Fund Shack Private Equity Podcast

Private equity is entering a tougher operating environment, where cheap debt and multiple expansion can no longer be relied on to deliver returns. In this episode of Fund Shack, Ross Butler speaks with Emilio Domingo, Partner in Bain & Company’s London office and Chief Commercial Officer for Bain’s EMEA Private Equity practice, about Bain’s latest private equity outlook, the idea that “12 is t...

Private Markets Podcast, Fund Shack www.fund-shack.com Space is no longer just about rockets, satellites and astronauts. In this episode, Ross Butler speaks with Mark Boggett, CEO and General Partner of Seraphim Space, about how SpaceTech is becoming a critical infrastructure layer for defence, communications, data, AI, energy and industrial activity. Following the recent SpaceX IPO, many investor...

Private markets were built around illiquidity. Investors commit capital, managers invest it over time, and cash comes back when assets are sold. But as private equity, private credit and private markets have scaled, the industry has had to build a more sophisticated liquidity toolkit. In this episode of Private Markets Podcast, Fund Shack, Ross Butler speaks with Alex Branton, Chief Investment Off...

Flor Kassai, Managing Partner and Head of Buyout at Inflexion, joins Ross Butler to discuss European mid-market private equity, talent, origination and repeatable value creation. Flor argues that private equity is more of a talent business than an investment business. In her view, getting the right management team into a company is the central variable in whether a deal can scale, adapt and create...

Private markets look stable… until they don’t. NAVs move slowly. Returns look smooth. Volatility appears contained. But none of that is tested until an investor actually tries to sell. That’s where secondaries come in. The secondaries market is where private markets lose their narrative and face reality . It’s where valuation becomes negotiation. Where liquidity becomes optional. And where the dif...

Private credit has grown into a $1.6–1.7 trillion market, but much of the current narrative is dominated by concerns around defaults, AI disruption and liquidity. In this episode, David Hirschmann, Co-Head of Permira Credit, explains why private credit is a structural evolution of the financial system , not a cyclical boom, and why much of the perceived risk reflects a misunderstanding of how cred...

Can algorithms already outperform human decision-making in private equity? In this episode of Private Markets Podcast, Fund Shack www.fund-shack.com , Ross Butler speaks with Oliver Gottschalg , Professor at HEC Paris and founder of Gottschalg Analytics, about how machine learning is already reshaping private equity fund selection and secondaries pricing. Drawing on more than 25 years of empirical...

In this episode of the Private Markets Podcast, Fund Shack , Ross Butler is joined by Cyril Demaria-Bengochea , Head of Private Market Strategy at Julius Baer and Associate Professor at EDHEC Business School . Cyril brings a rare combination of academic rigour and practical industry insight, shaped by his work with institutional investors, private banks, regulators, and industry bodies including I...

Will Dunham, President and CEO of the American Investment Council, joins Fund Shack to unpack one of the most misunderstood debates in modern finance: the real economic impact of private equity and private credit in the United States. We explore how private capital supports 13 million American jobs, why online narratives around housing and healthcare often diverge from the data, and how private eq...

Ross Butler speaks with David Nowak, President of Brookfield’s Private Equity Group. David leads Brookfield’s North American private equity business and its evergreen strategy. He brings a contrarian, operations-led viewpoint shaped by more than a decade working across one of the world’s most integrated alternative-investment platforms. We explore how Brookfield focuses on essential-service busine...

Anthropologist and best-selling author Jack Weatherford , whose Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World redefined how we view empire and innovation, joins Ross Butler to explore how the Mongol world prefigured today’s private equity model. When the Mongols swept across Eurasia in the thirteenth century, they destroyed old orders, but they also built new ones. In this conversation, Jack Wea...

Ross Butler speaks with Matteo Stefanel and Udayan (“Uday”) Goyal , Co-Founders and Managing Partners of Apis Partners , one of the world’s leading growth-equity investors in financial technology. Founded in 2014, Apis Partners has built a global fintech franchise by applying M&A discipline to private equity: identify the likely acquirers first, then build the company to fit their strategic bl...

Brookfield is renowned for running the companies it owns, not just financing them. In this episode, Ross Butler speaks with Adrian Letts , Managing Partner in Brookfield’s Private Equity Group and Head of Business Operations , to explore how the firm’s operator-led model drives value creation from origination through exit. Adrian explains how Brookfield embeds operators alongside investors, with s...

