Michael Barzyk Managing Director and Global Head of Private Equity ALLSTATE INVESTMENTS

Michael manages Allstate's portfolio of corporate and infrastructure private equity investments including funds, co-investments, and other direct investments. He is responsible for overall portfolio management and strategy as well as leadership of Chicago and London-based investment teams. He serves on numerous fund advisory boards and as a director of many private companies.

Prior to Allstate, Michael spent nine years at Pritzker Group Private Capital where he focused on control acquisitions of middle-market companies. Previously he was a Senior Associate with CIVC Partners, a middle-market private equity fund based in Chicago, and an investment banking analyst for Salomon Smith Barney (now Citigroup). Michael earned his MBA from the University of Chicago and his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Richard Chau Chief Investment Officer TULANE UNIVERSITY

Richard Chau, Chief Investment Officer
Richard joined the Tulane Investment Management Office in 2013. Prior to Tulane, Richard was a Vice President in Bessemer Trust's Private Equity Funds Group in New York, where he helped manage a multi-billion dollar global private equity portfolio. Prior to Bessemer Trust, Richard spent over two years as an Investment Analyst at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, focused on the private equity portfolio. His previous experience also includes investment banking in the mergers and acquisitions group at Houlihan Lokey. Earlier in his career, he was a Senior Consulting Associate at Cambridge Associates in Boston. Richard has a BA in Economics and Chinese from Williams College and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

David Chiang Chief Investment Officer PRITZKER FAMILY FOUNDATION

David Chiang is the Chief Investment Officer of Pritzker Family Foundations and leads Ganesh Investments, which provides investment advisory services to the family offices of Penny Pritzker (PSP Partners), Tom Pritzker (TPO), Gigi Pritzker / Michael Pucker (DNS) and their foundations. Prior to joining Ganesh Investments in 2021, David was Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Idyllic Partners, an outsourced CIO firm. Previously, David served as Head of External Funds at Soros Fund Management, Managing Director at Wilshire Private Markets and also worked for GIC, Acon Investments, L Catterton and DLJ.

David earned dual BA degrees in Business Economics and Psychology from Brown University and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School Management. He currently serves on the Board of The Opportunity Network, a non-profit focused on helping underrepresented students gain access to high quality education and career opportunities.

Jeffrey Diehl Managing Partner & Head of Investments ADAMS STREET PARTNERS

Jeff is the Managing Partner and Head of Investments at Adams Street. He is responsible for the overall management of the firm and oversees the investment teams’ processes and strategies. Jeff joined Adams Street’s Growth Equity team in 2001 and focuses primarily on growth investments in application software, financial technology and consumer internet.

Prior to joining Adams Street, he served as a Principal for The Parthenon Group, a Boston-based strategy consulting and principal investing firm with Bain Consulting roots.

Jeff is Chairman of both Adams Street’s Portfolio Construction Committee and Executive Committee, and a member of the Growth Equity Investment Committee and New Product Committee.

CURRENT INVESTMENTS
Jeff led the Growth Equity Team’s investments in BoomTown, CBANC Network, Homeward, Millennium Trust, Paylocity (PCTY), Q2 Holdings (QTWO), SnagAJob, and Turnkey (merged with VCSA).

PAST INVESTMENTS
Past Adams Street investments include AMWINS (acquired by New Mountain), Ancestry.com (ACOM), Apto (acquired by BuildOut), ArrowEye, CBeyond (CBEY), Dolex, Gevity HR (GVHR), LogRhythm (acquired by Thoma Bravo), MagicJack (acquired by RILY), MxLogic (acquired by McAfee), Peerless Networks (acquired by Infobip), Setanta, Spiceworks (acquired by Ziff Davis), Stratavia (acquired by Hewlett-Packard), Sympoz (acquired by Comcast), T3Media (acquired by VERI), TicketsNow (acquired by Ticketmaster) and Trendkite (acquired by Cision).

