From the Editor: Filling a Need –

Private equity is always thought of as illiquid. You put your money into a fund and, if your lucky, you see a 20% return 10 years later. That is still the case, but it doesn’t mean you can’t get some portion of your money back early by selling your position on the seconary market. As far as I can tell, VCs aren’t particularly happy with this phenomenon, since it brings in LPs that they didn’t choose at the outset. But the secondary market is a necessary function these days, not only because of the limping economy but because of the need for large pension funds to manage their asset allocations.

Since we’re seeing increasing activity in the secondary market, we felt now was a good time to introduce a new feature that tracks secondary news. You’ll find the “Secondary Dispatch” on page 20. This is our first crack at it, so let us know if we missed something or whether you’d like to see additional data. The primary contact for the feature is Senior Editor Matthew Sheahan. You can reach Matt at 646 822-3247 or email him at matthew.sheahan@tfn.com.

Changing of the Guard

In other news, we have a new face in the San Francisco office. Alastair Goldfisher has joined us, taking over as managing editor of VCJ and our sister publication, Private Equity Week. Alastair was previously ME of California CEO magazine, which he helped launch. He can be reached at 415 732-6269 or on email at alastair.goldfisher@tfn.com. Alastair takes over for Danielle Fugazy. Danielle did her job so well that she was promoted to editor of Buyouts, another VCJ sister pub.

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