The Definers Series

Trapped in aging vehicles, LPs are no longer relying solely on GP reporting to evaluate risk, valuation, and future outcomes. Investors are increasingly commissioning independent valuations, leveraging forensic intelligence tools, scrutinizing continuation fund transactions, evaluating fiduciary compliance, and working to approach GP negotiations with a new level of rigor. What began as an asset-performance issue is evolving into a broader conversation about transparency, governance, investor protection, and the future operating model of private markets. At the same time, regulatory and legislative pressure is building. With alternative assets growing into a multi-trillion-dollar segment of the financial system and expanded access to private markets becoming a policy priority, questions surrounding valuation methodologies, portfolio smoothing, disclosure practices, and operational transparency are moving closer to the center of public policy discussions. In this Executive Funds Network webinar, Michael Aronstein, Partner at Antiquity Capital, and Michael Halloran, founder of NES Financial and former CEO of JTC Americas, join Chris Gale, Co-Founder of Gale Strategies, for a timely discussion about how sophisticated investors are navigating zombie funds and why operational transparency may become one of the most important themes in private markets over the coming decade. The discussion will connect three increasingly important questions: How are LPs independently evaluating aging private assets? How are technology and forensic intelligence reshaping private market oversight? What happens if transparency becomes an operational and regulatory expectation rather than a voluntary best practice? (Disclaimer: For informational purposes only; not financial advice)

In today’s high-stake environment, legal risk is no longer something organizations simply manage, it’s something that actively shapes business outcomes. Join Chris Gale, Co‑Founder of Gale Strategies, in conversation with Sarah Kroll-Rosenbaum, Partner and co-founder of Grove Law LLP, for a practical discussion on how litigation, regulation, and legal strategy are increasingly influencing executive decision‑making. Drawing on her experience at the center of complex disputes, Sarah will explore how early signals of risk are often missed, why the most effective organizations surface and address issues before they escalate, and how litigation can evolve from a defensive necessity into a strategic lever. The session will also examine how leaders navigate uncertainty, align legal and business teams, and manage the growing connection between legal exposure and reputational impact, while offering a forward‑looking view on how legal strategy is becoming a continuous, embedded capability across operations, growth, and governance.

In this episode of The Definers, Chris Gale sat down with Doug Fritz, Founder and Managing Partner of F2 Strategy, to see how their team has shaped the idea of the outsourced CTO in private capital. We invited Doug to explain how this role is evolving in the rapidly developing AI age, and why it’s becoming essential as firms move from AI enthusiasm to the harder realities of governance, integration, and scale. Together, they unpack the current AI cycle, from rapid code generation to new operational bottlenecks, translate emerging concepts into practical terms, and outline the strategies leading firms are using to navigate this shift. The conversation ultimately looks ahead to what’s next for AI in private capital and how leaders can position their organizations to thrive as the old playbooks give way to new operating models.

Explore how data economics can solve real challenges in private markets. In this episode of The Definers, Chris Gale and Arka Ray of The Data Economics Company explain Lydions, data-native economic objects that embed ownership, provenance, and incentives into workflows. These structures turn static data into living assets. You’ll learn practical use cases and the foundations of data ownership, interoperability, and valuation, and how data can drive trust, efficiency, and liquidity.

Learn how real relationships and smart systems create growth that automation alone can’t deliver.

Reid Thomas currently stands to define the Opportunity Zone market—and he has the sales ops experience to back it up. Through his new venture, Accelerated Impact, Reid is opening opportunities that blend financial returns with meaningful community outcomes.

But Reid is just as known for his contrarian approach to sales in an era obsessed with AI and automation. Learn more about his unique sales playbook and how Accelerated Impact is shaping the Opportunity Zone space.

For those who have been doing public relations and marketing for law firms or accounting firms, here’s a webcast on integrating that work into a CRM like Salesforce, Hubspot or ActiveCampaign and implementing sales ops. If you’re like us you’ve earned media results or implemented marketing campaigns, but you’ve remained vulnerable to partners asking how effective it really is. Impressions and share-of-voice remain unconvincing. And to be honest, how convinced are we ourselves privately?

We share lessons from integrating public relations and marketing into a firm’s CRM, and leveraging sales ops processes to skip over indirect metrics of impact, and focusing on actual revenue. And most importantly, we share lessons from driving public relations and marketing more directly to what makes your firm’s sales cycle work, and your true differentiators.

In a recent article, The Wall Street Journal reported that investment firm Tide Rock buys up small companies as private-equity firms do, but it shuns the often steep debt that buyout shops use to fund acquisitions.

In another article, The Deal reported that Tide Rock seeks companies that either have strong reoccurring customers, are resilient because they have diverse customers or operate in an industry with low volatility, or that sell essential products or services to loyal customer bases.

What is the Tide Rock team getting right that others miss, and what can we learn from it?

We ask Tide Rock President Brooks Kincaid how unlevered buyouts work, what that tells us about the leverage accepted in traditional private equity, why that matters for founders looking to exit or grow, and Tide Rock’s operations mindset.

There’s private capital technology consulting. There’s private capital fractional CFOs. There’s private capital operations consulting. There is private capital funds administration. But is anybody really knitting it together into a single coherent package that anticipates what’s coming next for the private capital industry’s very considerable operations blind spot?

We won’t speak for our guest, but Gale Strategies will go on the record saying that the “front office” of private capital – for all their purported understanding of how technology rips up and transforms the playbook for every other industry – is missing the boat on their own industry (please pardon the mixed metaphors). But there are exceptions, and those exceptions are the ones to watch. We’re talking about front offices that get it and who see the CFO/operations leader in the correct light in view of every other industry. And a consulting firm to watch in that context is LewisLevy who are defining the seem between more traditional consulting for private capital that represents the opening way forward.

How do you get top tier coverage? Do you have a new product launch, partnership, funding, or are you making major strides for the future of your market and not getting proportionate recognition?

Jessica has more than ten years of experience creating and leading B2B public relations for companies spanning the healthcare, technology, legal, and sciences industries. A seasoned media relations professional, she’s earned clients’ interview and byline placements with notable business outlets, including The New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg, and The Wall Street Journal, and a myriad of regional and trade publications. She has a proven skill for connecting clients’ stories with relevant news and works with clients to ensure media placements are leveraged to further their message with target audiences through engaging content, social, and marketing materials. We ask her why some companies and their media relations succeed, and others fall short.

Mike Trinkaus and his team have defined what "co-sourcing" means in fund services. Category creators and those on their way to being one should listen in to find out what makes 4Pines Fund Services so successful in what they do. We ask Mike why other fund administrators are reluctant to take up co-sourcing in the same way his team does, why it's a winning formula for 4Pines, and what the innovation stack they're building looks like to better serve their clients.