TPG bulks up secondaries team with Landmark hires

TPG, the world’s fourth-largest private equity firm according to the PEI 300, is continuing the build-out of its secondaries investment team with the hire of two professionals from Landmark Partners and an internal appointment.

The Fort Worth-headquartered firm has hired Pamela Hanafi and Tamir Yewdaev as a principal and a vice-president, respectively, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The pair previously worked at Landmark, with Hanafi a director and Yewdaev a vice-president, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

Both are understood to bring 15 years of combined secondaries investing experience, with Hanafi having previously worked at Glouston Capital Partners and Yewdaev at Greenhill.

Gerry Spelman, who joined TPG in 2019, has also been appointed to the secondaries team, according to one of the sources. Spelman is a vice-president who has eight years of direct investing experience.

All three are based in New York, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

It is understood that the appointment brings the unit to four members and that TPG plans to continue to grow its team.

The trio will report to Michael Woolhouse, the firm’s head of secondaries, who joined from CPP Investments last summer. Woolhouse had spent five years as head of the Canadian pension giant’s secondaries group and had joined the investor in 2007.

TPG is speaking to potential investors about raising its debut secondaries fund with a target as high as $2 billion, sister title Buyouts reported in December. The fund is not yet in the market and TPG has had preliminary discussions with investors, known as premarketing, Buyouts reported.

The firm has also run secondaries processes on its own funds. In January, Buyouts reported that TPG was set to revive a single-asset process involving portfolio company Creative Artists Agency, which had stalled amid the pandemic.

A spokeswoman for TPG declined to comment for this article.