Private markets are no longer on the sidelines. With listed companies shrinking and private companies multiplying, alternatives are becoming a core component of diversified portfolios. In this episode of Fund Shack, Ross Butler speaks with William Benjamin , Head of Alternative Solutions at HSBC Asset Management , about how alternatives are evolving and why investors haven’t “missed the boat” in t...

Alex van Someren has spent his career at the frontier of technology, venture capital, and national security . From joining Acorn Computers as a teenager, the company that seeded ARM Holdings, to co-founding cryptography firm nCipher , becoming a partner at Amadeus Capital Partners , and later serving as the UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security , his career offers unique insight into...

🎧 Episode #74: Emerging Managers: What It Takes to Make It Guests: Kim Pochon (Unigestion) & Joe Briggs (BCF ) Series Launch: Fund Shack's Emerging Manager Series In this launch episode of Fund Shack’s Emerging Manager Series , Ross Butler speaks with Kim Pochon , Global Head of Primary Investments at Unigestion , and Joe Briggs , Founder of BCF , to explore what it really takes to build...

🎧 Episode #73: The Expanding Role of Private Markets in Wealth Portfolios Guest: Kyle D. Kniffen, Goldman Sachs Asset Management In this Fund Shack episode, recorded live at SuperReturn in Berlin , Ross Butler speaks with Kyle D. Kniffen , Managing Director and Global Head of Alternatives for Third Party Wealth at Goldman Sachs Asset Management . With over $500 billion in alternative assets under...

Episode #72: Bitcoin - The Alternative You Can No Longer Ignore Guest: Matthew Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise Asset Management Bitcoin has evolved from a retail phenomenon to a macro asset that institutions can no longer afford to ignore. In this episode of Fund Shack, Ross Butler speaks with Matthew Hougan , CIO at Bitwise Asset Management , the firm behind the first crypto index fund...

Episode #71: The Realities of Private Wealth in Private Markets Guest: Cyril Demaria-Bengochea, Julius Bär What happens when private equity pivots from institutional capital to private wealth? In this episode, Ross Butler speaks with Cyril Demaria-Bengochea , Head of Private Market Strategy at Julius Bär & one of the most respected thinkers in private markets. Cyril blends academic rigour with...

Donald H. Chew, Jr., founding editor of the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, joins Ross Butler on Fund Shack to discuss the evolution of corporate finance and its impact on national wealth. Based on his latest book, The Making of Modern Corporate Finance, Chew explores the shareholder revolution, Japan’s stagnation, China’s middle-income trap, and private equity’s role in reshaping global mar...

Raja Hadji-Touma, Partner at Corsair Capital and Head of European Buyouts, discusses Corsair's focus on asset-light businesses in financial services, technology, and business services. He explains Corsair's thematic approach to identifying trends and opportunities, emphasizing hands-on value creation, digitization, and scaling businesses through operational and strategic improvements. Insi...

Arjun Raghavan, CEO of Partners Capital is the man private equity executives trust with their money. And not just them. Partners Capital has evolved from managing private equity executives’ wealth to overseeing $60 billion for smaller endowments, family offices, and foundations globally. In this conversation, Arjun speaks to Ross Butler about the firm's "Advanced Endowment Approach",...

Ross Butler speaks with Edward Talmor-Gera, Founder and CEO of NewVest, and Matthew Chapman, Director at NewVest. NewVest is a pioneering company providing low-cost, diversified index funds for private equity, private debt, and other private market strategies — revolutionizing how investors access private markets. Insights: Why Passive Investing in Private Markets is Revolutionary Edward explains...

Ross Butler speaks with David Whileman, Partner at Inflexion Private Equity, about the untapped potential of minority private equity investments. David shares how minority investing provides entrepreneurs with the resources to scale without selling their businesses. The conversation explores the fund’s strategy, its impact on portfolio companies, and the competitive advantages of minority investme...

In this episode of Fund Shack, Ross Butler speaks with Colm Walsh, Managing Director of ICG Enterprise Trust. ICG Enterprise Trust is a listed private equity investor managed by ICG, a global alternative asset manager. Colm shares insights on ICG’s investment strategies, including their focus on buyouts, the benefit of being part of ICG’s extensive platform, and the importance of experienced manag...