Industry Insights Live Welcomes Marcos Rodriguez, Chairman & CEO, Palladium Equity Partners!

NAIC is excited to welcome Marcos A. Rodriguez, Chairman & CEO, Palladium Equity Partners, to the 3 p.m. ET September 30th edition of Industry Insights Live!

Marcos Rodriguez, whose family fled from Cuba to Washington Heights, New York, when he was a child, founded Palladium in 1997. After gaining valuable experience working in operations for General Electric, he entered the finance industry in 1989, joining buyout firm Joseph Littlejohn & Levy.

Now the head of a leading middle-market private equity firm with nearly $3 billion in AUM, Mr. Rodriguez leverages Palladium’s deep operational expertise to deliver superior outcomes in a culture that fosters inclusion.

Palladium is one of the oldest minority-owned private equity firms. Founded 25 years ago, Palladium’s senior investment partners average more than a decade with the Firm. Seventy-four percent of the Firm’s equity partners and all of its employees are diverse or female.

Please join us in conversation with Mr. Rodriguez, a true pioneer in private equity.

NAIC MEMBER FIRMS REGISTER NOW! GP Registration Now Open for the 2021 NAIC LP Meetup!

NAIC invites its Member Firms to sign up for our annual LP Meetup! Set for 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. ET October 7, 2021, this is an exclusive event that connects alternative asset managers with decision-makers at some of the nation’s leading capital allocators.

Confirmed participants include Mina Nazemi, Co-Head of Funds & Co-Investments, Barings; Elizabeth Burton, Chief Investment Officer, Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Hawaii; Joseph Aguilar, Deputy CIO, Illinois State Treasury; Amy Chen, Chief Investment Officer, Smithsonian Institution; Brad Young, Co-CIO, Global Markets, Mercer; Mehdi Khodadad, Partner, Sidley Austin; Ray Whiteman, Managing Partner, Stellex Capital Management; Avinash Amin, Managing Partner, Madryn Asset Management; Ted Yun, Managing Partner, NexPhase Capital; Ivelisse Simon, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Avante Capital Partners.

LP Meetups offer an invaluable opportunity for NAIC members to forge lasting relationships with decision-makers at leading institutional investors through our custom-curated one-on-one meetings. In 2020, NAIC coordinated over 250 of these rich interactions between LPs and GPs.

Nearly 30 leading LPs have confirmed their participation, with more registering daily! Among them are AARP; CalSTRS; Cambridge Associates; Commonfund; Conrad N. Hilton Foundation; Crewcial Partners LLC; East Bay Community Foundation; Howard University; Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund; LACERA; NYC Retirement Systems; Office of the NYC Comptroller; Smithsonian Institution; State of Connecticut/Connecticut Retirement Plans & Trust Funds; State of Rhode Island; and Yale New Haven Health System, and more.

This year’s LP Meetup will also feature two highly relevant and timely panel discussions, “CIO Forecasting: 2022 & Beyond” and “Re-evaluating Portfolios Post-Pandemic.”

NAIC Market Update: A Holistic Approach to DEI

Successful Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) initiatives must be incorporated into every aspect of the business and interwoven into an organization’s overall strategy, according to Anna Edwin, TPG’s Managing Director and Global Head of Talent Development. In this NAIC Market Update video, Edwin breaks down TPG’s approach to DEI and offers actionable advice to organizations looking to build effective DEI initiatives.

Earlier this year, TPG launched TPG NEXT, an initiative designed to back diverse talent by providing growth capital and operating resources to seed, support, and scale the next generation of diverse investors and entrepreneurs. NAIC is happy to be a partner in this crucial initiative.

Join our Team! NAIC is Hiring a Director of Partnerships and Alliances

The NAIC is looking for a self-motivated professional with knowledge of the financial services industry (particularly private equity), project management capabilities and excellent written and verbal communication skills to manage our collaborations with industry associations and multiyear corporate partners. The ideal candidate for the NAIC Director of Partnerships and Alliances will inject energy, thoughtfulness, and impeccable attention to detail into their work to advance our goals and drive positive change in the alternative investments space.

