Private Markets 360° | Episode 52: How Public-Private Convergence Is Reshaping Asset Management

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Jocelyn Lewis [00:00:00]:

Welcome to Private Markets 360, your insider's guide to the world of private investments. Today, we're thrilled to have Laura Kirk, Head of Private Investments Capital Formation and Investor Relations at Wellington Management, one of the world's largest independent asset management firms with over $1.4 trillion in assets under management. Laura joined Wellington in 2024 from Goldman Sachs, where she served in various leadership roles across asset and wealth management, and most recently as chief of staff to the firm's president and COO. Wellington's private investments platform spans venture capital, late-stage growth equity, and private credit, with over $12 billion in committed capital across over 300 investments. We're so excited to have Laura join us today to discuss her experience, the Wellington business, and what lies ahead for the private markets industry. Laura, welcome. How are you today?

 

Laura Kirk [00:01:01]:

I'm great. Thanks so much. It's great to be here with you.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:01:04]:

Well, we're thrilled to have you, and we'd love to start off by talking about your career path a little bit. You spent roughly 15 years at Goldman Sachs across the alternatives capital formation, manager selection. Ultimately, you were the chief of staff to the president and COO. Can you talk to us about your experience there and what led you to Wellington?

 

Laura Kirk [00:01:24]:

Yeah, absolutely. It was a very difficult decision to leave Goldman after so many years. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have professionally grown up there, and I continue to think it's a formidable firm with extremely talented people, many of whom are my great friends. I spent the first 10 years there in the external manager selection business, covering all types of firms from large publicly traded asset managers to small boutiques. And I actually started my career on the public side, and Wellington was one of the first firms that I covered. One of the benefits of Goldman's manager selection platform in the way it's structured is that the evaluation of all managers, so everything from indexing solutions to private equity, fits within one group. And not only does this provide a tremendous learning platform, but it also gave me a lot of exposure and appreciation for both the similarities and differences in how allocators evaluate managers across the public and private landscape. So when I moved into a new role at Goldman, which was focused on growing its alternatives platform, I felt that I knew a lot about how allocators think and behave, having been one myself for the prior decade.

 

Laura Kirk [00:02:32]:

And so after spending 4 years building out that capital formation effort inside of GS, I recognized that what I really enjoyed most about my time was in fact kind of that building phase. So growing the team, building out new products, challenging existing processes and really trying to encourage new ways of thinking. So when the opportunity to build and lead this team for Wellington came about, I thought that the combination of my background, having spent years as an allocator on the public side and helping to build out the fundraising operation on the private side, made me particularly well suited for this role. And as I mentioned, I was familiar with Wellington already, having been a client of the firm early in my career. I knew the firm was an institution with an incredible history and a reputation for just an outstanding culture, really focused on investment talent, and that was very attractive to me. And yet it was a firm with a very limited brand and product in private markets with an interesting opportunity for growth. So it felt like a rare opportunity to join a platform at an inflection point and kind of help shape the next phase of its journey. So while Wellington's private investing platform today is still relatively young compared to the firm's nearly century-long history, I think it's a really unique combination of entrepreneurial energy and institutional strength.

 

Laura Kirk [00:03:44]:

I was also particularly attracted to Wellington's ability to really bring together the perspectives across both public and private markets, allowing our teams to have a full-picture view to help inform investment decision-making.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:03:56]:

Appreciate that overview. And Laura, it seems like your transition also coincided with a period of significant growth and investment in Wellington's private markets platform, which I'm sure was a great and exciting time to join. And for listeners that might not be familiar with that function, let's unpack your mandate. So we'd love to understand from you what capital formation means in the context of a relatively young program inside an institution with Wellington's history.

 

Laura Kirk [00:04:34]:

Yeah, absolutely. It's a great question. Capital formation to me is much broader than just fundraising. So I really view it as encompassing the entire client lifecycle of how a client experiences interacting with our platform. So on the front end, this means what is our brand in the marketplace and how do we engage with the allocator community and tell our story? On the other end of the spectrum, it includes all of the elements of client service and ensuring that we're communicating with our clients in a way that's transparent and clear. And as we broaden the platform kind of beyond our flagship strategies, it also really means thinking about new product development, ensuring that we have the right packaging for the strategies that we're trying to deliver. And so in this capacity, my team works really closely with both the investment team, as well as the relationship managers in our client group to ensure that as we build, we're doing so in a way that is in line with client demand. Ultimately, I view my role as really helping to educate the allocator community about what makes Wellington special and ensuring that we're connecting the right investors with the opportunities and strategies that we offer as a firm.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:05:38]:

Well, let's dig into those strategies a little bit. Wellington's been building its private investing platform for nearly a decade now, and you cover everything from early-stage venture to late-stage growth, and recently you've really leaned into private credit. When it comes to fundraising, what's the sequencing logic and which assets are you leading with today?

