Changing values in the private equity industry

The prevai­ling trend in the private equity indus­try is toward size. With the growing number and increased volu­mes of funds, the assets under manage­ment of the largest asset mana­gers have also grown signi­fi­cantly in recent years. Between 2013 and 2017, Ardian’s assets under manage­ment grew from $36 billion to $65 billion, at the same time that the number of employees increased by 62 percent, from 290 to 470. Howe­ver, this is not an Ardian-speci­fic pheno­me­non — it affects the entire indus­try. Preqin esti­ma­tes that the private equity indus­try now employs over 50 percent more people than it did ten years ago. Simi­larly, the average fund size increased by a factor of 2.4 since 2000 to $517 million in 2017.

Howe­ver, these chan­ging dimen­si­ons also present chal­lenges, espe­ci­ally with regard to the people the indus­try employs. Against this back­drop, in order to further promote the growth of our indus­try and build strong and sustainable invest­ment compa­nies, it is of
It is also essen­tial to focus on values, virtues and the people themselves.

Private equity is first and fore­most a “peop­le’s busi­ness”. To build a strong invest­ment company and achieve sustainable success, it is essen­tial to attract and retain the best people. In order to conti­nue to streng­then the Euro­pean private equity indus­try as a player in the global economy, we must conti­nue to invest in our people, espe­ci­ally the youn­ger gene­ra­tion. Ardian was built by young and ambi­tious people who have grown with the company. The “Ardian project” has welded them toge­ther, and money is not the only moti­va­tion for the next gene­ra­tion of manage­ment. At Ardian, we always give great respon­si­bi­lity to young talents and this bet, bold at first sight, has proven to be very successful for us.

We must ensure that the values of our growing indus­try are in line with those of the “millen­nial” gene­ra­tion, because they are our CEOs of tomor­row. In this sense, it is important to live values, embrace diver­sity, promote youth and share. Or to put it briefly: to put people at the center.
The Euro­pean private equity indus­try has a promi­sing future and great growth pros­pects. Howe­ver, for further sustainable growth, private equity compa­nies need to further deve­lop their values and fulfill their role as respon­si­ble actors in society.

(see below)

About Domi­ni­que Senequier

Senequier studied econo­mics at the Ecole Poly­tech­ni­que; DEA, Univer­sity of Paris (France). She was one of the first seven women to enroll at École Poly­tech­ni­que in 1972, the first year women were admit­ted to study there. She holds an advan­ced degree in Banking and Mone­tary Econo­mics from the Univer­sity of Paris Sorbonne. She then served as a direc­tor of Hewlett-Packard, a post from which she resi­gned in March 2012. Since then, she has been mana­ging direc­tor of Ardian (form­erly part of the AXA insu­rance group). Ardian employs 300 people who manage 50 active funds.

Senequier was ranked 98th on Forbes maga­zi­ne’s list of the 100 most powerful women in the world in August 2011. In 2009, she ranked 50th on the same list. Domi­ni­que Senequier was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 2012.