Alice Birnbaum
Head of Business Development, BBH Capital Partners
Alice Birnbaum is the Head of Business Development for BBH Capital Partners, the private equity business at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Alice joined the firm in 2007 and began her career working in Corporate Advisory & Banking, with a focus on working with businesses in the Commodities & Logistics space. Alice was a voting member of the firm’s Corporate Credit Committee from 2016 through 2020. Alice is a graduate of Boston University and is based in Brown Brothers’ New York office.
Susanne Desch
Managing Director & CAO, Blackstone
Susanne Desch is a Managing Director and Chief Administrative Officer in Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities group. As CAO of Tactical Opportunities, Ms. Desch is involved in resource allocation, recruiting and training, career and performance development, budget and expense management, compensation, strategic planning and other administrative aspects of the group’s activities. Ms. Desch has held a variety of roles since joining the firm in 2014 in the Strategic Incentives Group. Before joining Blackstone in 2014, Ms. Desch spent 10 years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch working initially in Global Markets and Investment Banking, followed by the Private Banking and Investment Group. Ms. Desch received a BS in Business Administration from Western Carolina University.
Beth Gibbs-Burton
Field Operations Advisor, TPG Capital
Beth Gibbs-Burton has been a Field Operations Advisor for TPG Capital since 2017 as a member of the Procurement Services Group, where she focuses on the development of TPG’s Leverage Procurement Platform and supporting individual portfolio companies with their sourcing and procurement strategies. Beth has over 12 years of Operations and Procurement consulting experience with a strong focus on strategic sourcing, private equity leverage procurement, finance process improvement and procurement transformation. Before joining TPG, Beth spent a number of years with PwC, in their Procurement Consulting Practice. During her time at PwC, she was responsible for delivery and project management of procurement focused process improvement and cost-savings projects for Fortune 500 clients. Beth is a Certified Public Accountant and received her BS in Accounting from Indiana University, and an MBA from the Kelley School of Business.
Mary Catherine Manin
Head of Marketing & Investor Relations, Stone Point Capital
Mary Catherine Manin is Managing Director and Head of Marketing and Investor Relations at Stone Point Capital. Since joining Stone Point in 2014, Mary has been involved in the firm’s fundraising, investor relations and marketing efforts. Mary also serves on Stone Point’s Diversity & Inclusion and ESG Committees. Prior to joining Stone Point, Mary was an Associate at The Carlyle Group where she was primarily dedicated to the fundraising and investor relations efforts at AlpInvest Partners. Prior to joining The Carlyle Group, she was an Analyst in the Financial Sponsors Group at Jefferies LLC. She began her career in KPMG’s Transaction Services Group. Mary received a B.S. in Finance from Fordham University.
Christina Oh
Chief Financial Officer, Private Equity, Ares Management
Ms. Oh is a Partner, Chief Financial Officer, Private Equity, and Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Corporate and Corporate Treasurer. Ms. Oh previously served as Chief Accounting Officer of Ares Management. Prior to joining Ares in 2007, Ms. Oh was with Deloitte and Touche LLP, where she focused on auditing financial services institutions, including investment companies and broker dealers. She holds a B.S., with honors, from the University of California, Los Angeles, in Economics, with a minor in Accounting. Ms. Oh holds a CPA license.
Alexandra van Arkel
Investment Director, CVC Growth Partners
Alexandra is an Investment Director at CVC Growth Partners in New York, where she focuses on high growth software and tech-enabled services businesses. Prior to CVC Growth Partners, Alexandra worked at NBCUniversal in strategy for their Content Distribution group and in finance for their Local Media group. She started her career as an Analyst in Leveraged Finance at Barclays. She received a BA in History from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Candice Turner
National Managing Principal, M&A Tax Services, Grant Thornton LLP
Ms. Turner has more than 20 years of public accounting and private industry experience and serves as the National Managing Principal for the M&A Tax Services business line. Candice is an experienced tax lawyer with a demonstrated history of working in government and private practice. Her expertise includes cross-border tax, mergers and acquisitions as well as sovereign wealth funds/foreign pensions. Candice has advised clients with respect to all US and international tax matters. She has represented funds, sovereigns, foreign pensions and consortiums on investments, acquisitions, re-financings and exit strategies across various industries, including infrastructure, real estate, private equity and public capital markets. Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Candice was a principal in the M&A practice of KPMG. She was previously a partner at the law firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg, a trial attorney with the Department of Justice Tax Division in Washington, D.C., and an attorney with Shearman & Sterling. She is admitted to practice in New York and the U. S. Supreme Court. Candice is very active in her community, volunteering for many organizations including the women’s homeless shelter at St. Ignatius Loyola. Candice has also authored many articles and publications on international tax and is an active leader in international tax organizations. She is on the executive board of International Tax Institute, Women in Tax, and the International Fiscal Association. She is also the New York Regional Vice President of the International Fiscal Association.