 

Laura Kirk [00:05:58]:

Yeah, so if you look at the industry and the growth over the last few years in private assets, we're one of the few firms that has chosen to build the platform organically through bringing on dedicated investment talent. And plugging those individuals and teams into Wellington's research engine. We have not pursued M&A like many of our traditional peers, primarily because growth was not our primary objective. So I think core to the firm DNA is really a desire to deliver investment alpha to clients. And if that can be done with a strategy whose capacity is $1 billion versus $5 billion, then that's essentially how we've set our fundraising goals. And in that way, we've been able to build a platform very deliberately across discrete areas within these asset classes that you mentioned in the places where we have long-term conviction and unique perspective as a firm, given our investment expertise and research depth as an organization. So we've really built our capabilities anchored on 3 core tenets. So one, starting with the investment case, we have built in areas where we can identify long-term structural market opportunities.

 

Laura Kirk [00:07:00]:

Then we hire dedicated and cycle-tested talent and really plug those people into the investment ecosystem. And 3, we try to listen to our clients and what they're asking for and aim to deliver solutions that meet their needs.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:07:12]:

That's really helpful context on how you're positioning your platform today. And taking a step back from the fundraising strategy, I'd love to get your perspective on the broader trajectory of the business. With Wellington putting a lot of capital to work, I believe it's around 300 investments that you have, yet the firm, you're still in scale mode. So where is the platform today? And how do you see it growing over the next 3 to 5 years?

 

Laura Kirk [00:07:42]:

Yeah, so the next phase is really going to be about just continuing to expand thoughtfully while maintaining investment discipline and staying focused on areas where we believe we can add incremental value to our LPs and companies. Like I said, our approach to growth has been anchored in those core tenets, focusing on our existing strategies, as you mentioned, from early-stage venture to late-stage growth, and selective expansion into new sectors and asset classes like private credit, in particular private real estate credit, and just a continued evolution of how clients access private markets. More broadly, we think it's true we're still in the early stages of public-private convergence. We see a lot of increased client demand for integrated portfolio solutions. I think this is coming to light as we see more of an institutionalization of the wealth markets. RIAs increasingly seek similar structures and have similar needs as institutional investors. So I'd say in short, the growth of the private business is likely to come from accessing new client channels. Expanding our LP base geographically and building new products, kind of leveraging our existing investment capabilities.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:08:44]:

It's interesting. We can follow the thread on expanding into new channels and growing the investor base with this partnership that you've announced with Vanguard and Blackstone in April of 2025. I think it generated significant interest across the industry, and we'd love for you to tell us more about it and the role that Wellington plays in that.

 

Laura Kirk [00:09:04]:

Yeah, absolutely. This is a really exciting development for us, and I think for our industry overall. As you mentioned, Wellington formed a strategic alliance with Vanguard and Blackstone to develop innovative products that target the wealth channel. And this alliance brings together what we view as 3 highly complementary organizations with distinct strengths. So Vanguard's scale, its indexing expertise, and investor reach. Obviously Blackstone's leadership in private markets and Wellington's active management capabilities and experience investing across public and private markets. So together, we're focused on developing simplified institutional-quality multi-asset solutions that really integrate public and private assets, as well as active and index strategies. Last week, in fact, we announced the launch of our first 2 funds, the WVB All Markets Fund and WVB Blackstone All Privates Fund.

 

Laura Kirk [00:09:54]:

And so for Wellington, this alliance is really a manifestation of how we've been thinking about this public-private convergence. It's one example of us innovating to help clients navigate increasingly complex markets. And we, really believe the industry is moving beyond traditional asset class silos and towards a more integrated portfolio construction framework.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:10:14]:

And what are the dynamics of raising funds for these new vehicles?