Lucy Dobrin Managing Director PROVIDENCE EQUITY PARTNERS

Lucy Dobrin

Managing Director

Providence Equity Partners

Lucy Dobrin is a managing director on Providence’s investment team and is based in the New York office. Ms. Dobrin is currently a director of DoubleVerify and Smartly.io, and is involved in Providence's investment in OUTFRONT and the Times Square billboard partnership. She was previously a director of EdgeConneX and OEConnection. She is a member of the Providence Women’s Roundtable and the firm's D&I committee, and was previously founding co-chair of the D&I committee. Prior to joining Providence in 2011, she worked in the financial sponsors investment banking group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. She currently sits on the boards of Works & Process at the Guggenheim and Tom Gold Dance, two performing arts non-profits. Ms. Dobrin holds a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.

Mark Fariborz Partner, Private Equity, Member of the Management Committee BC PARTNERS

Partner, Private Equity, Member of the Management Committee

Mark joined BC Partners in 2011. He is a Partner and member of the Management and Private Equity Investment Committees.

Mark leads the Technology vertical in North America and led BC Partners’ investments in NAVEX, EAB, and Accudyne.

Previously, he spent five years at Hellman & Friedman, and prior to this worked in the US buyout fund at The Carlyle Group in Washington DC and New York.

Education, Other

MBA with distinction, Harvard Business School
BA in Economics - magna cum laude, Harvard College

Andrew Farris Managing Director BLACKROCK PRIVATE EQUITY PARTNERS

Andrew Farris is a Managing Director on the BlackRock Private Equity Partners (PEP) investment team within BlackRock Alternatives. He is a member of PEP’s Investment Committee with respect to healthcare investments. Prior to joining PEP in 2008, Mr. Farris evaluated investments at ImpreMedia, a media acquisition platform backed by Clarity Partners. From 2001 to 2004, he was in the Investment Banking Division of Citigroup/Salomon Smith Barney where he worked on merger and acquisition and capital raising transactions. Mr. Farris earned a BA degree, magna cum laude, in economics from Princeton University and an MBA, with honors, from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Farris is also a CFA charterholder.

Evan Greenfield Managing Director of ESG, Private Equity NYC British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI)

Joining BCI in 2022 and based out of New York City, Evan leads the ESG program for the Private Equity asset class. BCI’s ESG strategy focuses on improving the sustainability and integrity of global capital markets, while creating favorable economic conditions and long-term value for our clients and the communities we invest in.

Prior to joining BCI, Evan was the Senior Managing Director & Global Head of ESG at S&P Global, where he led the implementation of their ESG Strategy, and oversaw M&A transactions and operations. Evan’s efforts at S&P Global significantly contributed to establishing S&P Global as a preeminent provider of ESG and climate solutions to corporates and capital market participants.

Prior to joining S&P Global, Evan contributed to the development of the ESG and Impact Investing Platform for Deutsche Bank’s Asset and Wealth Management vertical in the America’s and was responsible for the continuous oversight of the program. Evan brings over 20 years of Private Equity investing with focus on ESG, alternative markets, financial services, and M&A across the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Evan graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics & Markets and completed his MBA at Harvard Business School.

BCI’s Private Equity program has grown to $24.8 billion in privately held companies and funds with long-term growth potential. The program includes a talented team of over 60 investment and operational professionals with specialized in-house asset management expertise, contributing to the growth of the total fund exposure, increasing direct and co-sponsor deals, and extending the portfolio global reach. BCI’s Private Equity program is a significant contributor to the corporation’s $211.1 billion in assets under management, making BCI one of the largest institutional investors in Canada.

Michael Hill Managing Director, Head of Americas, Sustainable Energies & Head of New York CPP INVESTMENTS

Michael Hill is a Managing Director and the Americas Head of Sustainable Energies, focusing on direct private equity investments across the energy sector. Michael also serves as Head of New York office.

Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2016, Michael spent more than two decades in investment banking, most recently as Head of M&A and Corporate Finance for Nomura Securities. While there, he was a member of the Global Investment Banking Executive Committee and the America’s Operating and Capital Commitments Committees. Previously, Michael was Global Co-Head of Natural Resources at Deutsche Bank and held various positions at Morgan Stanley, where he started his career in 1989. He has worked in New York, London and Toronto.

Michael holds an HBA from Ivey Business School, where he is also a Board member, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

He is on the boards of Wolf Midstream, Cordelio Power and Encino Energy.

