The professionals who constitute this year’s Young Guns of Secondaries list are a testament to the industry’s growth and complexity. Included are five women – more than in previous years’ rankings – as well as professionals who have worked on or originated some of the industry’s most stand-out deals: think the Enfoca restructuring, Landmark Partners’ preferred equity investment with Clearlake Capital Group and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s fund of funds restructuring with Hermes GPE.

All finalists were 35 years or younger as of 1 January 2018 and selected and ranked by a panel of Secondaries Investor and Private Equity International staff on deals, leadership and innovation, institutional clout and the elusive X-factor. As always, the list is fresh as previous Young Guns are ineligible.

Click names in the chart below to go to their biography.

20 Andrew Shore
Proskauer Rose
age: 34  |  job title: partner

Shore is a recently promoted partner with Proskauer’s private funds team. We hear the London-based legal gun has worked on at least 15 deals over the past 12 months valued at a combined €1.3 billion, advising firms including Schroder Adveq and Bregal Investments. Experienced in many scenarios, including portfolio sales, tender offers, fund of fund liquidations and some of the most complex and exotic deals to have taken place this year, sources say Shore’s creativity and attention to detail is valued on the buy- and sellside.

19 Julie Prewer
Rede Partners
age: 35  | job title: associate principal

With an MSc in Criminology & Criminal Justice from the University of Oxford, Prewer is not your typical secondaries professional. Over her seven-year tenure at advisory firm Rede Partners she has proved a dab hand at GP-led transactions, with one source describing her as “a force to be reckoned with”. Among transactions she’s worked on in the last year is the innovative GP-led transaction to raise capital for direct secondaries player Verdane Capital’s reinvestment in digital parking marketplace EasyPark – in just 90 days from start to finish.

18 John Stott
Landmark Partners
age: 35  |  job title: director

Stott has racked up some impressive figures in his nine years at Landmark, having executed approximately $1.6 billion worth of transactions, as well as sourcing and co-leading $650 million in deals. If Stott ever considers a career change to financial journalism he will be well placed – the 35-year-old co-authored a chapter on secondaries private equity fund pricing for PEI’s Private Equity Fund Investment Due Diligence book in 2016.

17 Andrew Gulotta
SixPoint Partners
age: 33  |  job title: director

A trailblazer in fund restructurings, Gulotta has been a critical part of SixPoint’s emergence as an important advisor in the secondaries market. The Columbia graduate completed his first transaction in 2010 at the age of 25, and has since been involved in more than $1.2 billion of secondaries transaction volume. That’s in addition to the more than $6 billion of primary fund placements he has worked on.

16 Mary Lavelle
O’Melveny & Myers
age: 35  |  job title: counsel

Lavelle has been identified by the people who nominated her as a “rising star”. She is perhaps best known for her work with O’Melveny client and secondaries behemoth Coller Capital, for which she has worked on 35 deals and related transactions. The Oxford graduate’s deal history includes some complex transactions, such as an acquisition of a multi-jurisdictional portfolio of non-performing loans and real estate-owned assets from a European bank.


15 Ashrith Ramachandran

Campbell Lutyens
age: 35  |  job title: senior vice-president

In the four years Ramachandran has been with Campbell Lutyens he has made a big impact on the firm, most notably through the pivotal role he has played in the development of its infrastructure secondaries practice. The Australian played a key role in the restructuring of infrastructure manager DIF’s second flagship fund, comprising a portfolio of 48 European public-private partnerships, in a transaction worth more than €700 million. Ramachandran also took the lead on the tender offer on Arcus Infrastructure Partners’ first fund, a $940 million deal.

14 Philippe Ferneini
Glendower Capital
age: 35  |  job title: vice-president

Few firms are pushing the envelope on innovation in secondaries more than Deutsche Bank spin-out Glendower Capital. The London-headquartered firm has closed some eye-catching deals and Ferneini has been behind many of them. He worked on the restructuring of Zurmont Madison Management’s sole fund while at Deutsche and a GP-led process on BlueGem Capital Partners’ debut fund at Glendower. His latest is a €100 million directs deal involving Bridgepoint and Compass Partners. As Glendower continues to scale new heights, the market will do well to keep an eye on Ferneini.

