The Line sat down with Rory Smith and Jeremy Cross to find out all about their new book, A working guide to fund finance. 

Rory and Jeremy detail how the book came about and the process of putting it all together.

Say the authors: A working guide to fund finance caters to the whole ecosystem of the fund finance market. It is designed to be a working guide that people can easily understand and read whoever they are and wherever they're from.   

After five wonderful episodes covering all corners of Steve's career and the private equity industry, in this episode we turn to Steve himself. 

We discuss his super impressive success as an international poker player, as well as his uncanny propensity to pick up celebrity pals. We also put some interesting and heartfelt questions to him asked by people in his network. And finally, Steve shares his three most important lessons in life. 

While this one isn't strictly private equity focused, it's a must listen for anyone working in the industry. 

A huge thanks to Steve for sharing his time and wisdom. And a massive thanks to you for listening. I hope you've enjoyed this series as much as I have <3

In this episode, Steve Darrington, explores the most pressing topic for the UK industry right now: the tax treatment of carried interest. 

With the government just weeks away from announcing its decision on how carried interest will be taxed, Steve looks back at the CGT tax treatment over his career, and how the industry's core incentivisation tool has evolved. 

Steve goes on to share his advice for the Chancellor; urging for decisiveness over anything else. 

In this episode, Steve Darrington, recently retired chief risk and finance officer of Phoenix Equity Partners, discusses the future business model of private equity firms. 

For Steve, the firms embracing advancements in data and AI will be at an advantage, especially as fund managers seek to grow AUM without simply increasing headcount. 

Steve also explores the recent growth in GP staking, and how the private equity industry has become a sector in and of itself.

I hope you enjoy this instalment, and stay tuned for the following episodes.  

In this episode Steve explains how his particular outlook on risk evolved, the roots of which trace back to a formative litigious incident in his early career.  

Steve examines the ‘chief risk officer’ moniker, often seen of as being the negative force in a naturally positive organisation.  

If you missed the first two episodes, you can listen to the first here, and the second here.  

I hope you enjoy this instalment, and stay tuned for the following episodes.  

Welcome to the second instalment of The Steve Darrington series. If you haven't listened to the first, don't worry, you don't need to, but I recommend checking it out at some point. 

In this episode, Steve looks back over his 20-plus year career in private equity; he talks about how the industry was back when he started out and how it's changed up into this point.

In particular, Steve highlights the changing dynamics between private equity firms and portfolio companies. He also talks about how service provision has evolved over the past two decades; from very few options to outsource to today's impressive levels of service provision.  

I hope you enjoy this episode and stay tuned for the following instalments. Here we go.

Alice x

In this first instalment of the Steve Darrington series, we discuss his departure from Phoenix, the process of succession including internal negotiations and communication with LPs, and how it has all affected him personally.