Ryan Hinkle Managing Director INSIGHT PARTNERS

Ryan Hinkle joined Insight Partners in 2003 and has worked across many industries, geographies and deal structures, spanning SaaS, internet, and infrastructure software companies primarily in North America, Europe, and Australia. Ryan has led or participated in over 30 investments including growth equity, leverage buyouts, growth buyouts, and platform roll-ups. Current investments include scaled leveraged buyouts (Optimizely, Diligent, InhabitIQ, CivicPlus), growth SaaS companies (HqO, Plume, iLobby, PayCargo), and growth buyouts (PayIt, Workforce Software). His vertical investment experience includes education, collaborative work management, real estate, and payments software among many others.

Ryan’s past investments include 6 IPOs and over a dozen partial or full sales to financial sponsors and strategic acquirers. The IPOs of Pluralsight (NASDAQ: PS) and Smartsheet (NYSE: SMAR) were two of the top SaaS IPOs of 2018. They are also notable for Insight’s long history in working with each since 2012. Ryan enjoys working closely with the executive management teams of his investments focused on articulating the boldest “what can go right” vision, creating clear communication in all dimensions, maximizing talent retention via culture, and driving measurement and optimization of critical unit economics. Ryan is also a key manager of the Analyst program at Insight with responsibility for recruiting, training, and mentoring. He has been named to Growthcap's list of Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors multiple times and has been named to Private Equity International's 2020 40 Under 40 list.

Prior to Insight, Ryan began his journey as a lifelong technology enthusiast by developing real-time electricity trading productivity tools with PPL Corporation. Ryan also worked with Morgan Stanley where he observed trader behavior and built software tools to increase their efficiency.

Ryan is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in Finance from Wharton and Electrical Engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Originally from rural southeastern Pennsylvania, he has spent over 15 years living in New York City with his wife, son, and daughter. Ryan and his family enjoy cycling, hiking, attending Broadway shows, playing games (including frequent Chess defeats at the hands of his 8-year-old son), visiting museums, and exploring NYC and beyond. He is a published author on the Pluralsight platform for excel coding. He loves juggling, origami, and number theory (and he can demonstrate for you at any time). He also enjoys trying to keep up with the enormity of exceptional original television series. Ryan’s philanthropic interests include creating agency for underserved schoolchildren and attacking homelessness via root causes like lack of affordable housing and limited access to mental health services. Ryan is also an avid Philadelphia sports fan. While he is typically overheard saying “maybe next year,” he will always hold dearly the memory of watching Super Bowl LII with his family.

Milwood Hobbs Jr Head of North American Sourcing and Origination OAKTREE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

Milwood Hobbs, Jr.

Managing Director and Head of North American Sourcing & Origination

Mr. Hobbs leads Oaktree’s North American Sourcing and Origination group, which focuses on private credit sourcing and deal origination for the firm’s U.S. Private Debt, Global Private Debt, Special Situations and Global Opportunities strategies. He also serves on the investment committee for Oaktree’s Direct Lending platform. Prior to joining the firm in 2013, Mr. Hobbs was an executive director at Natixis Securities focused on building the high yield sales and trading franchise. Prior thereto, he spent five years at Goldman Sachs as a vice president in leveraged finance origination and sales. Before joining Goldman Sachs in 2007, Mr. Hobbs was a director in Leveraged Finance at Deutsche Bank Securities, which he joined in 2000. Additional experience includes regional account management focused on fleet financing at GE Capital Corporation and controller for Leveraged Finance at Bank of America. Mr. Hobbs received his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a B.S. degree in accounting from Rutgers University.

Greg Jania Global Co-Head of Private Equity APG ASSET MANAGEMENT

Greg is the Global Co-Head of Private Equity at APG Asset Management US Inc.

Prior to joining APG US, Mr. Jania was a Managing Director, Partner, and member of the investment committee at WP Global Partners, a 25-person, $2 billion private equity firm founded in 2005. WP Global’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, international insurance companies, endowments, and pension plans. WP Global invested in global buyout, debt, and venture funds and was also an active co-investor.

