This month, I've included some thoughts on industry trends that aren't always front and center. Feel free to let me know if there's something of interest that you'd like included in the next issue. And as always, I invite you to learn more about us and our capabilities.

1. Westport Intl:
Private Equity Practice Area
Westport Intl’s Private Equity Practice has completed more than
100 successful searches in the private equity space at both the general
partner and portfolio company level for large, global funds, as well as for
middle-market private equity firms. Our experienced consultants have either
worked in the buy-side investment sector or collaborated with the world’s
leading private equity firms to identify investment professionals and experts in
investor relations and capital-raising.
We also support our private equity clients as they institutionalize their
infrastructure, helping to recruit heads of finance, risk, compliance, legal,
human resources, information technology and other key corporate functions
of the firm.
Our clients must also find board directors, CEOs, CFOs and often, entire top
management teams for their portfolio. We know that leaders in the portfolio
companies must be adept at working in a highly leveraged environment with
an acute sense of urgency and an ability to create value quickly, taking out
costs, focusing on working capital, managing cash and improving the top line
with a keen focus on metrics.
One of Westport Intl’s greatest strengths is executive talent assessment. This
manifests itself in how long our candidates remain employed with our clients
and how often our candidates receive promotions once they’re working with
the company. Our industry-leading metrics demonstrate our success, which
is ultimately your success because we view it as a partnership. As a nimble
boutique executive search firm, we have the ability to efficiently assign our top
resources across our functional and industry practices to quickly solve your
critical talent gap needs.
December 2015
Ken Kavanaugh
Managing Director

2. Monthly Musings
There’s a Sale on Shoes Lately...
Interesting deal flow: Sycamore Partners purchase Nine West Holdings
(formerly The Jones Group) for $2.2 billion in 2014. Nine West Holdings owns
or had owned the Stuart Weitzman, Anne Klein and Kurt Geiger brands. Now,
we’re seeing Sycamore sell Kurt Geiger to Cinven for $370M; and Coach Inc.
purchased Stuart Weitzman earlier this year for about $530 million. Anne Klein
may not be too far behind as it had been reportedly up for sale earlier this year.
Lindo Maravilhoso! U.S. PE Firms Buy Into Brazil
With the real dropping approximately 36% in the past year, lending rates at
record highs, a dried-up IPO market and a prevailing attitude to consolidate as
a defensive strategy, we’re seeing a lot of activity in Brazil. It will certainly be an
interesting 2016.
Find out more. >
New Opportunities Opening For Women In Private Equity
Here are some interesting data points from a November 30th article
in Pension & Investments:
1) Nearly 75% of limited partners thought the quality of private equity teams
would be improved by greater gender diversity (from a 2014 Coller’s
Barometer Study)
2) At The Carlyle Group, 50% of all incoming associates are women and
approximately 18% of all executives in the U.S. buyout group, at a senior
associate level or higher, are women.
Show Me The Money
What gets me is a quote by a visiting scholar at the Center on Governing
Investing in the Future at the University of California, Berkeley: “It’s hard
to understand why you need to pay billions of dollars to a small number of
individuals at private equity firms to get out of bed.” Well, maybe because, for
the latest fiscal year, CalPERS’ private equity returns had been 8.9% net of
fees, compared to 1% for its public equity portfolio. Yes, that’s NET of fees.
Find out more.
Subscribe to Ken’s Private Equity Practice Area Page on LinkedIn
to keep up with the latest industry news and updates.

3. Leadership: Ken Kavanaugh
Connect with Ken on LinkedIn
Connect with Ken on westportintl.com
KEN KAVANAUGH
Managing Director
Phone: 240.205.3833
ken@westportintl.com
Ken Kavanaugh understands the pitfalls in making equity investments, as
well as the pressure points during the integration phase. Leadership, more
than anything else, is the cornerstone of success, which means it pays to
excel in talent identification and assessment. Throughout his career, as a
senior strategic development and finance executive, with over 18 years of
global experience in all elements of strategic planning, financial planning
analysis, business development and corporate development activities,
such as acquisitions, joint ventures, alliances, business segment startups
and product launches, Ken spent a considerable amount of time assisting
CEOs, CFOs and PL leaders in meeting their operational leadership
hiring needs.
Prior to joining Westport Intl, Ken owned his own strategic development
consultancy, ACCRETIVE | Growth Consulting. Ken counseled executives
on their pressing needs to identify sustainable growth in sales and profits,
as well as assisted in the implementation. His clients ranged in size from
growth equity-staged start-ups to large corporations in diverse industries.
Previously, Ken oversaw the corporate development and strategy
functions at Catalyst Health Solutions and held leadership positions
at Westinghouse Electric and E*TRADE Financial. His extensive global
experience includes providing thought leadership to the C-suite in
transacting business in Europe, India and East Asia. Earlier in his career,
Ken worked in brand management at Del Monte Foods and began his
career in consulting at Deloitte.
Ken earned a BA in Political Economy from Tulane University and an MBA
from Duke University. He is active in the community and serves on the
board of several service-oriented organizations.