13 Matthew Sparks
Northleaf Capital Partners
age: 33  |  job title: director

In his eight years at Northleaf Capital Partners, Sparks has been integral to growing the firm’s secondaries platform from $200 million to over $1.5 billion. He is known for his investment judgment, people management, and fundraising and investor relations prowess. His latest creative liquidity solutions include sourcing and closing a proprietary $100 million-plus LP interest portfolio over a multi-year period and executing successful preferred financing investments. We hear Sparks is incredibly humble and attributes his success to his team, investment partners and intermediaries. An all-rounder, he is now building synergies between Northleaf’s direct private credit and private equity teams.

12 Jarid Colucci
UBS
age: 31  |  job title: director

Colucci has already begun to leave his mark on the world of secondaries. Prior to his appointment at UBS in November, he was “ingrained” in the development and raising of Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s first dedicated real estate secondaries fund. He spent four years in the bank’s New York office, focusing on real estate and private equity secondaries in its Vintage programme. He also had a hand in the $950 million restructuring of funds managed by Peruvian private equity firm Enfoca, in what became South America’s largest-ever GP-led secondaries transaction. At UBS he is actively leading a number of GP-led deals across private equity and real estate.

11Michael Hu
Greenhill Cogent
age: 31  |  job title: principal

The Asian secondaries market has been flying this year, with the region doubling to account for 14 percent of total global funds sold in the first half. Hong Kong-based Hu is highly regarded for helping Asian sellers rationalise their portfolios and bringing great opportunities to the region’s buyers. Among the deals he has worked on are the sale of $1.7 billion worth of stakes by Singapore’s GIC to Goldman Sachs, $900 million of stakes by Australian super Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation and a $500 million portfolio from fund of funds Asia Alternatives. His calm, cool competence has earned him the esteem of his peers.

WILDCARD

Richard Golaszewski
Nomura Securities
age: 33  |  job title: executive director

This year we felt compelled to include a finalist outside the usual boundaries of secondaries. Nomura Securities’ Richard Golaszewski has been described as “one of the most creative and effective bankers in this space”.

The executive director of equity and fund investment solutions is well-regarded for his intellect and attention to detail when crafting solutions in challenging situations. Market sources were especially impressed with the ease at which he has turned his hand to GP-led restructurings, single-asset deals and securitisations.

“He’s done a great job of making inroads in the industry and has a great pulse of the industry,” says one buyer. Conventional pick? Maybe not. Secondaries maverick? 100 percent.

 

10 Francesca Paveri
Evercore
age: 35  |  job title: director

“Workhorse”, “modest”, “superstar” – just some of the words sources used to describe the European advisory professional. In her more than a decade in the business, London-based Paveri has worked on some of the biggest and most impressive European deals, including the $3 billion spin-out of SwanCap Partners from UniCredit Bank while at UBS. Paveri spent most of 2017 in the US and has executed a 2016 LP portfolio sale by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan that Ardian acquired.

9 Nicholas Cassin
Kirkland & Ellis
age: 31  |  job title: partner

Cassin, the youngest investment funds partner at Kirkland & Ellis, has gained deep respect from his peers since he began working on buy- and sellside secondaries transactions in 2010. The legal Young Gun has represented a number of blue-chip players, including Landmark Partners, Whitehorse Liquidity Partners and HarbourVest Partners, across a variety of deals, including both traditional portfolio sales and fund restructurings, involving billions of dollars.

8 Matthew Romanczuk
AlpInvest Partners
age: 32  |  job title: vice-president

“Top performer” was how one market participant described Matthew Romanczuk. Over the past seven years at AlpInvest Partners, the Harvard graduate has been central to the team’s key accomplishments, including developing and authoring the business plan to help the firm enter energy secondaries. Exhibiting the drive, leadership and skill to take on the secondaries world, Romanczuk heads a yearly market study that has become an industry benchmark for many advisors and LPs. He was also the lead VP on the largest deal done to date at the firm, a $1.9 billion spin-out, and has taken over the recruiting and training of AlpInvest’s associate classes.

