PEI Funds MD surfaces at Pantheon – exclusive

Pantheon has hired a managing director from secondaries firm PEI Funds, Secondaries Investor has learned.

Benjamin Wilson joined the global investment firm’s New York office in January as a principal to focus on deal origination and execution, according to a source familiar with the matter.

A spokeswoman for Pantheon confirmed Wilson’s appointment, adding he is a member of the firm’s global secondaries team.

Wilson is a Columbia Business School graduate who began his career at Deutsche Bank focusing on healthcare, according to an archived version of PEI Funds’ website. He was involved in analysis, execution and sourcing of investments and deal processes and held on at least four advisory board seats. He had been at the firm for eight years.

PE Hub first wrote that Wilson had left PEI Funds.

PEI Funds lost its chief financial officer and managing director Gunnar Fremuth as well as chief compliance officer and controller Ed Muradian at the start of last year, co-founder Chuck Stetson confirmed to Secondaries Investor. The firm has since hired accounting firm Schwartz and Co to carry out financial operations in Fremuth and Muradian’s absence, Stetson said.

The firm’s latest vehicle is its 2009-vintage Private Equity Investment Fund V, which closed below its $250 million target on $202.7 million, according to PEI data. It is not clear how much the firm has raised for its 2013-vintage Private Equity Investment Fund VI, which had a $250 million target.

Founded in 1992, PEI Funds focuses on US investments under $30 million and has purchased over 290 limited partnership interests, participated in six fund restructurings and five tender offers, among other deals, according to its website.