Private Equity Council is formed to provide Research and Information
Douglas Lowenstein to Serve as President
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 26, 2006 — Leading private equity firms today announced the formation of the Private Equity Council (PEC), a Washington, D.C.-based association whose purpose will be to conduct research and provide information about the industry to policy makers and others interested in understanding what private equity is, how it operates and the increasingly important role this alternative asset class plays in the U.S. and global economy.
The firms also announced that they had selected Douglas Lowenstein to become President and CEO of PEC. Lowenstein is now President of the Entertainment Software Association, the trade association representing the U.S. video game industry. He was the first President of its predecessor organization, the Interactive Digital Software Association, founded in 1994. He has been involved in journalism, on Capitol Hill and in the Washington public policy community for more than thirty years. Lowenstein will assume his new responsibilities in February, 2007, when PEC’s operations formally commence.
Initial members of PEC, all of whom are primarily engaged in the private equity industry, listed alphabetically, will include: Apollo Management, Bain Capital, The Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners, Silver Lake Partners, Texas Pacific Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners.
PEC will become a leading advocate for the domestic and international private equity industry as well as a resource for those seeking to better understand the industry’s role in the rapidly evolving global economy. To that end, the Council will launch research, public affairs and government outreach initiatives to explain the multiple contributions private equity makes – to investors, to companies and their employees, to the economic well-being of communities and to public employee pension funds.
In recent years, private equity has emerged as a valuable tool for bringing capital, expertise and superior management skills to underperforming companies and companies that desire the strategic flexibility afforded by operating under private ownership. By aligning the interests of employees and investors, private equity helps businesses achieve better results, which ultimately benefit all stakeholders. The active investment approach taken by private equity firms, coupled with their focus on long-term operational value creation, has had a profound and positive impact on job growth, industry competitiveness, and profitability. Millions of pension plan participants have profited from the superior returns earned by private equity investments.
In 2006, private equity managers around the world will raise more than $300 billion. Today the estimated available capital of the private equity industry exceeds $700 billion.