I had lunch with Jonathan Gray, who leads East West Bank’s fund finance business, early in 2019. He told me about how his father fought in Tunisia when the United States first entered World War II, and how he and his family recently have been traveling to North Africa and Europe to retrace his dad’s steps. I was pretty captivated. (I’m trying to twist his arm to write a column about it.) I had been looking to do something around the 75th Anniversary of D-Day besides watching Saving Private Ryan for the 11th time so I asked for a reading recommendation. Jonathan suggested An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson.
We can pack in some serious substance on a Friday (not necessarily everyone’s peak time for absorbing a nuanced discussion on complex financial products). Here’s a recap of original substantive pieces from recent issues for easy reference.
Here are updates to our Fund Finance Calendar.
The Fund Finance Association’s 5th Annual European Fund Finance Symposium wrapped up yesterday. Well over 500 people attended, including representatives from 50 different banks. We cover the key themes.
The FFA European Symposium wrapped up yesterday afternoon with presentations by Chris Elvin, Head of Private Equity at Preqin, and Tim Hames, Director General of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.
This week we interview Gavin Rees, who leads Silicon Valley Bank’s Global Funds Banking Team in London. The team serves private equity and venture capital funds with banking services and customised financing. Gavin has more than 25 years of specialist banking experience, of which 15 years have been focused on funds finance and seven years in structured finance. Gavin joined Silicon Valley Bank from Barclays, where he led the European private equity funds team. Before that, Gavin was a founder member of WestLB’s Funds Finance Group in New York.
The Fund Finance Association’s Next Generation initiative held a fun speed mentoring event in London earlier this week to kick off the European Symposium slate of events.
Abraaj was in the press extensively this week. Here are some of the key articles.
National Australia Bank is looking to hire an Associate Director or Senior Associate; Société Générale seeks to make an addition in the bank’s subscription finance practice.
Here are updates to our Fund Finance Calendar.