Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

The Goldman Sachs Alternatives Summit “convened leaders across finance, geopolitics, technology, and culture” to discuss themes driving global markets.

2025’s Alternatives Summit was about “navigating a world in flux,” as the firm’s recap of its event noted.

The event aimed to help investors cut through the noise and put together the pieces of the puzzle in a dynamic and increasingly complex world.

Alt Goes Mainstream joined the event to have unscripted conversations with Goldman Sachs Alternatives leaders to cut through the noise by unpacking key themes and trends at the intersection of private markets and private wealth.

In this special series, we went behind the scenes and interviewed six Goldman Sachs Alternatives leaders about their current thinking on private markets and how the firm has built and evolved its private markets capabilities.

This conversation was with Jeff Fine, Partner, Global Co-Head of Alternatives Capital Formation within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, with responsibility for capital raising, product strategy, research and investor relations across private equity, private credit, real assets, secondaries, GP stakes and hedge funds/liquid alternatives.

Jeff is a member of the Real Estate Investment Committee and Urban Investment Group Investment Committee. Jeffrey is also on the boards of GS Real Estate Investment Trust and GS Real Estate Finance Trust. Previously, he was Global Head of Real Estate Client Solutions for Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a senior real estate investor in the Merchant Banking Division for more than 20 years. Jeffrey joined Goldman Sachs in 2002 in the Merchant Banking Division as an Analyst. He was named Managing Director in 2012 and Partner in 2018. Jeff is Chairman of the Dyson School Advisory Council and a member of the SC Johnson College of Business Leadership Council at Cornell University. He is a member of the Cornell Endowment’s Risk, Liquidity, and Operations Subcommittee and the Board of Directors of the Pension Real Estate Association Foundation. Jeffrey is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Met Council at the Brookings Institution.

Jeff and I had a fascinating conversation about the intersection of private markets and private wealth, fundraising trends, and the growing role of insurers and the wealth channel in private markets capital formation. We covered:

• The evolving private markets landscape.
• The important role of the product specialist.
• The impact of AI on investing and what it means for private markets.
• What it takes to be a great investor.
• The importance of the value creation process in driving investment value.
• The future of capital formation in private markets.

Thanks Jeff for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and passion about private markets and private wealth.

Show Notes
01:05 Welcome to the Alt Goes Mainstream Podcast

02:08 Jeff Fine's Background and Career Journey

03:43 Sophistication in the Market

05:05 The Role of Product Specialists

07:16 Talent and Resourcing in Asset Management

08:01 The War for Talent in Asset Management

09:07 Investment Performance as a Priority

10:05 Balancing Origination and LP Demand

11:42 Meeting Client Needs in Wealth Channel

12:06 Transparency and Risk Communication

12:59 Growth in Private Markets

18:07 Global Capital and Diversification

19:31 Smart Allocation in Private Markets

20:58 Private Credit as a Yield Instrument

22:23 The Role of Insurance in Private Markets

24:33 Customization and Scale in Private Markets

28:55 Trends in LP Relationships

30:39 Strategic Partnerships and Cost Efficiency

31:40 Concerns About Market Valuations

32:43 Belief in a Transformative Future

35:24 Advice for LPs in Current Market

36:21 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

The Goldman Sachs Alternatives Summit “convened leaders across finance, geopolitics, technology, and culture” to discuss themes driving global markets.

2025’s Alternatives Summit was about “navigating a world in flux,” as the firm’s recap of its event noted.

The event aimed to help investors cut through the noise and put together the pieces of the puzzle in a dynamic and increasingly complex world.

Alt Goes Mainstream joined the event to have unscripted conversations with Goldman Sachs Alternatives leaders to cut through the noise by unpacking key themes and trends at the intersection of private markets and private wealth.

In this special series, we went behind the scenes and interviewed six Goldman Sachs Alternatives leaders about their current thinking on private markets and how the firm has built and evolved its private markets capabilities.

This conversation was with Michael Bruun, Global Co-Head of Private Equity within Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

He is a member of the Goldman Sachs Asset Management International Management Committee, Asset Management (AM) Private Equity Investment Committee, AM Growth Equity Investment Committee, AM Sustainable Investing Investment Committee, Asset & Wealth Management Inclusion and Diversity Council and is a member of the Goldman Sachs Firmwide Client Franchise Committee. In 2021, Michael was named Head of EMEA Private Equity within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and from 2019 to 2021, he was Head of Private Equity and Growth Equity investing for India. Michael joined the Merchant Banking Division in 2010 and worked in London and New York. Prior to that, he was a member of the Nordic Mergers & Acquisitions team in the Investment Banking Division (IBD), after initially joining IBD in 2005. Michael joined Goldman Sachs as an Analyst in the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities Division in 2004. He was named Managing Director in 2013 and partner in 2016. Michael serves on the boards of Advania, Kahoot!, LRQA, Norgine, Synthon and Trackunit. He is a founding partner of the Human Practice Foundation in Denmark and a trustee in the UK. Michael earned a BA in Economics from the University of Copenhagen.