7 David Guryn
Committed Advisors
age: 34  |  job title: vice-president

Guryn has been described as “one of the most experienced secondaries professionals at his age” by his peers. A look at his employment history shows this is no exaggeration, having worked at Pantheon, UBS and Evercore before joining Committed Advisors in 2015. Guryn proved “instrumental” to Committed Advisors’ US expansion, as well as the development of Evercore’s secondaries business, one source notes. He has transacted on over $5.5 billion of deal volume across buy- and sellside, receiving praise along the way for his creativity and thoughtfulness in getting deals over the line.

6 Tori Buffery
Morningside Capital Management
age: 33  |  job title: partner

Described as “charismatic” and a “strong connector of people”, Buffery has quickly helped build the firm’s reputation as a force in the GP-led market. As well as leading multiple restructurings and preferred equity deals, her strong relationships with institutional investors have been instrumental in raising capital. “She cares a great deal about how GP solutions are perceived and has been open to sharing creative ideas around structuring and GP communications among her peers,” said one partner.

5 Chad Carroll
Park Hill Group
age: 29  |  job title: director

At 29, Carroll is the youngest in this year’s list, but that doesn’t mean he’s lacking in experience. The GP-led deals specialist has already had his hands in multiple areas of Park Hill’s business, including complex collateralised fund obligations. “For his peer set in the market, there is no one working on the profile of deals at this level that he is,” says a source. With over $3 billion worth of transactions under his belt and several $1 billion-plus GP-led deals on his plate as of mid-2018, Carroll’s just getting started.

4 Sanja Cvetinovic
Blackstone Strategic Partners
age: 33  |  job title: director

The private equity giant’s secondaries team has had an impressive run in the five years since it joined from Credit Suisse, having almost doubled the size of its funds and seeking $8 billion for its latest flagship. In charge of its European operations is Sanja Cvetinovic. The University of Chicago economics specialist has led more than six multi-hundred-million dollar deals and is the point person for all dealflow touching Europe. Whether it’s an investment update or a conference call about a deal, Cvetinovic runs the show on the eastern side of the pond.

3 Derek Krouner
Goldman Sachs Asset Management
age: 34  |  job title: vice-president

New York-based Krouner is a driving force in the bank’s Vintage funds team. This year he has taken the lead on a number of multi-fund LP portfolios following the bank’s move to reorganise the secondaries team. The Columbia and Penn State grad has led the execution of numerous portfolio deals between $500 million and $1 billion for sellers including Asian sovereign wealth funds, large US public pensions and a European corporate pension. “He’s a great partner to deal with,” says a buyer and former Young Gun who has worked with Krouner on transactions.


2 Daryl Li
Ardian
age: 35  |  job title: managing director

Li has become an invaluable member of Ardian’s secondaries team since he arrived in 2010. The Cambridge graduate helped spearhead a variety of deals, including the acquisition of a $930 million portfolio of 13 LP stakes from a US pension fund and an approximately €300 million portfolio of limited partnership interests in infrastructure private equity funds from UniCredit. He plays a key role in the firm’s investment and fundraising efforts for secondaries and co-investments. Li was chosen to represent Ardian as a panellist at PEI’s CFOs and COOs Forum 2017, as well as its secondaries roundtable this year.

1 Sebastien Siou
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
age: 30  |  job title: principal

One candidate stood out from the pack this year: Sebastien Siou. “Bright, articulate and poised,” is how industry veteran Thomas Lee described Siou in his work on Lee Equity Partners’ 2016 stapled deal. The quality and size of transactions Siou has led is impressive even for someone well above him in years. And he’s versatile: Siou led CPPIB’s participation in the Lee Equity staple, which involved the recapitalisation of its $1.2 billion debut fund, and drove the largest GP-led transaction to come out of South America, the $950 million Enfoca deal. “He’s a tireless worker who always goes above and beyond,” says one of the many who nominated him.

View our Young Guns of Secondaries Class of 2017 and Class of 2016.