Responsibilities will include:

• Drafting proposals for new potential Partnerships and Alliances based on initial meetings, calls and discussions
• Developing and managing an engagement plan for each Partnership and Alliance
• Participating in all interactions with potential and incumbent Alliances and Corporate Partners, memorializing the action items and ensure follow up
• Ensuring the execution of all deliverables for the relationships described above and others as they are confirmed
• Collaborating effectively with colleagues and consultants to drive progress on these relationships
• Identifying and addressing any potential challenges
• Proactively developing new ways to enrich the relationships with each entity
• Providing weekly status briefings to NAIC leadership

From Forbes: A New Kind Of GP Stake Deal: Billionaire-Backed Nile Capital Takes Minority Stake In VC Firm Wilshire Lane Capital

NAIC thanks Forbes for chronicling an important story featuring NAIC Member Firms Wilshire Lane Partners, Nile Capital Group LLC, Harlem Capital, and Clearlake Capital Group Co-Founder José E. Feliciano.

The report looks at an industry trend in which firms like Clearlake Capital acquire minority stakes in younger firms that are often diverse-owned, providing them with growth capital to attract larger institutional allocations. Through this lens, Forbes recounts how Henri Pierre-Jacques, Co-Founder of Harlem Capital, introduced Adam Demuyakor, Co-Founder of Wilshire Lane, to Feliciano. Through their SUPERCHARGED Initiative, Feliciano and his wife Kwanza Jones backed several diverse-led investment firms, including Harlem Capital and Nile Capital. Pierre-Jacques’ introduction of Demuyakor to Feliciano eventually resulted in Wilshire receiving an investment from Nile Capital to accelerate growth.

NAIC applauds Feliciano, Mel Lindsey, Demuyakor and Pierre-Jacques for their parts in building and scaling the next generation of diverse-owned firms!

Kah Capital Management: Delivering Returns While Building Wealth in Diverse Communities

Founded in 2018 by Gambian native Adama Kah, Kah Capital Management (KCM) acquires mortgage-backed loans – bundled and securitized by banks or institutions like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – at a discount. The firm then identifies targeted solutions for those borrowers, creating more manageable terms and enabling homeowners to continue payments. This strategy increases the underlying value of those previously discounted assets, allowing KCM to sell them at a premium later. In this NAIC Member Profile, we chronicle KCM’s origins, spotlight its “doing well and doing good” philosophy, how competing in collegiate sports helped shape the founder’s business philosophy, and explain why management remains bullish on the housing market.

NAIC Welcomes Ascendo Capital Partners!

NAIC is excited to welcome Ascendo Capital Partners to our network!

Ascendo specializes in growth opportunities in technology industries and companies in diversified sectors with revenues between $2 million and $15 million. Ascendo will invest in exceptional entrepreneurs in demographics that are often overlooked with a strong focus on companies led by diverse gender and multicultural founders. The firm will focus on addressing a well-defined market need with a demonstrated passion of founders to drive their mission to scale.

Please join us in welcoming Ascendo Capital Partners!

GCM Grosvenor Small and Emerging Managers Conference Set to Begin October 12

Registration for the 15th annual Small and Emerging Managers Conference (SEM) is now open! This two-day virtual event (October 12 and 14) will feature important discussions surrounding the conference’s mission of advancing small, emerging, and diverse managers and provide institutional investors access to these managers through one-on-one sessions, called SEM Exchange. Don’t miss your chance to join GCM Grosvenor and other industry leaders as we work towards creating a more inclusive and diverse industry.

Connect with NAIC on Social Media!

Stay up-to-date on the latest news from diverse-owned private equity firms and hedge funds, news-making deals, NAIC announcements, interviews with high-profile insiders and other industry happenings by following us on social media.