What – for you – were the contributing factors behind the successful year that led to this award?
Winning the prestigious Global Custodian Awards for Fund Administration Deal of the Year was the penultimate achievement in our successful acquisition of Crestbridge. Our acquisition increased our assets under administration to more than $1 trillion — making it a top contributing factor that led to the award and another step towards expanding our global service and product capabilities.
Like Gen II, Crestbridge is known for its client-first approach and commitment to investing in the best people and technology. This combination further establishes Gen II as one of the world’s largest independent private capital fund administrators, and we are honored to be recognised as leaders by one of the leading authorities in our industry.
Could you outline some of the main achievements and milestones from the year?
In 2023, Gen II positioned itself to support continued growth and investment within its people, technology, and services. By doing so, we added a number of high-profile clients and grew our AuA to more than $1 trillion. We also expanded our team, welcoming more than 350 new employees to Gen II (for a total of 1100+), included new key leaders: Marlene Pelage, global chief financial officer; Peter Rosenstein, chief product officer, digital solutions; Bob Caporale, president, strategic & digital solutions group; Phil Bruno, head of management company services.
Gen II continued its investment into the firm with the opening of a new state-of-the-art office in the Denver Tech Center and initiated our first major European acquisition of Crestbridge. We have also expanded our product offerings to increase our service offerings with our strategic & digital solutions group. This group solidifies our commitment to continued investment in our firm’s capabilities, from our core fund administration services and beyond. This included advancing Gen II’s own technology, with the release of several new features and upgrades to our Sensr® and our LP portal.
In partnership with Harris Poll, we also published a first-of-its-kind research report featuring proprietary data and insight around how LPs and GPs view fund administration technology and reporting are evolving.
How do you plan to build on this success going into the rest of the year and beyond?
Gen II will continue to make significant investments in expanding our capabilities to complement our fund administration services. Since our founding in 2009, we have been committed to providing expertise and personalised service in all aspects of private equity fund administration. Our objective has always been to enable fund managers to focus on their core fund raising and investing while providing them with tools and solutions to optimise their operations.
This intent is particularly demonstrated by the formation of our strategic & digital solutions group, which will help us further transform and expand our range of solutions. The Group was created specifically to unify these strategic solutions and accelerate the digitisation of the private equity ecosystem. Our intention is to put more data, analytics and technology solutions in the hands of fund managers while enabling them to provide a world class investor experience.