LP Perspectives in 2020

LP PERSPECTIVES IN 2020
July 15, 2020 | 9:00 am EDT | 14:00 BST | 21:00 HKT

This two-part webcast spotlighted current perspectives on EM private capital from diverse LPs, including family offices, fund of funds, and endowments.

Part I

Part I focused on the 2020 Global Limited Partners Survey, with key findings and commentary from active EM institutional investors. This study sheds light on how LP investment plans are evolving and what factors are affecting LP decision-making. Focus areas include the COVID-19 crisis, policies around climate change, co-investment and direct investment plans, and VC and technology.

Speakers

Tryfan Evans, Director of Investments, Tufts University Endowment

Dimple Sahni, Managing Director of Impact Investing, Anthos Fund and Asset Management

Dimple Sahni is a Managing Director Impact Funds Portfolios at Anthos Fund and Asset Management, one of the largest single-family offices in the world. She is responsible for originating investments, managing relationships, and helping to execute strategies for the fund portfolios at Anthos Asset Management dedicated to impact investing across all asset classes including private, listed, and real assets. In this defacto Mixed Asset Impact CIO role, she leads the firm’s strategy on impact portfolio construction and asset allocation.
Originally from India, Dimple is an experienced investment professional – with over 20 years of experience in impact investing, investment banking, technology, emerging markets, and venture capital – who began her career in finance working for Goldman Sachs. She then launched a social enterprise focused on education, Epylon, which was later sold to Accenture. After working at L Capital Partners in its technology, energy, and environment practice where she was a Kauffman Fellow, she shifted to impact investing at the Omidyar Network, Pierre Omiydar’s philanthropic investment arm. She continued her impact investing career with Unilever Corporate Ventures on its exploration of emerging Asia. Most recently she was fund principal at the Hattery, an early-stage impact investing and design firm which was sold to Google.

Dimple holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School and a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago. Based in Amsterdam, she is an EU permanent resident, US citizen, and Indian citizen. She speaks English, Hindi, and Dutch.

Jeff Schlapinski, Managing Director, Research, GPCA

Jeff Schlapinski is the Managing Director of Research at GPCA, where he leads a team producing industry data, analysis, and in-depth reporting on private equity, private credit, infrastructure, and real assets investing in emerging economies. In addition to providing bi-annual market intelligence to GPCA’s members, Jeff manages GPCA’s annual Global Limited Partners Survey and is a regular author of GPCA special reports and research briefs. He also interacts frequently with the media, fund managers, institutional investors, and industry advisors in order to fulfill GPCA’s broader mission of informing the investment community on the private capital opportunity set in emerging markets. Jeff graduated from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) at Georgetown University with a B.S. in International Economics.

Part II

Part II addressed how LPs are responding to the challenge of conducting fund diligence during a time of remote work and limited travel. Topics included how practitioners are thinking about operational due diligence, IT security, and getting to know teams remotely.

Speakers

Rebecca Xu, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Asia Alternatives

Rebecca Xu is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Asia Alternatives. Ms. Xu leads Asia Alternatives’ Beijing office and is also a part of the Hong Kong office. She is on the Firm’s Investment Committee and co-leads Asia Alternatives’ investments in expansion and growth capital funds, focusing most of her time on Asia Alternatives’ China investments.

Prior to starting Asia Alternatives, Ms. Xu was a Senior Investment Officer at the Funds Group of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group. There, she had the primary responsibility of leading IFC’s fund investing and portfolio supervision in Asia for over six years. Previously, Ms. Xu also worked at McKinsey & Co, Inc. (Washington D.C.) and HSBC (Hong Kong).

Benjamin Murray, Associate Director, Operational Due Diligence, UTIMCO

Benjamin Murray is an Associate Director with the University of Texas/Texas A&M Investment Management Company (UTIMCO) and is responsible for leading operational due diligence. Prior to joining UTIMCO in 2016, Benjamin was Operational Due Diligence Analyst at William Blair in Chicago. Prior to rejoining William Blair in 2014, Benjamin was a Treasury Analyst at $2 billion hedge fund manager PEAK6 Investments. Before joining PEAK6, he worked as a Performance Analyst and, formerly, an International Accountant after joining William Blair in 2010. Benjamin has also held positions as a Portfolio Administrator with Aurora Investment Management LLC and as Product Manager with Man Investments (USA), LLC. He is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Austin. He holds a B.A. in Communication and an M.B.A. with an emphasis in Finance from the University of Missouri.

John Eggleston, Chief Technology Officer, Pantheon

John Eggleston, Partner, and Chief Technology Officer, joined Pantheon in 2019. Before joining Pantheon, John was Head of Technology and Operating Partner at BGF (Business Growth Fund). Prior to this, John was a co-founder and CIO at PE-backed Callcredit. John holds Fellowships at The Institute of Directors, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, and Institute of Leadership and Management. John is based in London.