HarbourVest makes real assets VP hire

HarbourVest Partners has appointed a vice-president to its real assets team.

Based in the firm’s Toronto office, Benjamin Wu is working on secondaries, directs and primaries in the real assets space, Secondaries Investor understands.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Wu started at HarbourVest in July after nearly four years at Borealis Infrastructure, the infrastructure co-investment and management arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. Prior to that he spent around three years working on direct investments for the private capital arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

HarbourVest’s Toronto office opened in April 2015 under the leadership of principal Senia Rapisarda. She joined from BDC Venture Capital, the VC arm of Business Development Bank of Canada, where she was responsible for establishing a Canada-focused direct and indirect investments team. At the time HarbourVest managed $1.5 billion on behalf of Canadian investors.

The appointment of Wu brings the Toronto team up to four people, with real assets principal Dan Buffery and Sophia Maizel, an associate who monitors Canadian partnerships and direct coinvestments, according to the company’s website.

HarbourVest’s Real Assets Fund III closed in April on $366 million, below its target of $500 million. The fund invests in a combination of traditional and complex secondaries transactions in the energy, power, infrastructure and natural resources sectors, complemented by an allocation of up to 20 percent in real asset primaries and direct co-investments, according to documents seen by Secondaries Investor.

It has an investment period of two to four years, an average management fee of 75 basis points based on committed capital, and carried interest of 10 percent “after generating a 7 percent Limited Partner Preferred Return”.