Adams Street Partners (“Adams Street”) is a global private markets investment manager that has $62 billion in assets under management. The firm is 100% employee-owned, which fosters a positive and unique culture of collaboration, intellectual rigor, integrity, and a commitment to professional development. For the seventh year in a row, Adams Street was named one of Pension & Investments’ Best Places to Work in Money Management in 2024.
Employees operate as a single global team, integrating the expertise of the firm’s investment professionals across five strategies: primary investments, secondary investments, growth equity, private credit, and co-investments. Adams Street is considered a private markets pioneer and was inducted into the Private Equity Hall of Fame in 2000.
The firm was founded more than 50 years ago, and clients include leading public and corporate pension plans, foundations, endowments, insurance companies, registered investment advisors, and high net worth individuals worldwide.
Adams Street has offices in Austin, Beijing, Boston, Chicago, London, Munich, Menlo Park, New York, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto.
Overview:
This position offers an excellent opportunity for an Investment Professional with proven financial, analytical and communication skills and an interest in the alternative investment sector, to be part of a premier global investment firm that provides investment services to institutional clients. The individual selected for this position will be part of a team managing a large portfolio of private equity limited partnerships and will be responsible for supporting the team’s identification and management of the global fund-of-fund investment portfolio. This person will have the responsibility to provide investment impact on the partnerships in the portfolio within the Primary (fund of funds) investment team. Specifically, the individual will be involved with and responsible for:
Identification and Evaluation
- Meet with general partner groups to evaluate potential investment opportunities.
- Conduct market research to help assess opportunities.
- Source and manage deal flow and perform investment due diligence for venture capital and buyout funds.
Execution
- Lead and conduct due diligence. Identify key investment merits through qualitative and quantitative partnership portfolio analysis, meetings with fund managers, strategy review, reference checks and on-site visits, etc.
- Prepare memorandums and participate in investment discussions with internal investment committee.
- Work with counsel to negotiate partnership terms and coordinate the closing process.
- Generate general partner co-investment and secondary opportunities.
Monitoring
- Attend annual meetings.
- Serve on advisory boards.
- Review quarterly reports and related materials.
- Document compliance with investment guidelines.
- Support construction and evaluation of fund portfolios.
- Report on status of existing investments to other members of the global investment team.
Business Support
- Support the firms’ marketing efforts through new business presentations to potential clients and consultants.
- Market the firms’ capabilities to potential sellers to generate secondary deal flow.
- Support existing client requests.
- Support firm initiatives as they relate to the firms’ business plans.
- Contribute positively to Adams Street’s culture and thought leadership.
Required Skills
The ideal candidate will be a well-rounded business professional with proven work experience investing, and a record of success at a top institution focused on fund of funds investments. The candidate will be a highly motivated professional who sets and meets aggressive business and personal commitments with a demonstrated interest in building a career in private equity partnership investing. In addition, the candidate will have:
- At least 7 years of fund investing analysis and due diligence experience. Prior fund experience is preferred, and broader private equity experience will be considered
- Experience investing in fund of funds
- A facility to elicit in an informed, challenging, effective manner the critical variables that will determine an investment’s financial success or failure
- Strong modeling, organizational and writing skills
- Strong understanding of trends and issues in the private equity industry in both the buyout and venture sector
- The ability to synthesize complex data in a clear manner
- A professional presence coupled with relationship skills to interact effectively with clients, general partners and colleagues at all levels
- The ability to work independently while operating within a highly integrated global team context
- A willingness to establish a position and confidence of convictions as it relates to investment decisions
- Desire to build a career in private equity partnership investing required
- Intellectual curiosity, demonstrated contributor to thought leadership and forward thinking
- Willing to travel domestically and internationally
- Mature, self-starter with a desire and ability to work in a global, fast-paced, collaborative, high-performing team environment while managing a wide range of responsibilities.