 

Laura Kirk [00:10:18]:

Yeah, so in this case, Wellington is serving as the investment advisor. We're responsible for the portfolio construction, asset allocation decisions, and right now these funds are available to several of our private banking clients through advisors, and we do anticipate broader adoption within the RIA community. As investor demand for private market assets continues to grow, particularly among individual investors, we certainly think education is a key component of this, and we think that we can contribute to that important dialogue around these types of vehicles.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:10:48]:

Appreciate that overview. And this partnership is really a great example of the innovation that we're seeing across private markets as managers look to broaden investor access. And better meet the evolving needs of clients. But it's also unfolding against a fundraising backdrop that's been anything but easy over the past couple of years. So, Laura, taking a step back to survey the state of the fundraising market, 2025 was possibly one of the toughest on record, and we're starting to see deal activity recover, and we're still waiting for macro factors to resolve. But from your seat, speaking to LPs day in and day out. What are you hearing about capital commitment plans and perspectives on liquidity?

 

Laura Kirk [00:11:38]:

Yeah, certainly it's the case that many LPs have been spending a lot of time looking inward, like focusing on their existing managers, the re-ups, trying to really understand where they can expect liquidity and when. And obviously this creates a huge logjam in the system, and that's certainly not helped the fundraising environment, particularly for new managers and new entrants. At the same time, the investors that we speak with continue to view private market strategies as a strategic allocation. And so I'd say they're more focused on where they want to deploy capital rather than whether they should deploy it at all. And I think LPs are asking really good questions around liquidity, portfolio construction, and really focusing rightfully on manager differentiation. As has been talked about from many of my peers, like dispersion of outcomes is much greater in private markets, and manager selection is really critical. So we expect that in many cases fundraising efforts are just going to take a little bit longer because LPs really want to get to know us and they want to understand what we bring to the table beyond returns.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:12:38]:

Love to dig into that a little bit, and especially the differentiation and how you compete for LP attention in that environment. From the conversations we have on this podcast to everything we're seeing in industry news and even in interactions with our clients. The fundraising stats are telling the story that the benefits are accruing to mega managers. Capital is also flowing into differentiated credit and real assets. And then we're seeing an emerging and really durable secondaries market. Can you talk to us about how you stand out and as you're building those relationships with LPs, what are some of the deeper questions they're asking?

 

Laura Kirk [00:13:15]:

Yeah, it is absolutely true that in certain asset classes, Scale does really matter. But I think in the areas of the market where we have chosen to participate to date, we do actually believe that we can differentiate and that differentiation matters even more than scale. So I would say our, advantage has been and will continue to be the ability to bring together perspectives from across the public and private markets and see really a full picture view of a given investment opportunity. I think that our teams really benefit from the expert insights and research depth that they can access across this broad global investment platform that really helps them better understand the market dynamics and opportunities. For us, what we say is that to be successful in the areas of the private markets where we participate, you have to do at least 4 things right. So number one, you have to source good deals. Number 2, you have to have differentiated insights that kind of inform the price you pay and your view of the management teams. You have to be able to size those opportunities right in your portfolio.

 

Laura Kirk [00:14:15]:

And lastly, you need to have a view on how to exit and provide liquidity to your LPs. And I think that being inside of Wellington's ecosystem really helps us across all 4 of those dimensions. We think that this kind of integrated public and private market capabilities, again, the extensive company network that we have really helps provide more informed portfolio construction and allocation decisions on behalf of our clients.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:14:38]:

I love how you broke that down into 4 very simple steps, all of which are so important. And Laura, another thing that we're seeing, or a trend, is that fundraising was largely a battle for institutional capital. But today, one of the biggest debates in alternatives is whether the next wave of growth is going to come from the wealth channel as different investment vehicles are being built to serve it specifically. And with the rise of evergreen funds It's fundamentally reshaping how both private credit and other asset classes are being distributed to the wealth channel. And Wellington is clearly leaning into this with your evergreen buildout. So we'd love to hear where you see the real opportunity here and which parts of the market might be too frothy.

 

Laura Kirk [00:15:32]:

Yeah, clearly private investments are becoming more broadly accessible through new vehicles. Overall, that's creating a variety of opportunities to improve long-term investment outcomes for individuals, which I think is really exciting. These vehicles, as you mentioned, not only offer kind of increased access, but also provide benefits through lower minimums, greater diversification, and liquidity features. Although it's important to recognize these vehicles are definitely not liquid instruments. For us, we see an opportunity to provide individuals access to parts of the market where more value creation is happening before companies even go public. As has been widely quoted, Today, roughly 3 quarters of US companies generating more than $100 million in revenue are privately held, and that's because companies are just staying private longer than they were in the past, and they're entering the public market later in their development and at higher valuations. So waiting to invest in these companies until they go public really means missing out on a key phase of their growth trajectory. I think there's also really underappreciated diversification benefits to accessing this growth in the private market.

