Picking GPs in Emerging Markets: How To

May 14, 2012 - PRLog -- Assessing the GP Team

Assessing the skills of a GP team is the hardest and most critical task in alternative investing – making these judgments across borders and cultures, and in developing economies without long histories of private equity performance, is even more challenging.

In this must-watch video panel discussion for serious participants in emerging markets private equity, three veterans discuss the importance and the process of choosing the right managers. The discussion includes David Marchick, Managing Director with The Carlyle Group, Maureen Downey, Principal with Pantheon Ventures, and Peter Furci, a Partner with Debevoise & Plimpton. The segment also includes an expert Q&A with Ernst & Young Global Private Equity Markets Leader Philip Bass. This is the second in a three-segment series about emerging markets private equity in the institutional portfolio. The first segment was “Emerging in the Portfolio.” Topics of discussion include separating the ability to add value from the luck of benefiting from a rising economic tide; Carlyle’s “evolution” in China with regard to the makeup of its investment professionals, the importance of both a local network and global-standard business knowhow, and the worry that some investors have over currency fluctuations.

View the full video here - http://www.privcap.com/programs/109-assessing-the-gp-team

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0nCl0BDDFA



Bios of participants:

David M. Marchick
Managing Director
The Carlyle Group

David M. Marchick serves as Managing Director and Global Head of External Affairs and serves as a Member of The Carlyle Group’s operating committee. Marchick leads the firm’s group that provides government affairs, public affairs, regulatory and strategic advice and support to Carlyle's buyout, growth, real estate and credit and debt funds on a global basis. He serves on the board of directors of Sequa Corporation, a diversified aerospace and industrial company. He is based in Washington, DC.
Prior to joining Carlyle, Marchick was a partner and Vice-Chair of the international practice group at Covington & Burling. He is an expert on foreign investment and national security issues.

Prior to joining Covington & Burling in 2002, Marchick worked on then-Governor Clinton’s 1992 campaign and served in four departments – the White House, USTR and Departments of State and Commerce – over seven years in the Clinton Administration. Among other positions, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and while at the White House, helped coordinate the Administration’s efforts to secure passage of NAFTA and the creation of the World Trade Organization. He is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Marchick earned his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School, his M.A. from the University of Texas and his B.A. from the University of California, San Diego. He was admitted to the Washington, D.C. Bar Association in 1998 and the State Bar of California in 1996, but is currently inactive.

Maureen Downey
Principal
Pantheon Ventures

Maureen focuses on sourcing, analyzing and closing secondary investment opportunities and manager selection for Emerging Markets on a primary basis as well as participates in fund monitoring, firm marketing and client reporting. Prior to joining Pantheon, Maureen was a Vice President in Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs, & Co. Maureen's execution experience includes a variety of cross-border and domestic M&A and leveraged buy-out transactions, debt restructuring assignments as well as a broad spectrum of capital market financings from equity to high yield across multiple industries. Before joining Goldman Sachs in 1998, Maureen worked for Merrill Lynch in New York in their Fixed Income Division for three years. Maureen graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Claremont McKenna College and holds a MBA from Wharton's Graduate School of Business.

Peter Furci
Partner
Debevoise & Plimpton

Peter Furci is a tax partner who concentrates on the tax aspects of a wide range of corporate transactions, including domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, financings and debt and equity securities offerings by US and non-US issuers. He also practices extensively in the area of private investment funds, including hedge, mezzanine, distressed debt, infrastructure and real estate funds. Furci is listed as a leading tax lawyer by Chambers USA (2011), where clients note he is “fantastic as tax counsel; he's an incredibly sharp, creative, get-the-deal-done type of lawyer.” Furci is also recognized by The Legal 500 US (2011), where sources note he is “simply the best tax lawyer I have ever worked with.”