The queen of private equity recruitment: “We receive between 12,000 and 15,000 CVs a month”

Gail McManus is stepping back. 30 years after founding Private Equity Recruitment (PER), the firm that’s both literally and practically synonymous with getting a private equity job in Europe, McManus is working part-time. She handed leadership of PER to long term colleagues Charlie Hunt and Rupert Bell last year in a management buyout and now has the luxury of regularly switching on her out of office. But she hasn’t disappeared entirely: McManus is the well-established queen of private equity hiring, and she still enjoys wearing that crown.  

“Jobs in this industry are all about trust and judgement and potential and whatever you do people remain gloriously diverse, difficult, charismatic, challenging, awkward and entrepreneurial,” says McManus of private capital firms and their employees. “This is why I love it.”  READ MORE

PE has yet to prove its AI bets to investors

Private equity firms have raced to embed AI into portfolio companies, betting it will reshape businesses and boost valuations, yet few have results to show for it.

A round of conversations with advisers provided a reality check on the hype, laying bare the distance between what the PE industry is hankering for from AI and what its experiments have delivered so far. While most firms have been tinkering enthusiastically, many haven’t done it in a way that has translated into financial gains. READ MORE

Private Equity Bought the World – And Dug Capitalism’s Grave

Secret backrooms where deals are done in private: the realm of conspiracy theories? Or an increasingly large part of capitalism?

Since the financial crisis, some of the big winners have been private equity firms. They’ve snapped up bargains on everything from high street brands, to care homes and nurseries – and maybe even the house you own. READ MORE

Why Are Private Equity Firms Passing on More Administrative Costs to Allocators? Because They Can.

Management fees have held steady, but general partners are shifting more administrative costs and other fees on to their investors READ MORE