private equity firm. Sanjay focuses on healthcare, and in this discussion he explains the dynamics and the opportunities in this complex sector from an investor’s perspective. Sanjay. Welcome to Fund Shack. You focus on healthcare at […]

Marcus Maier-Krug is partner and co-head of portfolio management at Arcmont. He has been working in private credit since before the global financial crisis. In this episode, recorded in November 2023, we discuss what constitutes alpha in private credit, what it’s attractions are as an asset class, whether it can retain the market share it has taken from the traditional banking world, the different mindset and culture of private credit lenders vis a vis their borrowers, and much more… [00:00:00] Ross Butler: You’re listening to Fund Shack. I’m Ross Butler, and this week I’m talking with Marcus Maier-Krug, partner and […]

Alejandro Alcalde Rasch is a senior director in Advent International‘s portfolio support group. He joined Advent in 2010 having been chief transformation officer and head of supply at Gröhe AG and a partner in McKinsey’s chemicals practice. In this Fund Shack podcast, Alejandro talks to Ross Butler about the genesis of Advent’s dedicated portfolio support group, how it has grown over time, what he looks for in value creation professionals, how the team works alongside deal executives and the importance of a value creation plan. [00:00:00] Ross Butler: You’re listening to fund Shack. I’m Ross Butler, and today I’m speaking […]

Harvard professor Josh Lerner explains the risks and requirements of public intervention in establishing a thriving venture capital and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Professor Lerner tells Ross Butler that seeding a venture capital industry is a difficult and slow process – it’s not just the case of emulating Silicon Valley. With reference to his classic work, ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams‘, Ross Butler asks for Josh’s key recommendations, and in particular whether increasing the supply of venture capital or the demand for it, is the more sensible route for policymakers. With reference to the US, Japan, Australia, the EU and Great Britain, this […]

Andros Payne talks to Ross Butler about the holy grail of private equity value creation: a systematic, quantitative approach to cultural and behavioural change. What makes businesses work well? Andros Payne is an engineer and entrepreneur who has spent two decades codifying and benchmarking the behaviours of senior and middle managers that are proven to drive growth and underpin cohesive and healthy cultures. His firm, Humatica, has worked with some of the leading private equity firms in applying the methodology to their portfolio companies. In this Fund Shack podcast, he explains how he has managed to make objective and transparent […]

Private equity podcast with Ross Butler and Reynir Indahl of Summa Equity on Impact investment.

Warren Hibbert of Asante Capital Group explains the log-jam in the private capital fundraising market on the Fund Shack podcast

Douglas Hansen-Luke speaks to Ross Butler on the Fund Shack podcast. Topics: impact investing, university spin-outs, pension fund reforms.

Jonathan Blake is head of international funds strategy at Herbert Smith Freehills. In the 1980s, Jonathan was responsible for devising the very first limited partnerships for venture capital and private equity in the UK and Europe, and was responsible for convincing the British government that these closed-ended funds were a legitimate structure and valuable business […]

Trevor Hope is Chief Investment Officer of Gresham House Ventures, the growth capital arm of one of the UK’s oldest companies. In recent years, the firm has been growing rapidly, consolidating the market for Venture Capital Trusts, tax-break vehicles for individual investors to access growth business in the UK. In this podcast with Ross Butler […]

The so-called perma-crisis of political and economic volatility witnessed in the UK, and beyond, has made the business of raising and investing long-term funds is even more uncertain than usual. To help private markets practitioners navigate these choppy waters, we spoke with David Gauke, Damien Crossley and Shailen Patel from Macfarlanes. David Gauke is one […]

Laura Dillon leads Waterland Private Equity‘s Dublin office, which she established in 2020. Laura has had a varied career both in private equity and business. She has worked at several private equity firms, including Apax Partners and Riverside, and set up a distribution business with her family that was sold to a corporate acquirer. In […]

Paul Newsome is head of portfolio management at Unigestion, a Switzerland-based asset manager with a global private markets platform. Paul has been at the firm for two decades, during which he has set up its private markets operation in North America, and has been instrumental in establishing its directs, co-investment and secondaries programmes. In this […]

David Larsen has been at the forefront of alternative assets valuation policy for several decades. He is managing director at Kroll, which was acquired by Duff & Phelps in 2018, and advises many of the largest alternatives institutions on private equity transactions and valuations policy. He has been vice-chair of IPEV – the International Private […]

Michael Lindauer is co-CIO of Allianz Capital Partners. He joined the institution in 2003 and has been an influential decision-maker with regards to backing private equity managers, and a respected and informed LP. He is based in Europe and has responsibility for ACP’s global private equity investment programme. He talks to Ross Butler of Linear B Group about Allianz’s investment business and market-view, approach to GP selection and terms, and much more. This is a must-watch conversation for any private equity manager who wishes to understand how an experienced and thoughtful institutional investor approaches fund investment opportunities. In this Fund […]

Jim Strang is chairman of HgCapital Trust, a senior adviser to CVC Capital Partners, independent director at the Business Growth Fund, a senior adviser at Bain & Company, an advisory director at Campbell Lutyens, a Fellow at the London Business School, and a senior adviser at Hamilton Lane. Back by popular demand, this is Jim’s second time on Fund Shack. We talk about the state of private markets and how the industry grows from here. Inside this Fund Shack private equity podcast…

David Ewing is a managing partner at ECI Partners and one of the UK mid-markets best known investors. He speaks to Fund Shack's Ross Butler.