In spite of another challenging year, the private equity world has a lot to look forward to in the future, with a class of bright, young leaders already lined up to lead the way.
Every year, Private Equity International asks the industry for nominations for its 40 under 40: Future Leaders of Private Equity list. In 2024, we received more than 250 nominations for bright young talent across five categories: dealmakers, fundraisers, investors, operators and lawyers.
Aged just 29, the youngest person to make this year’s Future 40 list was Karen Nes, senior investment analyst at Australian pension Aware Super. Nes, who features in the investors category, was described by her peers as a “quiet achiever”. In her four years with Aware, she has led on a number of deals and helped build out the firm’s international presence.
Seven other young professionals joined Nes on the investors list, coming from institutions including the Children’s Health System of Texas, Neuberger Berman and CPP Investments.
TPG’s 30-year-old David Bessel was the second youngest professional named in 2024, landing on the dealmakers list. Bessel joined TPG in 2015 and has been involved in more than a dozen deals totalling $1.6 billion in the years since.
The list of 13 dealmakers includes 33-year-old Lamar Cardinez from Blue Owl Capital, who has carved out a niche in the professional sports landscape; and 37-year-old Anushka Sunder from Blackstone, who was part of a 2021 team that invested $34 billion (one of the largest deals of that year) in healthcare products distributor Medline.
The fundraising category features seven rising stars, including 34-year-old Warburg Pincus director Jenna Macartney, whose colleagues described her as a “game changer” for Warburg Pincus’s engagement efforts with its “friends and family” group of investors. Her peers noted that funds raised from that LP group had tripled to nearly $850 million over the past two years.
The list of lawyers includes six young attorneys pushing the envelope in PE. The youngest of the group is 34-year-old Sara Hamzawi, a partner at Ashurst. Hamzawi played a key role in several large deals for the firm, including Clayton, Dubilier & Rice’s £7.3 billion ($9.3 billion; €8.9 billion) takeover of the UK’s Wm Morrison Supermarkets in 2021. Colleagues praised her professionalism, dedication and ability to put clients at ease.
Finally, the operators list features six stars, including 33-year-old Tang Zongzhong from EQT. Based in Singapore, Zongzhong focuses on sustainability issues in private markets and takes time outside of his day job to support wider market sustainability in the region, serving as a member of the ESG and Impact Committee of the Singapore Venture & Private Capital Association.
These 40 young professionals are already shaping the PE landscape and will continue to do so in 2025 and beyond. Combining this with the work of the other 200-plus nominations, the future of private equity appears to be in good hands.
