Pantheon Hires in Hong Kong

Pantheon Ventures has added three investment professionals to its Hong Kong office: Alex Wilmerding, principal, who was previously with Citigroup Private Bank; Minjun Chung, associate, who was previously with McKinsey & Co.; and Leah Liu, analyst, who was previously with Lazard Freres.

PRESS RELEASE

Leading private equity fund-of-funds investor, Pantheon, is building on its long-standing presence in Asia with three new high-calibre professionals for its primary investment team in Hong Kong.

Andrew Lebus, Managing Partner at Pantheon's London office said: “Pantheon's decision to grow our investment team in Hong Kong reinforces our strong historic foothold in Asia. We were the first private equity fund-of-funds to open an office in Asia 16 years ago, and just two years later launched the first Asian private equity fund-of-funds. We anticipate a strong flow of investment opportunities coming from the region, backed up by our 'best of breed' access to Asian private equity managers.”

Alex Wilmerding joins Pantheon at the end of September as a Principal from Citigroup Private Bank in Boston, where he spent two years as a director, following  nine years as a partner at Boston Capital Ventures.  Alex has extensive experience of working in Asia, having held positions with Fednav in Shanghai and Cathay Pacific Group in Hong Kong and Jakarta.

Minjun Chung has joined as Associate, following two years as a research analyst at global consultancy firm McKinsey & Co. and two years with Samsung Corporation. Leah Liu joins Pantheon in September as Analyst from Lazard Freres in New York, where she was an investment banking analyst.  All three additions to the team are fluent in local languages.

“Our Asian investment strategy has evolved to reflect the developments in Asian markets,” says Chris Meads, Partner at Pantheon's Hong Kong office. “From 1994 to now, we have seen an evolution in the manager universe. The range of investment opportunities has also increased. For most of our investors, Asia has moved from being a fringe investment to a core and exciting part of their allocation”.

Pantheon Ventures Ltd.

Pantheon has been active in private equity since 1982 and is one of the world's leading private equity fund-of-funds and secondaries managers, with $24 billion under management (as of 31 July 2008), a global team of 141 including 63 investment professionals, and offices in London, San Francisco, New York and Hong Kong.  Pantheon develops and implements private equity investment strategies for over 250 global institutional investors; product and service offerings include regional funds-of-funds in the U.S., Europe and Asia, customised separate account programmes and global secondary funds. Pantheon also acts as manager to Pantheon International Participations PLC (“PIP”), the world's first quoted private equity fund-of-funds, launched in 1987 and listed on the London Stock Exchange.  Pantheon is part of Russell Investments. For more information, go to www.pantheonventures.com.

Russell Investments

Russell Investments provides strategic advice, implementation services, performance benchmarks and a range of institutional investment products. With over $210 billion in assets under management (as of 30/06/08), Russell serves individual, institutional and advisor clients in more than 40 countries. Russell provides access to some of the world's leading money managers. It helps investors put this access to work in corporate defined benefit and defined contribution plans, and in the life savings of individual investors. For more information, go to www.russell.com.