Prior to that, Mr. Jania was a Senior Vice President in the Investment Management Group of GE Commercial Finance, which managed a $2.5 billion private equity portfolio consisting of over 230 buyout, mezzanine, and venture funds and direct equity investments.  Prior to joining GE, he was Vice President at One Equity Partners, a subsidiary of Bank One that invested more than $1 billion in private equity funds during his tenure and managed a $2.2 billion private equity portfolio with over 125 fund investments. Mr. Jania started his career in credit analysis and debt underwriting at American National Bank, a subsidiary of Bank One in Chicago.

 Mr. Jania received an M.B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago and earned a B.A. in political science and economics, magna cum laude, from Wabash College where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

Sujit John Managing Director PARTNERS GROUP

Sujit John is a Managing Director in the Private Equity Health and Life business unit of Partners Group, based in New York. He is a member of the Direct Private Equity Health and Life Investment Committee. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the firm's portfolio companies Pacific Bells, PCI Pharma Services, Blue River PetCare and Axia Women's Health. His previous Board Director roles include Multiplan, Inc. and USIC. He has been with Partners Group since 2012 and has 17 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Partners Group, he worked at WestView Capital Partners, Arlington Capital Partners and Citigroup Global Markets. He holds a bachelor’s degree in management from Boston College, Massachusetts, USA.

Patrick Kocsi Head of Co-Investment for North America ARDIAN

Before joining Ardian as Head of Co-Investment for North America, Patrick spent 24 years with General Electric Company in increasing roles of responsibility both in the US and globally. In his last role, he led GE Equity, the $2.5 billion co-investment private equity arm of GE Capital, before selling the business to Ardian in 2015. He also founded Juna Equity Partners, a lower middle market co-investment and direct equity manager, in 2016. Patrick has over 26 years of experience in private equity.

Education: Bachelor’s degree Finance, Boston University. Master’s degree International Relations & Finance, Fletcher School Tufts University

Michael R. Littenberg Partner ROPES & GRAY

Michael R. Littenberg has more than 30 years of experience representing U.S. and foreign public and private companies, investment banks, private equity funds and other managers in transactional matters, including securities offerings and mergers and acquisitions, and ongoing compliance. His clients range from large well-known institutions to growing companies across every major industry.

Michael’s transactional capital markets experience covers a wide range of products, including equity and equity-linked securities, investment grade and non-investment grade debt, and SPACs, BDCs and other permanent capital vehicles, through SEC registered, Regulation D, Rule 144A and Regulation S offerings (including registered direct offerings and PIPEs).

Michael’s M&A experience includes representing strategic and financial buyers and sellers, special committees and financial advisors in connection with U.S. and cross-border transactions involving public and private companies.

A significant part of Michael’s practice involves counselling U.S. public companies and foreign private issuers and their boards, board committees, special committees, executive officers and investors in connection with ongoing compliance under the U.S. securities laws, exchange requirements and governance matters.

Michael also advises a significant number of leading companies and managers on ESG, corporate social responsibility, business and human rights and supply chain compliance matters, and is widely viewed as one of the leading practitioners globally in this rapidly evolving area. See here for Michael’s separate bio relating to this portion of his practice.

Michael is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars, has authored numerous articles, and is frequently quoted as an expert in the business and specialty press, on topics pertaining to his areas of focus. He has been included in numerous rankings and ratings, including Chambers Global, Legal 500, New York Super Lawyers and the New York Super Lawyers New York metro area top 100 list and Who’s Who in Securities Law.

Philip Hunter O'Brien Senior Director, Private Equity CDPQ

Mr. O'Brien is Senior Director, Private Equity at CDPQ on the direct investment team based out of NYC. Previously he led North American Private Equity, Direct Investments within the Abu Dhabi Investment Council's Private Equity Department. Prior to joining the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, Mr. O'Brien worked as a private equity investor at The Carlyle Group within their US Buyout team and LLCP. In addition, Mr. O'Brien worked in the Investment Banking Division of Deutsche Bank. Mr. O'Brien holds an A.B., magna cum laude, from Princeton University in Economics and an MBA from Columbia Business School, where he earned the Sonkin Prize for Value Investing. Mr. O’Brien is a CFA Charterholder.