Michael and I had a fascinating conversation about private equity, today’s investing environment, the hardest part about investing today, and how product innovation is impacting private equity’s market structure. We discussed:

• How investors can approach allocating to private equity today.
• The toolkit required to generate returns in private equity.
• The importance of network and operating partners in value creation.
• How new product innovation and new structures like evergreens and continuation vehicles are changing growth equity and private equity.
• The importance of understanding macro in a new world order of geopolitics and a new world order of investing.
• The skillsets that investors need to have to be a good investor in today’s investing environment.
• The hardest part about investing today.

Thanks Michael for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and passion about private equity.

Show Notes
00:56 Welcome to the Alt Goes Mainstream Podcast

02:04 Michael Bruun's Background and Career

02:31 Evolution of Private Equity

03:14 Impact of Market Changes on Private Equity

03:43 Operational Value Creation

04:50 Importance of Value Creation Resources

05:33 Driving EBITDA Growth

06:04 Goldman's Value Acceleration Resources

07:18 Focus on Data and AI

08:27 AI in Different Sectors

11:22 Goldman's Investment Strategy

14:28 Scale and Capital in Private Equity

15:40 Co-Investments and Evergreen Vehicles

18:11 Flexibility in Private Markets

23:53 Navigating Volatility

24:59 Post-Investment Operations

25:23 Goldman Sachs Engineering

26:05 Future of Private Equity

27:39 CEO AI Academy

28:01 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

The Goldman Sachs Alternatives Summit “convened leaders across finance, geopolitics, technology, and culture” to discuss themes driving global markets.

2025’s Alternatives Summit was about “navigating a world in flux,” as the firm’s recap of its event noted.

The event aimed to help investors cut through the noise and put together the pieces of the puzzle in a dynamic and increasingly complex world.

Alt Goes Mainstream joined the event to have unscripted conversations with Goldman Sachs Alternatives leaders to cut through the noise by unpacking key themes and trends at the intersection of private markets and private wealth.

In this special series, we went behind the scenes and interviewed six Goldman Sachs Alternatives leaders about their current thinking on private markets and how the firm has built and evolved its private markets capabilities.

This conversation was with Harold Hope, Partner, Global Head of Vintage Strategies, one of the world's largest secondary fund managers, in the External Investing Group (XIG) within Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

He is also Chair of the XIG Vintage Funds Committee and a member of the XIG Real Estate Strategies Investment Committee and the XIG GP Strategies Investment Committee. Harold joined Goldman Sachs in 1999 as an Associate in Leveraged Finance and Corporate Finance within the Investment Banking Division and moved to the Alternative Investments & Manager Selection (now XIG) private equity business in 2001. He was named Managing Director in 2006 and Partner in 2016. Prior to joining the firm, Harold worked as a financial analyst at the investment banking boutique Bowles Hollowell Conner & Co. Harold earned a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of North Carolina.

Harold and I had a fascinating and timely conversation about the growth and evolution of the secondaries market. We discussed:

• Perspectives from Harold’s early days in secondaries 25 years ago, when Goldman had raised its first $400M fund in secondaries and when the secondaries industry was doing around $2B per year in transaction volume.
• How the secondaries market is vastly different from five years ago.
• The evolution of innovation in the secondaries market.
• Why problem-solving is a defining feature of secondaries.
• What is the right skillset required to be a great secondaries investor?
• Why secondaries is fundamentally a valuation oriented business.
• Are secondaries returns driven by buying high-quality assets or by buying at steep discounts?
• Misconceptions about continuation vehicles and how the trend of private companies staying private longer impacts CVs.
• The how and the why behind Goldman’s recent acquisition of Industry Ventures and why Goldman is excited about the opportunity set in venture and growth secondaries.
• Why scale matters in secondaries.
• Why secondaries might not become a traded market like the bank loan market and why secondaries may not fully achieve standardization because managers may not want completely uniform standardization.
• Why secondaries can be an on-ramp to private markets for private wealth investors.

Thanks Harold for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and passion about secondaries and private markets.

Show Notes
00:35 Welcome to the Alt Goes Mainstream Podcast

01:26 Harold Hope’s Background and Entry into Secondaries

02:13 Evolution of the Secondaries Market

02:30 Drivers of Change in the Market

02:43 Innovations in the Secondary Market

04:45 Skill Sets Required in Secondaries

05:42 Valuation and Investment Strategies

07:14 Continuation Vehicles (CVs) Explained

09:27 Impact of Private Companies Staying Private Longer

10:47 Acquisition of Industry Ventures

12:01 Specialized Teams in Secondaries

13:14 Goldman's Unique Position in Secondaries

14:28 Leveraging Data and AI in Secondaries

15:47 Recent Trends and Market Dynamics

16:42 Future Growth of the Secondaries Market

17:10 Secondaries as an On-Ramp for Retail Investors

18:15 Closing Thoughts and Future Outlook

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant.