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.