Sanaz Raczynski Managing Director, Sustainability KOHLBERG & COMPANY

Sanaz Raczynski is a Managing Director and Kohlberg’s Head of Sustainability. She is an active participant on Kohlberg’s investment team, reporting to Kohlberg’s Chief Investment Officer. She sets the sustainability strategy and drives the implementation of ESG best practices at Kohlberg. Sanaz also acts as a sustainability strategist and a resource for Kohlberg portfolio companies. Sanaz is an active contributor to industry-wide initiatives designed to promote the adoption of ESG best practices within the private equity industry.

Prior to joining Kohlberg, Sanaz was a managing director and head of sustainability for Nuveen Real Assets and Private Markets.

Sanaz received a M.Sc. in Sustainability Management from Columbia University, an M.A. from New York University and a B.A. from University of California at Los Angeles

Bob A. Rivollier Partner ROPES & GRAY

Bob Rivollier is a partner in the private equity transactions group in the firm’s New York office. With over a decade of experience advising clients on leveraged buyouts, M&A and financing transactions, Bob is a trusted adviser for private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies on their most critical transactions and other business initiatives.

Bob has advised clients on many large transactions, including complex carve-out transactions, across many industries and verticals, such as health care and pharma, industrials, technology, business services, and consumer/retail. Within the health care industry, Bob has also developed a particular focus on management services organizations. 

Some recent examples of Bob’s work include:

• Health care and pharma: advising Avista Capital Partners on its acquisition of Probo Medical, Avista’s portfolio company United BioSource on its acquisitions of Marketshare Movers and Examoto, and TPG’s portfolio company BVI® on its acquisition of Benz Research & Development
• Industrials: advising American Industrial Partners on the sale of AHF Products and The Cabinetworks Group, and the acquisition of the Lewisport automotive body sheet plant from Novelis
• Technology: assisting Partners Group on its minority investment in VelocityEHS and its majority investment in Idera, and Wirecard on the sale of its U.S. business to Syncapay
• Business services: advising Partners Group on the acquisition of Foundation Risk Partners and the sale of a 50% stake in USIC to a consortium led by Kohlberg & Company
• Consumer/Retail: guiding Partners Group on its acquisition of Careismatic Brands
• Management services organizations: representing Avista Capital Partners on its acquisition of National Spine and Pain Centers, Heartland Dental on its acquisition by KKR, and Heartland Dental on its acquisition of American Dental Partners 

A native of Luxembourg, educated in Belgium, Scotland and the United States, and fluent in English, French, German and Luxembourgish, Bob brings a valuable global perspective to a dealmaking landscape that is increasingly cross-border in nature. He has worked as a transactional lawyer in both New York and London, and he frequently represents non-U.S. private equity sponsors in connection with their inbound investments into the United States. 

Ranked Up & Coming in Chambers USA 2020-2022 and Chambers Global 2021-2022, Bob has been described by clients as “a sharp negotiator”, “very thoughtful” and “commercially savvy.” Clients say that they “truly value his guidance in tough situations” and that Bob is someone they can trust in complex transactions.

Mark Shafir Managing Director, Global Co-Head, Mergers & Acquisitions CITI

•Mark Shafir is the Co-Head of Global Mergers & Acquisitions at Citi.

•Prior to joining Citi in 2008, Mark was Head of Global M&A at Lehman Brothers.

 •He has 38 years of experience advising clients and leading top M&A teams.  Selected recent transactions include: Kroger – Albertson’s (pending), Broadcom – VMWare (pending), Permira – Mimecast, Brookfield’s 19.9% stake in First Energy Transmission, WPX - Devon Energy, LVMH – Tiffany, Broadcom – Symantec Enterprise Unit and Disney – Fox.

•Mark is on the Board of Governors of Multiplying Good, the largest and most prestigious platform for public service in America and on the Board of Trustees of The Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History.  He is a frequent contributor to CNBC and Bloomberg television on M&A matters.

•Mr. Shafir holds a bachelor's degree from Yale University, an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania and was a Marshall Scholar at Kings College, Cambridge.