Funds

Partners Group enacts succession plan

Private equity head David Layton will replace Christoph Rubeli as co-CEO of the Swiss alternative investment manager.

-

Partners Group has become the latest private equity firm to enact a succession plan with the announcement of a new co-chief executive.

Partner and head of private equity David Layton is to replace Christoph Rubeli in the co-lead role from 1 January, according to a statement from the firm. He joins André Frei, who has been co-CEO since 2013. Rubeli will also step down from Partners Group’s executive committee and global executive board by the end of 2018, but will remain a partner.

“After five years as co-CEO and two decades as a partner of the firm, I believe the time is right to hand over to a successor,” Rubeli said in the statement. “In my new role, I will support the further build-out of the investment platform globally, with a particular emphasis on the entrepreneurial governance of our portfolio companies.”

David Layton joined Partners Group in 2005 and played a key role in developing the firm’s direct private equity business, according to the statement. In 2016, he moved to Denver to establish the firm’s new Americas regional headquarters.

He moved from co-head to head of private equity in June last year when the firm merged its primary and secondaries businesses, and reshuffled its top team, as sister title Secondaries Investor reported.

It is not clear who will replace him as head of private equity.

Partners Group is in the process of investing Partners Group Secondary 2015 fund, which hit final close on €2.5 billion in March 2016, according to PEI data. It is also investing its Direct Equity 2016 fund, which raised €3 billion by July 2017. The firm has €67 billion in assets under management across private equity, real estate, infrastructure and private debt.

Partners Group is the latest in a series of private equity firms to enact a succession plan during 2018. Last week, PEI revealed that co-chief executive of Hellman & Friedman Philip Hammarskjold is planning to step down in January and take up the role of executive chairman.

Earlier this month, Secondaries Investor revealed that co-head of Blackstone Strategic Partners Stephen Can is to move to the position of chairman, leaving Verdun Perry as sole senior managing director.

Article modified to reflect that Philip Hammarskjold will take up the role of executive chairman