Building a Diverse Private Equity Firm

The private equity industry collectively controls a highly diversified portfolio of private companies, and yet most private equity firms themselves are not overly diverse by way of team-member backgrounds. Today, through the efforts of advocacy groups, in partnership with a growing number of GPs, professionals from underrepresented backgrounds are increasingly finding roles in private equity, say Martina Marshall-Edwards, Director of Alumni & Alternative Investments Programs at Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), and Yokasta Segura-Baez, a Principal at Pantheon Ventures.

In an insightful and candid conversation with Privcap, Marshall-Edwards and Segura-Baez explain how private equity compares with other industries with regard to its mix of professionals, detail how high-pedigree industry leaders often fall back on established peer networks when recruiting, and tell how SEO is partnering with firms like Pantheon to channel underrepresented young professionals into internship positions. The two also share the stories of their own backgrounds and how they launched careers in financial services despite having limited initial connections to the industry.

UPCOMING EVENT: The SEO Fourth Annual Alternative Investments Conference on March 22^nd in New York features insights from limited partners and emerging and established fund managers, increasing access and education for more than 300 professionals from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the sector.  Learn more here.

About SEO

Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) is a nonprofit organization with a 50-year history of providing talented and motivated young people from underserved and underrepresented communities with access to educational and career opportunities.  SEO has played a pivotal role at the intersection where diverse professionals meet opportunity, recruiting and mentoring underrepresented students of color for summer internships with more than 50 partner investments banks, corporate law firms and other leading global companies each year.

A few years ago, with the support of the SEO Limited Partner Advisory Council and others in the LP community, SEO created its Alternative Investments industry program to increase diversity and expand access for professionals from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the sector.

In 2009, the SEO Alternative Investments Fellowship Program launched with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and TPG Capital as inaugural partners.  The Fellowship educates, mentors and provides unique industry exposure for first- and second-year analysts, forming a bridge between diverse talent and career opportunities in private equity and other areas.

The annual SEO Alternative Investments Conference began in 2010 to promote diversity and expand SEO’s educational outreach.  It offers more than 300 early and mid-career professionals of color a day of insights from industry leaders and exposure to investors for aspiring, new and established fund managers.  Panel discussions with sector leaders, limited partners and fund managers bring diverse professionals from many different asset classes together for unique networking and deal-making opportunities, while fostering valuable exposure and interaction for participants.

CCMP Capital Advisors and Pantheon Ventures have also partnered with SEO to identify talent for their undergraduate summer analyst programs, providing a pathway for talented individuals to gain access to the middle market industry. www.seoaltinvestments.org