Women in PE

For CVC's Cathrin Petty, it's important to 'feel secure about taking risk and learn constantly.' After studying science at Cambridge, she went on to embrace finance and eventually joined Schroders, where she was integral when Singapore's government allocated $100m for an analyst-managed fund.

Three industry veterans talk about dealmaking, slow exits, tariffs and what lies ahead in the coming months.

In 2020, Pollack co-founded Charger Investment Partners, a lower mid-market PE firm with about $545m in assets under management.

Senior VP of investor relations, Freeman plays a pivotal role in Clearlake Capital’s fundraises, most notably Clearlake Capital Partners VII, which closed at more than $14.1bn.

Since joining Thrivent in 2006, Wilson has grown the firm’s private investments’ portfolio from around $250m to $7bn.

A managing director at American Securities, Chiang started out in the consumer sector, but has since dived into education.

Starting out as an analyst at Monomoy, Forsyth has risen steadily in the ranks. She is now a partner and – at age 39 – head of the investment team.

Early in her career, at Grey Mountain Partners, Lesniak was the only female investor. Now as managing director at Norwest, she's the most powerful woman at the firm.

These women reached senior ranks in private equity, but wanted more – so they started their own shops.

The managing partner discusses what went into founding Coalesce Capital, whose debut fund recently closed at $900m, pointing out that there's really no 'How to set up a PE firm for dummies' guide.