Secondaries Investing Summit

Jeremy oversees the U.S. private equity secondaries effort and is responsible for leading and managing secondary investments in North America and Europe.

Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2021, Jeremy was a senior member of GIC’s private equity secondaries team where he completed numerous investments across various aspects of the secondaries market. Prior to that, he was a private equity investment professional focusing on secondaries at Pantheon and Permal Capital Management.

Jeremy holds a BSBA from the University of Richmond. He is a CFA charterholder.

Jochen heads the Multi-Managers Secondaries team, a business which forms part of the Real Estate & Private Markets business (REPM) within UBS Asset Management. His role includes building out REPM's secondary investment capabilities, as well as investment selection and portfolio management of several diversified international private equity secondary mandates. Jochen joined UBS in 2018 in his current position. Prior to joining UBS, Jochen worked at a Swiss Private Assets management firm for 12 years, where he was part of the secondaries team raising and investing dedicated secondary funds. Prior to this he worked as an Investment Manager for the Primary investment team.

Julian Falconer holds degrees from the University of Alberta, McGill University, and the University of Toronto in addition to an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Guelph-Humber. He is a Bencher of the Law Society of Ontario and an author, writing extensively on issues of race and civil liberties, and co-authoring the book, the “Annotated Coroners Act”. In the true tradition of a Barrister, Julian Falconer’s practice takes him to civil, administrative, and criminal courts at both trial and appellate levels, including the Supreme Court. He is bilingual and has argued cases in both English and French.

More recently, with the firm’s expansion from Southern Ontario into the North, his work has expanded to focus on Indigenous-side representation on matters including child welfare, education, equitable service provision, and community governance, always focusing on the unique remedies required for reconciliation. Specifically, this work has included representation of the two largest First Nations police forces in negotiation of legislated standards of policing, representation on the Inquest into the deaths of Seven Youth in Thunder Bay, and as Counsel for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada over a five-year period in respect of document collection litigation.

Julian’s client base spans the range of individuals and institutions which have recently included Nishnawbe Aski Nation (First Nations political territorial organization for Northern Ontario), Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto, and several First Nations Police Services, as outlined above.

Julian has been counsel on matters related to prisoner rights, police accountability, and human rights. Specifically, this work has included the representation of Maher Arar, who made Canadian legal history in receiving the largest human rights settlement allotted to an individual plaintiff; the family of Ashley Smith, the 19-year-old who died in custody at Grand Valley Federal Penitentiary; and Adam Nobody and the “Free Press Four” in relation to their unlawful beatings and arrests during the G20 summit in Toronto.

Julian has represented numerous organizational interests (First Nations and African Canadian) at the Commission of Inquiry level, including the Ipperwash Inquiry and the Goudge Inquiry into child pathologist, Dr. Charles Smith.

Julian is also a pilot with over 2800 hours in the air. With the addition of “Falconair”, the firm not only represents individual First Nations in the remote North, but also provides a new level of access to justice by flying to them, visiting and engaging in the communities, and building new relationships.

Patrick Gerbracht is a Managing Director and serves as Co-Head of the firm’s LP Secondaries investment team. Patrick joined Portfolio Advisors in 2010 and has been working in the private markets since 2005.

Prior to joining Portfolio Advisors, he was an Associate at Pomona Capital, and before that, he was an Analyst in GE Capital’s financial management program. Patrick holds a BA from Pennsylvania State University.

Jeff leads the global secondaries business, focused on GP-led and special situation transactions, and partners with private equity, private credit, and secondary fund sponsors. Prior to joining the firm, he was co-head of Houlihan Lokey’s illiquid financial assets practice, a unit he co-founded and built into the leading investment banking group focused on customized transactions for holders of illiquid securities, and before that, he was a senior managing director at Bear Stearns & Co., where he founded, built, and co-led, the private equity fund-of-funds and secondary investing unit of Bear Stearns Asset Management. Earlier in his career, Jeff co-founded BDC Financial, a firm that provided customized private equity investment management and advisory services to institutional and high-net-worth investors. He also held investment banking positions at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

Thomas Hallinger joined Golding Capital Partners in 2015 and is responsible for secondary market transactions.

Previously, Thomas worked in Investment Banking for UniCredit Group, where he supported financial investors with acquisition financings & advisory services across Europe. He started his career at Ardian in Frankfurt and Paris. As a member of the global investment team, Thomas focused on the private equity secondary market and completed several successful transactions including portfolios of direct investments.

Thomas completed his Masters with a focus on finance at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management in addition to completing the Masterclass of Private Equity at London Business School.

Jim is Managing Partner and co-founder of Second Alpha. He is an author and frequent speaker on topics related to advanced technologies, business innovation and the evolution of venture capital investing. Jim has spent more than twenty-five years as a venture capitalist, secondary investor, corporate advisor and technology executive. 

