The private equity industry’s strong appetite for talent has led to a series of significant people moves across regions and strategies in the past year.
The Asia-Pacific region has witnessed some of the most high-profile moves amid slowing dealmaking activities in China. CPP Investments, for example, lost its APAC PE head Frank Su as the pension giant experienced underperformance in its Asia investments, Private Equity International reported in November. It later emerged that Su was joining the Abu Dhabi Pension Fund as global head of PE.
Prakul Kaushiva, who had been leading CPP Investment’s private equity team at its Mumbai office, will relocate to Hong Kong as its new head of private equity Asia.
CPP Investments also lost its global directs head Hafiz Lalani, a London-based managing director who had been with the Canadian institution for nearly 19 years, PEI reported in December. Lalani was succeeded by Sam Blaichman, former head of direct PE North America at CPP Investments. The pension also appointed Pascal Keutgens to oversee direct equity investments in Europe as part of its leadership restructuring effort.
CPP Investments is the world’s second-largest PE allocator with C$675.1 billion ($470.1 billion; €450.3 billion) in assets, according to PEI‘s Global Investor 150.
On the sponsor side, one of the most notable personnel changes was the departure of Investcorp’s co-chief executive Hazem Ben-Gacem, who joined the firm in 1994 and had been its co-CEO since 2018. Investcorp, the Gulf’s biggest private equity firm according to the PEI 300, reshuffled its senior leadership and reorganised its investment activities into three groups. Dave Tayeh, who was appointed to lead firm’s global PE business after Ben-Gacem said he was leaving the firm, then said in October he had decided to leave the firm at the end of June 2025.
Changes in private wealth
The talent scene in private wealth has been changing rapidly as more GPs target high-net-worth investors in the difficult fundraising environment. Joy Wang, the Greater China head of Brookfield Asset Management’s unit providing private markets exposure to private wealth investors, left the firm after spending two years building up Brookfield Oaktree’s Hong Kong team, PEI reported in November. Wang’s departure related to a broader review of the firm’s wealth client coverage team across the region, a source told PEI.
Another example is Coller Capital, which appointed an Asia-Pacific private wealth veteran months after launching its first evergreen secondaries products. Pak-Seng Lai, former head of APAC private wealth at Blue Owl Capital, moved to Coller in October, according to filings with the HK Securities and Futures Commission. Lai joined his former employer in January 2022 following a four-year stint as managing director and head of private markets APAC for UBS, PEI reported at the time.
EQT also named a new leader of its Americas private wealth business as it expands private market investments to high-net-worth clients. The Stockholm-based PE giant appointed Peter Aliprantis to lead its Americas private wealth management business. Prior to joining EQT, Aliprantis was a managing director at TPG Angelo Gordon, where he focused on new business development and intermediary distribution.
Changes in secondaries
The secondaries market has seen some major personnel changes in the past year as the booming industry experiences a significant lack of talent. In July, affiliate titles Secondaries Investor and Buyouts reported that Bank of America was making a foray into secondaries market advisory by tapping Amanda Ugarte – Lazard’s former head of US secondaries advisory – to lead the unit.
The move followed a similar decision by Macquarie Group, which appointed Steven Westerback, former partner at placement agent and advisory firm Atlantic-Pacific Capital, to lead its newly launched secondaries advisory business, Secondaries Investor reported in May.
On the secondaries buyside, JPMorgan Asset Management tapped Dean Hoang to be executive director of secondaries in its private equity unit. Hoang joined from Macquarie Asset Management, where he was a senior vice-president at its wealth group.
