Job of the Week: Can You Handle Investor Relations?

Private equity firms traditionally ramp up their investor relations teams in anticipation of a fundraising. Today many firms, and particularly the largest ones, try to maintain an efficient and high quality team at all stages of the fundraising cycle.

With the demands of limited partners for a continuous flow of up-to-date information higher than ever, a career in investor relations is challenging and ever-changing. After all, the investor relations team is dealing with the life blood of the private equity industry. This week’s job vacancy that we’re highlighting here at peHUB is for an associate position on the Boston-based global investor relations team of Bain Capital.

Bain Capital recently announced the swift closing of its latest fund managed by Bain Capital Ventures, as reported on peHUB. Fundraising for Bain Capital Ventures Fund 2012 began in November and closed last month. About $600 million came from outside investors, with Bain Capital general partners committing another $60 million, according to peHUB. San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System was named as a new LP for Fund V and the firm also saw long-time investor State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio re-up. Both these names will be contacts the successful candidate for the new position will get to know pretty well, especially since Bain Capital Ventures typically does not use a placement agent.

Across the industry firms appear to be beefing up their investor relations teams. European buyout powerhouse Cinven, which is currently fundraising for Cinven V, a planned 5 billion euro ($6.5 billion) fund, added two new members to its investor relations and fundraising team in 2011. Jonas Nilsson joined Cinven as principal and Michael Hachar as associate.

Global private equity house Advent International, whose last fund GPE VI was raised in 2008 and is in marketing mode for GPEVII (the target of which is as yet undisclosed), also added two members to its investor relations team last year. Jim McGee is located in Advent International’s New York office and focuses on investor relations and fundraising in The Americas. Andy Lund is based in the firm’s London office, where he focuses on research and analysis initiatives to support fundraising and investor relations activities. BC Partners, in anticipation of its mega €6 billion fundraising in 2011, went on an investor relations hiring spree with three new recruits in 2009 and two in 2010.

Wrote Gail McManus, managing director of UK-based recruitment agency Private Equity Recruitment Ltd: “Investor relations hiring has been one of the areas that has shown resilience over the last twelve months. We’ve seen a shift from the fund raisers, who were the early hires, to investor relations professionals who focus on providing regular information and updates to investors once the funds have been raised and maintain the relationships with Limited Partners. There has been an increase in demand for more detailed information from investors and limited partners as they strive to understand their exposure, risks and potential returns from their private equity portfolios which has boosted hiring in this area.”

***Job of the Week***

Position: Associate, Investor Relations

Firm: Bain Capital

Location: Boston

Firm Description: Private investment firm managing approximately $60 billion. Assets include private equity, public equity, leveraged debt assets, venture capital and absolute return capital. Headquartered in Boston, Bain Capital has offices in New York, Chicago, London, Munich, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Mumbai.

Job Description: Bain Capital is recruiting for a full -time associate for its investor relations team based in Boston. The successful candidate will have primary responsibility for working with senior investor relations professionals within Bain Capital’s global private equity and venture businesses.

Key Responsibilities (as cited via Bain Capital’s website):

– Supporting the senior investor relations team in sales and relationship management activities, including short and medium-term special projects and analyses
– Responding to investor data requests and assembling ongoing data content for investors
– Assisting with preparation of annual meeting materials and quarterly investor letters
– Creating innovative and insightful presentation content for current and prospective investors
– Participating in existing and prospective investor update meetings

Qualifications (as cited via Bain Capital’s website):

– At least two years experience in strategy consulting, investment consulting or asset management.
– Demonstrated analytical and quantitative skills;
– Strong team player with an entrepreneurial predisposition and strong interpersonal skills as required to interact with personnel across senior levels of the firm;
– Self-starter with strong project management and follow-through skills;
– Capacity to discretely handle highly confidential and sensitive information;
– Comfort with organizing and interpreting large amounts of data;
– Familiarity with financial statements;
– Four-year college degree with a strong academic background (minimum 3.5 GPA).

Salary for equivalent role (based on 2011-2012 Holt-Thomson Reuters PE/VC Compensation Report; this does not come from Bain Capital):
Associate position at a large buyout firm $125,900 (average base salary); $199,100 (average base salary + bonus)

Contact via: Bain Capital Careers

For further private equity career opportunities head over to the peHUB career center, co-hosted with eFinancialCareers.com.