 

Laura Kirk [00:16:37]:

So there's been so much talk recently, obviously, about AI and these mega-cap companies, But there are companies in other sectors, so consumer, healthcare, financial services, other parts of technology that are also growing really rapidly. And it's hard to find that type of growth in the public markets that are increasingly being driven by just a handful of very large companies. We've seen a lot of product come to market over the last few years for the wealth channel and private credit and real estate. We think there's an opportunity in asset classes like venture and growth equity, which still represent a significant share of private markets, but are pretty underrepresented in the ever-growing vehicles today. As for your question around the froth, I think it's clear there's concern in certain parts of, or in certain pockets of private markets. We think it's important to distinguish structural concerns from cyclical evolution. And so even if we look at areas of private credit today where we actually do not participate, the corporate direct lending market, we don't see structural problems. In fact, this private credit market we think is only broadening in scope.

 

Laura Kirk [00:17:33]:

And we're seeing that intersection of public and private credit, which we think will provide significant tailwinds as more fixed income allocations look to incorporate private assets.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:17:42]:

And thinking about the team that you build, how you go to market, I want to put this against the backdrop of factors that are contributing to the evolution of private capital. One we haven't covered yet is the emergence of new datasets, digital platforms, and networks that provide scaled access to the wealth channel. There's also infrastructure for asset management and investor relations emerging out there. With all these new data and tools coming to market, how do you think about building a team and equipping them to succeed in this environment?

 

Laura Kirk [00:18:15]:

Yeah, technology's obviously rapidly changing both what we need to deliver and the infrastructure that we use to deliver it. And as private markets move further into the wealth channel, for us, I think success will depend not only on investment capabilities, but also on education and access, a strong operating model around distribution and the investor experience. So that really means like building a team with a broader mix of skills across product strategy, investor relations, client education, distribution enablement, identifying platform partnerships. We definitely need people who can translate complex private market strategy into very clear narratives for advisors and clients while also building infrastructure required to support these solutions at scale. So from a go-to-market standpoint, it, often really becomes less about selling a standalone strategy and more about helping clients think through total portfolio construction, implementation, how public and private exposures can work together over time. I think the firms that will stand out are those that combine the strong investment expertise with technology, data, and a service model that's really needed to make private markets more accessible and understandable and really operationally practical for a broader set of investors.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:19:28]:

And that broader set of investors is definitely interested in the private markets and accessing them, I think, is really going to continue to change and evolve the private markets business. And Laura, you've really given us great perspective on how Wellington is navigating the market today, and I'd love to get your predictions for the future and how Wellington hopes to shape it. So if we look out 3 to 5 years into the future, what themes do you think will be prominent across private capital, and what role do you want Wellington to play in that evolution?

 

Laura Kirk [00:20:09]:

I think the continued convergence of public and private markets will be one of the defining themes across asset management in the years to come. We talked about the continued growth in the wealth channel and the further institutionalization of that channel, which I think will be the case. We also believe private credit is not a monolith. It will continue to evolve, offering LPs ways to further diversify their exposure. And as you mentioned, I think secondaries will continue to mature as an increasingly important tool, both for investors and for managers. From a thematic perspective, we really believe AI is going to remain a defining theme across private capital, but the opportunity set really extends beyond those mega-cap winners. So I think we expect that significant value creation is also going to come from emerging companies using AI to really transform their industries, improve productivity, and develop new business models. We're really excited about all the innovation that's happening in our industries today, and we think that we can continue to be an important partner to our clients throughout this important inflection point.

 

Laura Kirk [00:21:11]:

For us, we really believe Wellington can play a leading role in that evolution, given our expertise across both public and private markets. And our advantage is really the ability to bring together perspectives from across those markets and see a full picture view of a given investment opportunity. We think it makes us better investors and ultimately better partners to our clients.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:21:30]:

Thank you for joining Private Markets 360 featuring Laura Kirk from Wellington Management. If you found this episode insightful, please subscribe to Private Markets 360 For more expert discussions on private investments. Thank you to Laura for her contributions and to our listeners for tuning in. Until next time.