Prior to Second Alpha, Jim was a General Partner at ABS Ventures, where he focused on investments that combined elements of traditional venture investing with secondary share purchases in growth companies. Jim was also a senior member of the ABS team that structured the secondary purchases of several portfolios of venture assets from Deutsche Bank. Before ABS, Jim was a Managing Director in Deutsche Bank’s DB Capital Venture Partners and Corporate Investments organizations. Previously, Jim held IT management positions at Deutsche Bank, Barclays Bank and Bell Atlantic (now Verizon Communications).

Jim was Co-Chairman of the 2007, 2008 and 2009 New England Venture Summits. He is the co-author of The Text Mining Handbook: Advanced Approaches in Analyzing Unstructured Data (Cambridge Univ. Press) and The Text Mining Handbook: Japanese Edition (Tokyo Denki Univ. Press). Jim’s seminars on venture investing have been published by Reed Seminars/ExecSense Publications. Jim received his bachelor’s degree cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ms. Williams is a managing director and product specialist for Oaktree’s Real Estate strategies. She also oversees the real estate product specialist team. In these capacities, Ms. Williams and her team are responsible for various aspects of real estate product marketing, investor relations and product development. Prior to joining Oaktree in 2021, Ms. Williams was a managing partner and owner responsible for business development, finance and operations for Uncomn Projects, a real estate focused marketing and consulting company. Prior thereto, she was with J.P. Morgan Chase as an executive director in real estate banking. Before that, Ms. Williams was with PNC Bank as a senior vice president and California market manager for real estate banking. Ms. Williams began her career with Wells Fargo as a vice president and relationship manager in the real estate group. Ms. Williams received a B.S. in business administration with a concentration in real estate finance from the University of Southern California.

Derek Li is a managing partner at JD Paramount, a family office that integrates fund investments, direct investments, secondaries, and co-investments across real estate private equity, and PE & VC across sectors and regions. As an allocator, Derek is focused on combing growth-focused, long- term strategic clarity with discipline-oriented, short-term tactical flexibility to help preserve capital, establish steady cash flows, and generate predictable potential opportunities for future capital appreciation with built-in downside protection mechanism.

With over 20 years of deep-rooted experience in investment management, asset management, private equity, real estate, and venture growth. Derek identifies, executes and delivers dynamic, bespoke investment solutions on commercial and residential real estate developments, debt structuring, funding, finance, joint ventures, real estate management and acquisitions across the United States.

Since joining BCI in 2016, Jim Pittman has led the private equity team. Jim joined BCI with a specific mandate to build the private equity program’s strategy including total fund exposure, increase direct and co-sponsor deals, and extend the program’s global reach. Since then, Jim has grown the portfolio from C$7 billion to more than C$30 billion by investing in leading companies and funds with long-term growth potential, while adding sectors including venture and growth capital to the strategy. With $250.4 billion in gross assets under management as of March 31, 2024, BCI is one of the largest institutional investors in Canada.

Before joining BCI, Jim was a managing director at the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSPIB) for over 10 years. During his time there, Jim co-led the implementation of the firm’s private equity strategy. Prior to PSPIB, Jim was the chief financial officer/chief operating officer for PAL Aerospace, Canada. He has a background in acquisitions, divestitures, and tax.

Jim holds a bachelor of commerce from the Memorial University of Newfoundland and is a Chartered Professional Accountant. He has also completed advanced strategy, management, and leadership courses from Harvard, Wharton, and the University of Toronto.

Jim serves as a board director for Hayfin Capital Management, Tropicana Brands Group, and BMS Group, allowing him to continue collaboration efforts with portfolio company management teams on strategic, operational, and financial decisions; as well as ensuring alignment with BCI’s ESG principles, responsible investing approach, and commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Jim remains involved in his community by actively supporting the Canadian National Women’s Rowing Team and the Montreal Community Cares Foundation.

Niraj Agarwal is the Head of Real Assets at the c. $100 billion New Jersey Division of Investment and also serves on the pension fund’s Asset Allocation committee. Niraj runs investment programs focused on private equity across infrastructure, real estate, natural resources, agriculture and other real assets, and invests via funds, co-investments and programmatic separate accounts. He serves on a number of Boards and is responsible for launching investments into Infrastructure and Energy Transition/Renewables for the pension which account for over $1.3 billion of new capital deployment. Prior to NJ, Niraj was a Portfolio Manager in the Real Assets team at the c. $500 billion CalPERS pension, where he built the infrastructure portfolio from c. $2 billion to c. $6 billion via directs, funds, co-investments and separate accounts, and also built the renewables investment program to c. 2GW of operating wind and solar. Prior to CalPERS, Niraj was an investment banker in NY where he closed over $13 billion of transactions across sectors.

The New Jersey Division of Investment is the State’s public pension fund serving c. 800,000 active and retired pensions in seven pension systems, and is one of the largest in the U.S. With c. $100 billion in AUM, the Division invests across a wide range of public and private asset classes.