NYC’s Enriquez to join Rothschild’s private equity business

The former head of private equity at New York City’s Bureau of Asset Management is set to join the private equity unit of Rothschild’s merchant banking business, Private Equity International has learned.

David Enriquez, who joined the pension system in 2016 to build its private equity co-investment programme, will join the unit known as Five Arrows Capital Partners, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Enriquez’s last day at New York City Retirement Systems – the unofficial term given to the group that comprises public pension systems for the city’s teachers, employees, police, fire and board of education – was understood to be Friday. He will join in mid-June.

NYCRS had $250.96 billion in assets under management as of February, according to its website. Almost 5 percent of this – or 15.7 percent – was in private equity.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Enriquez was leaving the pension system.

In a 2019 interview with PEI, Enriquez shared detailed advice on GP best practice when interacting with LPs – namely, providing sufficient advance notice with plenty of materials and disclosure.

“You need to bake in a certain amount of time to allow the investment staff to have discussions internally and with their consultants and evaluate the proposed transaction and form a point of view,” he said.

In September 2019, the pension expanded its private equity unit with the hire of two veteran limited partners as senior investment officers: Katja Salovaara, who spent almost two decades at Finnish pension fund Ilmarinen and helped build its private equity exposure up to almost €4 billion, and Cristian Norambuena, who spent six years at Chile’s AFP Capital, most recently leading strategy and alternative investments there.

Five Arrows is the US corporate private equity business of Rothschild merchant banking. It is unclear exactly what role Enriquez will take at the firm.

Rothschild did not return a request for comment. A spokeswoman for New York City’s Bureau of Asset Management declined to comment.