ADIA appoints GE Capital veteran as PE head

Sherwood Dodge will oversee the private equity programme, including secondary fund investments, at the $777bn Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) has appointed Sherwood Dodge as its new global head of private equities, effective immediately.

Dodge’s mandate encompasses investments in private equity funds, principal investments, secondary fund investments and private credit, ADIA said in a statement.

ADIA has about $777 billion of assets under management, with up to half invested in North America and a third in Europe, according to PEI’s Research and Analytics division. Its allocation to alternatives is 3 to 10 percent as of 2013, with an increasing focus on direct and co-investments.

Dodge’s responsibilities include setting the fund’s private equity strategy, along with other senior managers, overseeing its private equity programme and making investment recommendations to the fund’s investment committee, it said.

He joined the sovereign wealth fund from GE, where he worked for more than 25 years in senior roles. He was most recently deputy chief executive officer and a board member of Hyundai Capital Services and Hyundai Card, a Hyundai/GE consumer credit joint venture.

From 2009 to 2013, as head of GE Capital America’s equities business he led its private equity activities and served as head of corporate development from 2011-2013. He was based in London for six years from 1999 to 2005, where he oversaw the firm’s European private equity activities.

Dodge will report to the executive director of the private equities department Hamad Shahwan Al Dhaheri, who said: “With a distinguished career in private equity investing around the world, Sherwood is a valuable addition to an already strong team. His deep and wide ranging experience will play a leading role in further developing ADIA’s activities in the private equity space.”

The fund invests in private equity globally through externally managed funds and through investments in private companies, typically alongside external partners, it said. Its primary fund investment activities are split across North America, Europe and emerging markets, while its direct secondaries and principal investing is global.